Electronic Arts has announced that it will be developing a new Sims title for the Wii. This, by itself, is not earth shaking news, as EA has ported the Sims to other game consoles previously. The big news is that EA will be giving the Wii version a total visual makeover more appropriate to the Wii’s public perception.
The official Japanese website for the game shows screenshots and video of typical gameplay. The music is cartoonish and the Sims look like the Mii avatars found in the Wii–they resemble Lego people, but without the distinctive angular shapes.
This is EA,s first major departure from The Sims formula, in which the characters, settings and gameplay are all similar in nature. Previous Sims characters were represented with graphics resembling real-world settings. With the new version, the whole Sims world is turned on its head and is now a 3D cartoon character filled universe. In short, The Sims have gone cute.
Hard core fans of The Sims received the news of this new direction for the game with some obvious distress and have complained that the new look is too sugary and sweet. However, Nintendo has maintained that its Wii is aimed at the non-gamer and casual gamer and EA,s move to remake The Sims may be an indication that they are accepting Nintendo,s marketing strategy. If the new version of The Sims proves to be successful, we may soon see other game publishers following up with similar “Wii-ified” games.
