Veterans of the big version of the game will quickly notice the game has lost quite a lot of its depth and complexity during the port to the handheld. Your sim doesn't grow older and also the DNA shines in being absent. Present is the possibility to create your character to your own likings and of course also your personal needs and aspirations are integrated in the game. That's only normal as these are the main chunk of the The Sims.

New is the sanity meter that according to me, I'm not a real Sims lover, replaces the role of fears. This can be filled by successfully ending missions and fullfil your Wants. Once the meter is full, you can function a lot more efficient, for example when having conversations where you now have to push the correct button quickly to have success. The latter are still funny and the dialogues are filled with ironic winks which will appeal to the older gamer.

Your skills, including for instance cooking, need to be upgraded with mini-games. Now, toggling one button after having found a specific item for the skill in question may be just a bit too easy to be called a mini-game.

You start the story in Strangetown, a somewhat crazy location where the supernatural is as common as cola and sand dust. You'll get to see your portion of zombies, aliens and other vermin. Together with the dialogues this creates a very relaxed and fun atmosphere and an absolute plus that added to the surprise from this game for me. Also fun are the other mini-games (some not always available) and the "secrets" you can get from other Sims or find in the surroundings. These gossips can be sold for Simoleans that you need to buy food and other stuff. The only disadvantage is that you sometimes don't have enough time to do everything, but that's a bit own to the series.

Unfortunately, one specific problem made the smile disappear from my face: loading times! First I thought it was accidental that the UMD started moaning when I opened the trash can, but no way. With about any animation, every move, every new location you visit an each thing in your house you want to look at you'll have to wait for several seconds. Incredibly frustrating, especially because after a while you try to avoid this and stop doing certain things, purely to win some seconds of time. I don't need to make it clear that this is rather deadly for this type of games.

Not that the graphics are bad. Everything looks sharp and colorful, and the drawn visual flair from the PC series is completely present on the shiny screen of the PSP. If the loading wasn't so bad, the animations would get an almost perfect score from me and also the surroundings are filled with interactive objects to experiment with. The sound is equally good and fits perfectly to what we're used from The Sims. The typifal Sims-brabbling is completely back, just like the soundtrack that doesn't disturb.