The Sims 2: Castaway

I know what you're thinking: in less than two months, EA released The Sims 2: Pets, MySims, and now The Sims 2: Castaway. Clearly, too many life simulations and not enough time invested in any of them. After all, we're approaching the holidays in this Q4 2007 and people need to make crappy ports to keep the money flowing, right?

Not exactly. The Sims 2: Pets tried to give players the freedom of a Sims game, but failed due to limitations of the Wii hardware. MySims succeeded despite those limitations by utilizing the Wii Remote to inspire creative methods of personalizing an area. Now, The Sims 2: Castaway takes the best of both worlds and combines them into something worth having: an adventure-survival game fresh with Sims personality.

First things first: the reason why the last two games received bad ratings. The Wii is a terrible system to have a simulation game on. Why? The Wii has some pathetic RAM limitations. RAM is the type of memory that allows the Wii to remember everything that the player creates in an extensive building game like The Sims, and when the RAM is low it means that players won't be able to build very much at all. But if you bypass those limitations by focusing on an adventure game rather than building projects, the result has the feel of The Sims with an experience better suited for the Wii console.

That's where The Sims 2: Castaway falls into place. After building a crew of characters, your ship is lost and you choose a main character. This character will remain, for the time being, your only character. Like The Sims 2 for Nintendo DS handheld system, you control one character and play the game from his or her perspective. Unlike the DS game, the object is to survive on a deserted island. Your clothes rip over time, your food supply will drain, and your energy needs to be kept stable. To continue on, you need to gather supplies, build tools, make furniture, befriend animals and build a raft.

All that's missing is your trusty volleyball pal.

To quote Moneywell's Big Book of Survival from the game, "If you have made it this far, you have avoided immediate death. Congratulations. Now let's turn our thoughts to impending death. The best way to avoid impending death is to start thinking long term about your survival prospects." Slightly more intense than building a house! But at the same time, it is refreshing for players to understand that, unlike the bustling world of MySims, that there are no other people. There are no visitors, no jobs beyond surviving, and no responsibilities or duties outside maintaining good spirits, and thusly you are in nature. Castaway is about survival, but it's more serene than Resident Evil. It's peaceful.

The music and sounds of the game contribute to the serenity enough for me to fall asleep to them. Dolby Pro Logic II flows very nicely with chirping birds and the ocean, so it might be a good idea to keep the lights on. When you find a radio, though, you'll feel at home. A Sims home, but a home nonetheless.

The graphics are decent, not much different from the previous The Sims 2: Pets game, but nothing too extraordinary. Progressive scan doesn't help the choppy look to some of the graphics, and the game looks worse when zooming out from the character, but it still does its job.

The controls are advancing, that's for sure! Players need to have the Nunchuk plugged in, but a player can control a good portion of the game by holding the Nunchuk and placing the Wii Remote down. Instead of being forced to select every option with the on-screen cursor, players can flip the Nunchuk up or down and the accelerometer will identify what you're doing. When you've chosen what you want to do by moving the Nuchuk, you can press the Z button to activate the command. It's also possible to walk around with the analog stick while utilizing the motion controls to quickly walk around.

Castaway presents some of the best Sims controls yet.

Of course, players will miss the fact that left and right on the accelerometer does not move the camera around. Instead, the d-pad takes control, which requires the Wii Remote. While the Wii Remote's pointer function is still a necessity, particularly in all menu screens, it's nice to not to be fully reliant on holding the controller up at the screen all the time.

While only one player, the game is surprisingly fun and engaging. I've interacted with three chimps and named them, as well as built up a reputation among the chimp community. Sure it's not a love interest like in The Sims 2, but it's fairly vital. Without social interaction, the main character will cry quite often. Players can give the chimps names, foods, entertainment, and be rewarded for good service to them. Looks like you're not alone, after all!

After building that raft, the game isn't over. Being stranded in the ocean like that only permits close islands to be explored. What's it like on the second island? Find out in Stage 2 of the review!