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The Sims 3 (Wii)


The Sims 3 for Wii
The sims 3 frontcover large aT6ttLoJBPgJp3D
Play with life
Development
Developer(s) The Sims Division
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Series The Sims series
Release date(s) INT November 12, 2010
Technical information
Engine The Sims 3 Engine
Native resolution 480i, 576i, 480p
Platform(s) Wii
Mode(s) Up to 4 players
System requirements Nintendo Wii or Wii U, 1 Wii Remote, 1 Wii Nunchuk
Game features
Genres Life simulation
Themes City
Creatures Ghost
Neighborhoods Vista Beach
For other versions of The Sims 3, see The Sims 3 (disambiguation).

The Sims 3 is a console game, developed by Electronic Arts for the Nintendo Wii.[1]

For the first time ever, players can take on up to three friends in the Life Moments Game. The neighborhood in the game is Vista Beach.

Description[]

The Sims 3 Logo

Create Sims with unique personalities, fulfill their desires, and control their lives within a living neighborhood that you can customize. Unlock all-new Karma Powers and unleash them on your Sims: help your Sim get lucky with the power of “love connector”, bless them with the power of “age defiler” or "instant beauty" or curse them with an "instant enemy". Use these powers wisely, because they may have unexpected results! As you guide your Sims through life, you can complete challenges to unlock additional items, new buildings and landmarks.

Features[]

(Most of the list was cited from EA marketing for the game, and several of them are provably wrong, especially the "no loading screens" and snow parts.)

  • It features the new Karma system.[1]
  • "Create any Sim you can imagine – give them unique personalities! Fine-tune your Sims’ appearances and personalities. Make them evil, romantic, paranoid, kleptomaniacs, or a mix of something completely different."[2]
  • "Unlock all-new Karma Powers. Wield the ultimate control over your Sims giving them wealth, beauty, and love—or take it all away with the click of a button."[2]
  • "Control your Sims’ destinies – Choose whether or not to fulfill your Sims’ destinies by making their wishes come true—or letting their dreams die. Will your Sims be rock stars, world leaders,[confirmation needed] or expert thieves? It’s up to you."[2]
  • Complete challenges to unlock additional items, new buildings and landmarks.[confirmation needed]
  • This game features weather which can be controlled with Karma Powers[2] such as: hail, lightning, rain, snow and thunder.[1]
  • Players can play the new Life Moments Game with up to four players. Bet on life’s most important moments to earn points and garner rewards.[2]
  • Some traits, careers, lifetime wishes, and weather are exclusive to the Wii version of the game.
  • The Wii version offers direct control which will give the players the use of the Nunchuck controls and the Wii Remote.
  • The beach city can be explored seamlessly with no loading screens, similar to the PC and Mac versions.[3]
  • Exclusive skate park community lot.
  • Sims are able to surf and swim.
  • Exclusive Tourism career.
  • Megalomaniacs are introduced, similar to Ambitious and Snob.

Trailer[]

The trailer for The Sims 3 for Wii was released on October 7, 2010. It shows many of the original features of The Sims 3, such as cycling around town and changing Sims' appearance. It also shows the newly-added features, such as 'Karma Powers' and many features exclusive to the Wii version, such as a skate park, swimming, surfing, the surf shack, weather, and direct control of Sims movement.

Gallery[]

Images[]

Videos[]

Reception[]

Player reception has been mixed and some gaming sites gave it medium ratings, though many players have said that the game is very glitchy. Glitches have been known to include Sims around town dying randomly in the streets, a very confusing fire code that doesn't allow a player to place furniture in an empty house that they just bought and objects that stop working. The game has also been heavily criticized for not allowing players to build their own houses, rather living in pre-made "shells" that can be furnished by the player. Another problem is the Wii sometimes making a loud humming sound when the game is being played, which is a result of the large open world on the hardware. EA has said that it cannot fix the glitches on the Wii (in large part due to the extreme inconvenience involved in patching existing disc copies, as only 3 games for the Wii ever got online patches), which sparked outrage from players.

Like The Sims 3 for PS3 and Xbox 360, this game has often been compared with the Windows and Mac OS X version. Unlike other versions, the Wii version has regional lockout due to Nintendo mandates for home consoles that lasted until the release of the Nintendo Switch console in 2017.

Criticism and issues[]

The Sims 3 for console has been criticized for being too expensive with the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions costing US$60 and the Wii costing US$50 compared with Windows and Mac OS X costing US$40. In Mid-2011, Electronic Arts lowered the price of the PS3, Xbox 360 and Wii versions to US$40. The Sims 3's successor, The Sims 3 Pets ended up costing US$50 rather than US$60.

  • The Wii version lacks Create-a-Style in game and also lacks ages like Babies, Toddlers and Young Adults which can not be made playable.
  • The gender of the child isn't revealed until after the player names them.
    • It's possible for a Sim to become pregnant even when they are aging up into an elder. The baby will not be born, and the Sim will remain pregnant until their death.
    • If a Sim has a child and immediately tries for baby after, they will be brought to the hospital again and another child will be born.
  • Pools cannot be created in the Wii version (There is however one public pool).
  • Once the player exits Create a Sim, a Sim's outfits/hairstyle can not be changed for the rest of the game.
  • Plates of food can get stuck under fridges, making them unable to be used.
  • All services are not available, rendering it impossible to hire a maid, order pizza, adopt, or call the police.
  • Sims can not be invited out, only invited over to one's homes.

