MySims Agents
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Game
Reviewed: MySims Agents
Publisher:
Electronic Arts
Developer: The Sims Studio
Reviewer: James
Trevillian
Platform: Wii (Also on DS)
Category: Adventure
ERSB Rating: E
Game
Description
MySims
Agents is a bit of a departure from the previous MySims
games. Usually, Sims games have you building or designing. This game
has you
sleuthing (think “Dragnet meets Disney Channel”). In MySims Agents, you
start
off as a freelance private eye for your local neighborhood. You and
your
partner, Buddy, are trying to make it to the big leagues as special
agents. For
starters, your office is a table in a local pizza shop. That all
changes when
you stand up to Morcubus, the nefarious leader of Morcucorp. A real
Special
Agent takes notice, and decides to hire you as the lead agent for your
city.
Morcubus is up to something, and he wants you to get to the bottom of
it.
The
bulk of MySims Agents is attempting to solve various
mysteries and crimes just as any detective would. One resource you can
tap into
is other characters in the area. You can also follow footprints and
other trace
evidence, such as radiation. You can even collect spare parts and other
items
useful for your investigation. Your character has a nifty casebook that
keeps
all of your conclusions and questions in one place. This makes it easy
to
remember what you have found and what you are trying to do when you
discover
new evidence or follow a rabbit trail. Eventually, you will earn your
own
headquarters building. From here, you can hire new agents to complete
dispatch
missions, decorate levels of the building with items that will boost
your
teams’ abilities, and even take your jet to far away places. You also
get a few
additional gadgets along the way that will help you solve your cases.
There
are a few mini-games that are a part of finding out
whodunit. You can hack computers with a mini-game where you follow a
path with
the Wii Remote. You can discover what the chemical makeup of a
substance is
with a molecule mini-game. You can also do some lock picking with a
puzzle
mini-game. As you complete cases and dispatch missions, you can unlock
new
outfits for your character, hire new agents and obtain new items for
your
headquarters.
What Parents Need to
Know
Violence
“Violence” in the
game is limited to Saturday morning cartoon slapstick type things, or
as the
ESRB rating aptly says, “comic mischief.”
Language
There
is no foul language in the game. The abbreviation OMG
(which typically means “Oh my God”) is used, but is used unabbreviated
as
“ohmigosh” by characters in the game.
Sexual
Content
No
inappropriate sexual content.
Spiritual
Content
MySims Agents has
several small (though significant) references to occult and new age
practices.
For example, one of the characters you complete dispatch missions for
is a self
proclaimed witch. In one set of missions in an old mansion, you must
recover a
gem that helps you see into the future. One of the items you can place
in your
headquarters, a recurring item in the MySims series, is a séance
circle. When
characters use the circle, they go into a trance and start swaying
around. As
more characters join in, a blueish light appears in the middle of the
circle.
Another similar item is the “Evil Tome,” which is essentially a large
book on a
black, evil-looking podium. When a character reads the book, they act
as they
do when they use the séance circle. There is also a voodoo doll item
available
that is just for looks. The aforementioned items are not essential to
completing the game and can be completely avoided. One of the key items
in the
game is the “nightmare crown,” which is a piece of technology that
supposedly
has the power to take someone to the nightmare realm, an alternate
dimension
that lives up to its namesake (that you also never see in person).
Misc.
The
beach level of the game has a tattoo parlor, although
you discover later that it is a temporary tattoo parlor.
Reviewers
Thoughts
MySims
Agents has a lot of positive things going for it. To
win the game, you have to use your head to solve all kinds of puzzles.
You have
to take everyone’s point of view, even if one of the people you must
listen to
is a known bad guy. If the evidence points towards your friends, you
still have
to consider them as a suspect. Your character seeks the truth and will
stand up
for what is right. The main part of the game is a lot of fun to play
for both
kids and adults.
On
the negative side, however, I am left scratching my head at
the inclusion of some of the occult elements in the game. If instead of
the
“Evil Tome” one of the items that could be acquired was a Bible, many
people
would complain that the game was trying to push religious beliefs on
small
children. Put a séance circle, however, in the game and it gets labeled
as
harmless fun. Parents, you are the ones that have to decide if it is
harmless
fun for your children or not, but if you choose not, then you will
probably
want to pass on MySims Agents.
