I'll have to play more to really see how this game pans out. Already, it's heads and shoulders above that Sims 2 abortion. And so far it's more Sims-y than Castaway and Pets.
The Pets element here..it sort of injects a bit of Nintendogs type virtual animal games. But the 'minigames' so far have been incredibly tedious and I don't see it being as friendly to younger children with the reading involved. So I'm not quite certain who the target audience is.
I'll second The Urbz though. I would much prefer a sequel to that game, as it managed to hit the apparently rare combination of Sims 2 lite for a portable system, with new gameplay elements, to create a fun game. I'll hand it them for trying new things, but I'm not sure I understand why if they already succeeded the first time around.