Gaming Animal Crossing vs. My Sims [DS]

[Sailor]

Well, I knew it was gonna be sooner or later, but I've come to the decision that I want another DS game. And I've narrowed it down to 2 choices, of very similar games. Animal Crossing Wild World and My Sims DS. I've heard they were almost practically alike, but no one has told me major key differences between them, or opted for one over the other.

That's why I'm here

Which game do you honestly recommend? I'm gonna play it, and my 10yr old sister might make a file too. You can vote, and them comment on why you made your selection.
Choose wisely, it's my money xD

 

[staticfritz]

My Sims is totally different from Animal Crossing. It should take you a week of dedicated play to finish, and has no replay value whatsoever. Animal Crossing cannot be completed in a week, or a month, or probably a year, even if you play every day. It's a true lifestyle game with real time, real seasons that follow the ones out your window, and lots and lots of shopping.

In My Sims, you play mini games which are a different screen with a commercial break feel to them. The first job you are given is to go to find a kid with an X marked on your map. Then you go back where you started and check in. Then you are given two X's to find, and then you go back. Then you are given another X to find and you meet a girl and go back to where you started. Then the girl tells you to plant flowers around town. The flowers are all the same, and each one has to load two separate times just to get the flower in the ground. Since you cannot complete the task until you have planted 24 flowers in specific flower spots, it feels like a paint by the numbers. Tedious, really.

In Animal Crossing, you don't realize you're playing mini games because they are a part of the on screen activity. And they're actually fun. You can plant flowers, but you have numerous varieties, numerous colours, and no restrictions on where to plant them. You are also given tasks, but noone dumbs down the exploration into monkey tasks.

It's no contest, really, regardless of your age, that if you want a rewarding experience, Animal Crossing is a way better value, and a much better game. Since you've decided to buy a new game, I assume you cherish the titles you own and want something you can lose yourself in.

 

[TripDyke]

My Sims is totally different from Animal Crossing. It should take you a week of dedicated play to finish, and has no replay value whatsoever. Animal Crossing cannot be completed in a week, or a month, or probably a year, even if you play every day. It's a true lifestyle game with real time, real seasons that follow the ones out your window, and lots and lots of shopping.Â

In My Sims, you play mini games which are a different screen with a commercial break feel to them. The first job you are given is to go to find a kid with an X marked on your map. Then you go back where you started and check in. Then you are given two X's to find, and then you go back. Then you are given another X to find and you meet a girl and go back to where you started. Then the girl tells you to plant flowers around town. The flowers are all the same, and each one has to load two separate times just to get the flower in the ground. Since you cannot complete the task until you have planted 24 flowers in specific flower spots, it feels like a paint by the numbers. Tedious, really.

In Animal Crossing, you don't realize you're playing mini games because they are a part of the on screen activity. And they're actually fun. You can plant flowers, but you have numerous varieties, numerous colours, and no restrictions on where to plant them. You are also given tasks, but noone dumbs down the exploration into monkey tasks.

It's no contest, really, regardless of your age, that if you want a rewarding experience, Animal Crossing is a way better value, and a much better game. Since you've decided to buy a new game, I assume you cherish the titles you own and want something you can lose yourself in.

QFT.

 

[Icarus]

Well, that's a no brainer. You should definitely get Animal Crossing. It is an amazing single player AND a multiplayer game. Tons of items to decorate your house, events, Wi-Fi, collections etc. If you like collecting stuff, then AC is for you.

 

[xJonny]

I have played Animal Crossing it's quite a long lasting game and great multi-player fun also (wifi too).
My Sims - never played but seems just like another title for money for people who have been following the series. Well it might be fun but in my opinion Animal Crossing is one of the games to get even if you gave a list of all DS games.

 

[vapour99]

I hate both equally

. never liked the premise. when I play sims, the only thing I enjoy doing is building the house...

 

[HBK]

None are actually classic, but I consider MySims to be quite a (mediocre) ripoff from Animal Crossing. Not to mention AC has WiFi and MySims doesn't.

 

[Eyedunno]

The problem with Animal Crossing is that if you really want everything, the game will steal your life. And after playing for a while and getting your house pretty much the way you want it, "collecting stuff" is pretty much the only objective aside from "not letting your town go down the tubes." So after playing it for about three or four months, it started to feel more like work than like a game, and I started to hate it. Nonetheless, I kept playing for 11 months altogether. If you want to get a Town Hall Model without using a lots of wi-fi play and/or two or more DSes, you can expect it to take about 15-20 years of play playing 3-4 hours a day and more on the weekends. This is no exaggeration. 11 months of play netted me about 45,000,000 bells, and you need around 999,000,000 to get the Town Hall Model.

I quit playing when I realized there was really no point to getting everything, and quitting AC:WW made my DS fun to play again.

 

[R1C3 N1NJA]

of course animal crossing because my sims is just like a fake bootlegged acww......

 

[EmeraldEx]

For the love of god ANIMAL CROSSING.

