In many ways, MySims Kingdom bears more in common with SimCity than The Sims. Everything we saw involved drafting unique objects to rebuild the town with, personalising our character with custom clothing, or interacting with villagers in mini-game form. It’s the same formula used for the first game, just tweaked for a better balance among activities to heighten the fun.

It worked too because we found MySims Kingdom more entertaining in the first five minutes than an hour spent with the original. Much of that has to do with the new mini-games that range from kayaking to tennis to ski jumping. They’re a lot easier to unlock and there’s simply more of them. The ‘Constellations’ mini-game, for instance, requires tracing out the requested constellation using the stylus. Simple, straightforward, and yet still fun.

Hands on with MySims Kingdom on DS