KNIGHT NUI

If you’re anything like us, you rarely use the photo-tweaking functions on the DSi. They’re great when you’re got a friend having a look at it for the first time, or you’ve just unboxed the console, but apart from that? They’ve not really got much use. And if you are of a similar brain to us, (And you know what they say, great minds think alike) then you’ll be tired of the MySims characters by now. As much fun as building Mario fridges was in the original, their charisma has worn off since then, and even Chef Gino now gets on our nerves.

Yet EA clearly isn’t geared towards people like us, and so it’s gone and realised a minimal effort at not only a new game to ride the waves of success that MySims has apparently been, but also to appeal to those who believe that the DSi’s camera doesn’t have enough tools. Or, more to the point, MySims. Yes, for 200 points, you can sit there with a look of complete and utter confusion as you wonder why the hell you just bought this thing! Basically, you can stick MySims in various poses on top of your photos taken on a different application. You can also create a ‘frame’ that allows you to automatically have set Sims in certain places.

As a DSi-Exclusive bonus, similar to what appeared in Ubisoft’s recent Women’s’ Murder Club, this would be fine, however, as a standalone game, it’s very lackstructure. And when you consider that there are only seven Sims to choose from, it seems like even more of a waste of your cold, hard-earned cash. OK, you can unlock more by plugging in a cartridge for a previous MySims DS game, but all of them where very little when compared to their Wii equivalents, and unrecommendable. OK, you can change their size or facial expression, but is that really worth 200 points?

If you want our answer, it’s a stern no. And we’re not even done complaining. You can’t import photos from the SD card, you can only have one MySim on the screen at once, so if you want a couple you have to save the photo then go back and re-edit it, and the whole thing –above all else- feels like an advert for the other MySims games.

If it allowed you to plant Nintendo characters in, or Disney characters, or Marvel characters, or someone that people actually cared about, we might be interested. As it is? No way, hozaye.