 

[Hadrian]

Animal Crossing:
I loved the GC game but the DS one I couldn't get into but its a quality game.

MySims:
Dull dull dull nothing going for it. Theres no wi-fi and has terrible longevity. Feels like something that was released on a mobile by a company not very good at making mobile games.

 

[EmeraldEx]

On the other hand, the Wii version of My Sims is fantastic.

 

[StoneAgeMan]

OKay, now this may seem like a Lazarus-inspired attempt to revive a long-dead thread, but when I read it today it seemed to be 90% of the information I was looking for, all in one place. So I wanted to eek out the remaining 10% by adding to this very informative thread.

I have a DS Lite which was bought primarily as a Games machine for my twins (8-year-olds), to be the alternative to the PS2. Yes, I am rather behind the times, hence my Username = StoneAgeMan. I currently have Mario 64, Cooking Mama 2, Animal Paradise, Over The Hedge and Ratatouille. I've been looking at ACWW and My Sims as a suitable "next game".

I can see that ACWW is enthusiastically supported by the users here, and the magazine reviews certainly agree. In fact everything I can find so far suggests that I would be out of my tiny mind to go for My Sims. However, my wife is wondering if all the praise lavished upon the long-term playability and the WiFi capabilities of ACWW are actually irrelevant to our specific requirements. I don't really want my 8YO to get so addicted that they need to play for the next 2 years, nor do I want them to need to turn it on two or three times a day just to keep up with events... or am I wrong? Does the lack of freedom on My Sims actually mean it is an easier game for kids to deal with?


Other questions:

What are the big differences between My Sims on Wii and on DS?

Can two kids play on one DS - saving their own worlds, etc each under a separate profile?

 

[Joey90]

MySims is much more goal based, and doesn't require repeated (obsessive) playing to achieve all the goals. Playing occasionally is fine, and it is fairly fun. However once completed it isn't much fun to replay.

Animal Crossing is very free, but to get a lot of things you need to play regularly and at certain times. Even leaving it for a week without playing will destroy a lot of hard work. However if you can keep up, then it will last for a lot longer.

 

[Sstew]

Animal Crossing, that game will make you spend wayy to many hours in front of your DS
Although, If you play it for 2 months straight, then dont play it till a month later, expect your town to not look good, plus you will have new neighbors ect.

Great Great game though.

 

[StoneAgeMan]

Thanks for those snappy answers. I greatly appreciate the help. Looks like Mrs StoneAgeMan was right after all, the positive reviews of ACWW may not be from the perspective of an 8YO.

Anyone answer the bottom two question from my post:-

What are the big differences between My Sims on Wii and on DS?

Can two kids play on one DS - saving their own worlds, etc each under a separate profile?

 

[StoneAgeMan]

If you play it for 2 months straight, then dont play it till a month later, expect your town to not look good, plus you will have new neighbors ect.

Does that sort of background stuff happen with My Sims too? I often act like the Heavy-Hand-Of-God type of father who bans them from the DS for a few days if they've misbehaved... I don't want any cow-eyed, teardrops on the pillow, guilt-trips laid on me for letting all their hard work go up in smoke for not playing often enough. Having watched my son go at Lego Star Wars (PS2) like a loony until he's got all the characters, I can see he can become obsessed all too easily. I don't fancy buying something that will turn him into an even bigger slave to the machine...

On the other hand, I've been reading some fascinating threads on here today and it is beginning to have an effect on me

, there are quite a few games that sound like something i'd like to try...

 

[Dylan]

buy a flashcard and get both

 

[Sendoh]

Animal Crossing, that game will make you spend wayy to many hours in front of your DS
Although, If you play it for 2 months straight, then dont play it till a month later, expect your town to not look good, plus you will have new neighbors ect.

Great Great game though.

No way. I love Animal Crossing, and I can't bring myself to play it more than 30 minutes a day. Also, not playing for very long doesn't really trash your town. In fact, you don't really have to play it every day, unless your kids are collecting flowers and don't want them to wilt, in which case there's still a way around it. The only downside to not playing for awhile would be weeds around your town, which can be cleared with a bit of effort.

I've not played MySims for the Wii, so I wouldn't know how to tell the difference between the Wii and the DS version. All I can say is, the DS version was pretty boring. Sure, it holds your attention for the first 30 minutes or so, until you realise that the game has pretty much poor character development, poor gameplay, and everything. In fact, the premise is reminiscent of Harvest Moon: Island of Happiness, and IOH is a much better game than MySims. Although it seems like HM: IOH isn't the game for your kids, since you don't want them to get addicted, and that is what the game does best.

Also, for Animal Crossing, it allows multiple characters on the same cart. Animal Crossing is basically a sandbox type game where you live in a town and do all sorts of interaction in there. Each created character acts as a resident in the same town. They're living in the same house, they have the same neighbours, and they each contribute towards the decor of the house, town, and so on.

 

[Sir-Fritz]

ARGH misread post.