Essentially you have a blueprint which shows a 3D outline of what you’re trying to build. Then using the Wiimote you pick up blocks the same size as the silhouette and place them in the right spots and voila you’re done.

Well sometimes you’re done, but sometimes you have to place essences around these items. Essences are little icons that appear from time to time that you collect and then place on a workshop item to make them special. You can also use combinations of essences to apply special paintjobs to items and houses. You can get essences from people by talking to them, from prospecting and digging in the ground, from shaking trees, and even by pissing people off.

So now that you know the basics of how things work in MySims here’s how the game plays out. You talk to a new person in town, you tell them to move in, you build them a house, they tell you to build stuff, and you build stuff. You take the stuff back to them, place it in their house, tell them about it, and they’re happy. Your town’s xp system, known as a star rating raises, you unlock tools that let you progress to new areas with new essences, and a new person shows up at the city hotel. What do you think you do now? That’s right you rinse and repeat the same thing over and over until the city is revitalized and you have a five star rating. So as you can see, it’s fun for the first couple new people but gets quite repetitive. It’s the kind of game where you can play for 30 minutes at a time and be satisfied, so for that reason it may be a purchase for some.
What’s kind of annoying about the actual traditional Sims aspects of the game is that talking and actions are very limited. You can only “be nice” or “be mean” to people. You can’t fill a queue of talking actions and watch them roll or speed up time to make it happen faster. People relationships really don’t matter that much, they’re just there to reinforce the Sims theme.

My biggest complaint is the constant loading screens. Whenever you change an area you will see a 5 second screen showing blocks falling. This may not seem bad but you change areas constantly. This is truly the first Wii game I’ve played where I hear the disc reader constantly shifting loudly and see the result in game as menu lag. It’s not nearly as bad as the recent Sims 2 console ports that lag like crazy and have endless long loading screens, but it’s noticeable and annoying.

That being said, MySims is a very different, very basic game that is fun yet repetitive and certainly visually pleasing and easy to operate via the Wiimote and Nunchuk.

Honestly I'm thinking about the game right now and going to go play some more. Really can't say that for many games.