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Following the success of the GBA version of The Sims: Bustin' Out, a totally-different handheld version of The Urbz: Sims in the City was also produced. It would be a great game as it's a life simulator game with an actual plot (and not demanding you do chores constantly) but it's sadly flawed. Still, there are enough bright spots that it doesn't kill it. Like in television and movies, so many "set in America" video games are in San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, or New York, or facsimiles thereof. The Urbz breaks this by having it set in a city that is clearly inspired by New Orleans.

First, Griptonite knocked it out of the park as far as QoL improvements are concerned. Conversation options are better so it's a "topic" and they respond, instead of a unique line and a generic response, and helps because it retains the punchline. It also makes it a little harder to gauge what someone likes and dislikes. So one character might like it if you talked about sports, but another wouldn't like it, and sometimes things that would be universally negative (like insulting someone) get positive reactions. A lot of these are predictable since half of them are walking stereotypes but others aren't. (This /v/ post mentions that Ephram Earl, a ghost from the Civil War, is hard to predict and really easy to have him hate you). The options to move in (don't get too excited, they basically mill around your place) or ask if they need something to be delivered are separated from the main options, and if the character has a "!" above their head (a plot-important line to be delivered, usually starting or finishing a mission). This was particularly annoying in Bustin' Out. There was a part where a character would demand a $10,000 fee to complete the mission and wouldn't be available for normal conversation (also this mission involved making friends with a lot of people). The character designs are also more stylized but that works in the game's favor rather than against it.

The minigames are much better than Bustin' Out. "Hoopz" is a basketball game that relies on the "line up your aim with the box" variety (similar in other sports games), "Motocross Mayhem" is basically Excite Bike (and you can modify your ride to make it a bit easier to win), and "Moogoo Monkey" (a card game that relies on a bit of skill and luck). And of course, the pre-rendered graphics are deeper and richer, even on the GBA. I especially liked the fact that an office you have to break into early in the game has a very obvious G4 Cube setup (something that was dated by 2005 and one of the higher-profile failures of the Jobs era) but still neat to see.

Unfortunately, the forced-influence of The Sims still means you have to manage your bodily functions (food, sleep, peeing, fun, etc.) to the point where it's helpful when you get access to "secret" spots you'll probably want to add a bed and/or toilet just so it's less inconvenient. Moreover, by answering a few questions in the beginning of the game, you'll be placed in one of four "Rep Groups", the "Nerdies" (the educated group), the "Richies" (the wealthy group), the "Streeties" (the generic 'hip' group), and the "Artsies" (the arts & culture group). Each group has its own "rival group", its own mission group, special items, and so on. You can switch between groups by schmoozing with the leader and pissing off the rival group. You can also collect "Xizzles" that slow your said bodily functions and reduce the busywork. It's something I noticed with comparing the Zelda "Oracle" series with Link's Awakening: adding more stuff built around the theme does not necessarily make the game better. I should note that an unused string in the game suggests that you could pick "none of the above". To its credit, Urbz did drop the zodiac system (which was from the PC games and determined how your Sim interacted with other people) which I don't think had much in Bustin' Out anyway.

Unlike other "life simulator" games, there is a plot. The basic gist revolves around magnate Daddy Bigbucks (far less benevolent in the original game) trying to buy up the entire town and make it a ticketed attraction (or something along those lines). Not that the city isn't a "theme park version" of itself already—no cars, no alcohol, and no swearing (that's The Sims license for you). There's a few twists here and there to spice it up, like a side-trip to the bayou and dueling fiddles with the Devil himself, er, the Red Man, as pictured here. Still, it's a lot more interesting than what Bustin' Out had to offer. the plot moves along and provides incentives to continue and unlocking all three major areas of the map.

There are also some significant bugs in The Urbz: Sims in the City. You can collect piles of trash for recycling (money) but they stop appearing after a while, which is bad because by the time you get to the ultimate Streeties goal it requires you to pick up a lot of trash, which now means that you're locked out of it permanently if you didn't start hoarding. Oops. There's a few other bugs (including the possibility of duplicate items that are impossible to get rid of) as well. Additionally, while you can collect various items to furnish your pad you'll soon run into the fact that no matter how big your place is there's a hardcoded limit to how many items you can place.

The DS version also has a whole sub-plot involving a new area to unlock, the chance to have exotic pets and another "final goal" but it's all superfluous (though the custom paint tool is fun). There's a few additional NPCs to befriend but most of them (save for two) don't have any plot relevance, like Gary Geezer...but the game has all the same bugs of the GBA version. If you're playing the game on an emulator, don't feel bad if you skip the DS version.

It's a real shame that this was one of the last games Griptonite developed. They also developed The Sims 2 for Game Boy Advance. It was nothing like the computer version, of course, and was more similar to the canon previously established; unfortunately, it wasn't as well-put together or ambitious as The Urbz was. Griptonite was absorbed into Amaze Entertainment in 2005 and that was pretty much the end of it as far as real games developed. Imagine what Griptonite could've done if they managed to spin the whole series off with the characters intact, further developing and improving things, and take things in a different direction that EA wouldn't allow.

Altogether, with the improvements from The Sims: Bustin' Out and deviation from its formula, the flaws become that much more noticeable. There's a cooking mechanic that's, er, undercooked, and a few other things too. Because of the format, the game doesn't allow you to download additional objects (official or otherwise). It cries out for an indie developer to essentially clone the concept and make everything bigger and better, cutting out mechanics that don't work or improving new ones, expanding what you can see and do, and creating a bigger plot line. I would absolutely play it, and I think it would be a modest success. Also I should mention that all sprites here were from SpritersResource and ripped by "SuperFlorian12"/"SuperFlomm". I did the crops, however.

FINAL RATING:   

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