It’s time for another stuff pack for The Sims 4 with Toddler Stuff, boasting lot’s of new clothing, objects, and more for our favourite tots! Toddlers launched as a free game update back in January and the time has now come to finally add some new things for them.
Let’s dig in and see what comes with The Sims 4 Toddler Stuff and find out whether it is worth your money.
Create A Sim
As the pack is called Toddler Stuff, this pack hones in on things for Toddlers to do and wear. This is great news as some stuff packs have lost direction in the past and provided things that didn’t seem to fit with the theme (I’m looking at you, Cool Kitchen Stuff).
Looking at both the masculine and feminine categories, there is a nice array of new hairstyles and clothing for your toddlers. This includes full body outfits, tops, trousers, and new shoes as well. Although, there are no new accessories which is a shame.
As you can see from the images above, the new hairstyles are fantastic. It was mentioned on Twitter that SimGuruLyndsay managed to get extra time for the team to explore the complex curly hairstyle that you can see amongst it, and I’m glad that they did this.
In terms of the outfits available, they are a nice addition however, in my opinion, there are no outfits that stand out and make me go “wow”. In other words, you could survive without them in your game. There is, however, one top which has cute fairy wings on the back which brought a smile to my face as it’s so adorable!
Overall, Create A Sim fills the need for more items for our Toddlers in The Sims 4, however apart from the curly hairstyle, nothing really stands out in this category.
Stylised Rooms
There are three new stylised “rooms” within The Sims 4 Toddler Stuff. The reason I say “rooms” is because they are outdoor spaces for your Sims to relax, hangout, and for your toddlers to burn off some energy too!
I love the new stylised rooms as they’re not too big so you can easily integrate them into existing lots, and they are also very colourful and vibrant.
Speaking of colour, this is probably one of the big stand out things about this pack which The Sims team have executed well. When you think of Toddlers and Children, you usually envision very bright, fun, vibrant colours. This is what The Sims team have delivered with The Sims 4 Toddler Stuff Pack and it makes all the difference. The coloured fence for one of the stylised rooms is a great example of this.
Build/Buy Mode and New Gameplay
Within Build/Buy mode, there are 22 new objects for your Sims to use. Some of these are purely decorative, such as wooden steps which you would walk/jump across in real life. Some are new iterations of existing objects, such as new chairs or BBQ object, and there’s even a new fence and gate!
Some of the stand out items within this pack include the new slide, ball pit, jungle gym/play area, and the dolls house – which deserves a mention purely for the design it has! For the other objects, they don’t necessarily stand out for the right reasons.
I absolutely love the new slide and play area, and the interactions that your Sims can perform on it with their toddlers. For example, your Sim can help their toddler climb on the equipment and then you’ll experience the adorable moment when they help them get on the slide.
Now, the item that has a lot of Simmers debating is the new ball pit. Let’s start with the positives for this object first. It’s great to see lots of new gameplay being added in this stuff pack – the slide being the first, followed by the ball pit, and the play area.
However, it looks dreadful. I apologise for being that blunt however when you consider the amount of time that went into making the new hairstyles and other high quality objects, this object really brings the overall quality of the pack down.
You can see from the image above, that the ball pit is simply a flat texture. This makes it look like a piece of custom content, and this object would be more than acceptable if it was custom content… but it isn’t. I love the new gameplay and the fact our toddlers can hop into the ball pit and have a good time, but it sadly stands out like a sore thumb which is a shame.
How did this object get through quality when all of the other objects in this pack look so great? Perhaps it was a technical situation, where it wasn’t possible to make it look like hundreds of balls were in the ball pit, but I guess we will never know.
On the new gameplay front, your Sims can now host play dates with other parents and toddlers! This is a nice touch to the stuff pack as it gives your Sims another style of event to host and attend, whether that is at their house or a public venue.
Overall, the new objects are nice and colourful. They will allow you to create some nice outdoor spaces for your Sims to relax and for toddlers to burn off of some energy. The new gameplay these objects bring is nice, and is probably the most amount of gameplay we have received in a stuff pack to date…but that ball pit isn’t nice.
Overall Thoughts
The Sims 4 Toddler Stuff does what it says on the tin and delivers new clothing, objects and gameplay for Toddlers, which were a long-awaited feature for The Sims 4.
It’s great to see the toddler foundation being built upon and I think generational/family-based players will love this stuff pack, and will enjoy decking out their toddlers in cute new attire. As I mentioned, Create A Sim has an amazing new hairstyle, and the new stylised rooms are perfect for creating some nice outdoor spaces.
The new objects in build/buy are nice, and there is a reasonable number of them, however the ball pit brings down the overall quality of the pack and while it may seem like such a small detail when you weigh everything up, I hope we will never see an object like it again.
The Sims 4 Toddler Stuff launches on August 24th 2017 and is available on Origin. Early Access review copy of the game was provided by Electronic Arts.
