The Sims 2: Apartment Pets DS

Here comes another installment for the console version of Sims. Apartment Pets is a game where you get to take care of animals in your apartment and greet customers in your pet spa downstairs. Generally apartments and pets are not a good combination as most apartments either restrict or disallow pets, but in this game it's possible. However, the game experiences a large variety of problems and none of them have to deal with your pet.

When you hear someone say "Sims", you expect a game where you'll be able to control a customizable human avatar and guide them through life. However, these elements are rather cursory when it comes to this game. They appear to be here in order to make it look like a Sims game, but they're not the real focus. For one thing, the Needs bar have been reduced down to only four Needs: Hunger, Comfort, Social, and Bladder. These Needs can take days before being fully depleted though so why waste time on them? The entire apartment seems to be equipped to accommodate all the Needs in the regular Sims games but you don't need them. There's no Hygiene Need or a Fun Need so why waste time showering or playing on the computer?

One particular appeal of the Sims game is the ability to create your own houses. Unfortunately, this is something that is lacking in Apartment Pets. You get an apartment but it's not yours (nor is anything else in the apartment). Instead, the apartment belongs to your Uncle  Bill. However, Uncle Bill has noted that you are free to change the apartment to your liking, that means being able to switch all the furniture (Gosh, Uncle Bill, does that mean that I can replace all your geometric furniture into Princess furniture?? :heart:) The choices are extremely limited though and upgrading furniture does not at all affect gameplay. Why buy a better (and more expensive) fridge when doing so won't give fill your Hunger meter faster? Buying better versions of the other furniture also seem useless. Why buy a larger TV when I can't even see the screen in the first place? Or buying a computer when nothing I do with it will fill up a Need meter?

You don't get to really customize your Sims either as in the PC version of The Sims 2. Instead, you are forced to choose from templates and all of the facial features are super ugly. You can't customize the Sims Turn Ons/Turn Offs, Aspirations, or Personalities. The only way you can get more customizations is to buy from the shop and changing these characteristics end up seeming pointless when you can barely see your Sims in the first place.

It's quite clear the game makers wanted the focus of the game to be on the pets. However, you don't get to go out and adopt your own pet. Instead, the "pets" you'll ever have is when your neighbors or the janitor ask for you to look after a pet, which will soon be taken away just when you have grown attached to the pet. That will sure to please the kids and work out in real life! Not. Any other interaction with animals will be when you take care of animals in your spa. This basically means giving the animals a quick shower, brush, or spray perfume in order to cover up a smell. While this might seem fun and compelling at first, this soon becomes very boring and repetitive. Get used to it though, as you'll be spending most of the game in the spa doing this. Not every much attention is given to the other pets you have to take care of in your apartment.

Customers will be coming into the spa, which is just below your apartment. When they do, you have the option of either greeting them or going directly to take care of the pet. There's really no social aspect of maintaining good relationships as needed in the other Sims games. When dealing with the pets, you are taken to a 3D animation of the pet. Over time all the cats and the dogs begin to look the same and the animation itself is at best choppy. All the animals react the same and it would have been nice to have some differentiations. We all know that pets react differently to baths or brushing. There are a few minigames you can play with the pets but the minigames for the cats and the dogs are the same. You'll be playing Fetch and going around unearthing buried shoes. You can also dress up your pets with various accessories, but these you'll have to buy after earning money by either playing minigames or working all day in the spa.

In the end, the appeal of The Sims 2: Apartment Pets wears off very quickly. All the minigames are the same and there is no offer of changes in difficulty. The animation and graphics are poor and the choices are all very limited. The only appeal in the game is the inclusion of "The Sims" in the title. Other than that, it's an extremely boring and underdeveloped game. Stay away because you will soon regret purchasing this game.