Other changes[]

Though not cited as common criticism, some additional things differ noticeably from the other versions of The Sims 3:

  • At least one of the available stereo tracks (We Have Love by Hot Chip) are sung in regular English, instead of the much more common Simlish.
  • Sims do not need to change clothes before going into the swimming pool at Andrew Sim Public Pool. Entering and leaving the pool is done seamlessly, and player Sims can swim just as fast as they can run on land.
  • The game has no meaningful pause option. A workaround is to press D-Pad Right to bring up the "Call Friend" option, which pauses the game.
  • The game is locked to 30fps.
  • Baby and Toddler Sims do not exist.
  • Objects on community lots can take quite some time to pop into view, sometimes up to 20 seconds.
  • The camera is not truly free movement, but instead centers around the active Sim (or, in Buy Mode, the selected object).
  • At the start of the game, the game gives the player a challenge to rack up as much lifetime points as possible within 50 Sim days.
  • Several object types bafflingly seem to only show up in Buy Mode's "By Room" but not in "By Category", most noticeably showers and smoke detectors.
  • Objects in Buy Mode → Category → any subcategory, seem to be listed in completely random order.
  • Palm trees sway in the wind even when the time clock is paused.
  • The game requires a Wii Nunchuk, and has no support for "Wii Remote only", Classic Controller, GameCube Controller, keyboard, or mouse.
  • When a save file is loaded, or the player Sim has arrived at a different lot by taxi, the clock continues to run for 10 in-game minutes while the camera slowly zooms down towards them, after which the Sim becomes controllable again.
  • The lamps in the game don't appear to actually be able to turn on, even in the middle of night.
  • Sims cannot eat food items directly from their inventories.
  • In order to read a book, the Sim must select the book from the inventory or bookshelf and then be told to read it. If not, the Sim will stand still or walk around with the book still in their hand.
  • No known cheat codes.
  • Electrical objects have no grace time after purchase before they can break, and they may very well break after possibly as little as 3 in-game of use and 10 in-game minutes after purchase.
  • Even with the Wii Remote pointer, the pointer can't be used to tell the Sim to do something. Instead the Sim must walk to within 1.5sq of the object in order for them to be told to do something.
  • Greyed-out interactions at the theatre and stadium don't show any info on which hours the interactions will become selectable. Sometimes, entire buildings are even missing their door entry icon entirely, making it unclear if the spa or the town hall are even functional or are fake buildings.
  • Entering the multiplayer setup menu causes the Wii Remote speaker to output unusually high amounts of static noise (provided the speaker functionality is turned on in "Wii Remote Settings").
  • The Hunger motive is rather hard to fill up to full. Even a bistro visit will only fill it up to around 60%.
  • The gameplay speed cannot fast-forward while the Sims is moving around; nor can the speed be set to normal while all Sims in the active household are sleeping.
  • Occasionally, the taxi can be seen driving on the wrong (Left) side of the road. This seems to be most common on the roads near Mossy Hill Lake.

However, the game also has some positive features that were not in the PC versions of The Sims 3 at the time of the Wii version's release, or in some cases hadn't been in any PC Sims games at the time.

  • A few additional careers, including Tourism and Extreme Sports.
  • Motives decay far slower than on PC.
  • Rudimentary support for rain and the sounds of thunder. The rain won't affect the player Sim, instead being a visual overlay similar to those in the early 2000's Grand Theft Auto trilogy.
  • Ocean swimming, beach towels, a houseboat, and windsurfing around 2½ years before The Sims 3: Island Paradise.
  • A dedicated sandpit 6 months before The Sims 3: Generations.
  • Yoga, which was never added to the PC version of The Sims 3 in any capacity.
  • Walls can be placed onto the midst of a 2sq wide window.
  • A few exclusive traits, such as Megalomaniac, Loves Water, Hyperactive, Paranoid, and People Pleaser.
  • A one-'adult Sim' household will start the game with §35,000, a pretty large increase from the computer version's §16,500.
  • The UI front view of the active Sim shows the Sim's physical movements in real time, even if they look a bit blobby.
  • Whereas all PC Sims games stick (more or less) to a lot square format, the borders between community lots in the Wii version are more vague and occasionally combine into one another. This is most clearly seen with the hotel beach, and the public pool/skate park area.
  • The career workdays are slightly more interactive than on PC. The player Sim receives a selection of specific job tasks that take a specific amount of time, and has to guess at or learn which ones that improve the boss' opinion of the Sim, the co-workers' opinion, both, or none. Additional job options are unlocked by becoming popular with co-workers or the boss, and the Sim can choose to stay for overtime if they wish to complete their current task.

Trivia[]

  • The idea of Karma is taken from the Hindu religion. However, the Western interpretation of the term more accurately describes the Karma system in the game.
  • While the PS3, DS and Windows/Mac versions are region free,[note 1] the Wii and 3DS versions are region locked.
  • If a player Sim has a baby, it will be a child. If, due to being born, the child is not at school, this will count as skipping and homework will be incomplete.
  • Despite the fact vegetarians can be created, special veggie foods like Tofu Dog are unavailable.
  • All neutral moodlets are absent. Moodlets such as "Sleepy" and "Stuffed" have a -5/+5 mood effect, respectively.
  • Players can move their Sims with the joystick on the Nunchuk instead of clicking where the players want them to go. This control method was also used in the console version of The Sims 2.
  • The school bus doesn't exist in the Wii version, and instead the children take a carpool to school.
  • Unlike the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, there is not an option to change Sims' lifespan. There is also not an option for disabling the aging system entirely.
  • Much of the BGM, especially that of Create-a-Sim, is shared with the Nintendo 3DS version of The Sims 3.
  • The Create-a-Sim background shares a similar appearance to the modern beach house seen in the beta version for The Sims 3 on PC.

External links[]

Notes[]

  1. Very early Windows and macOS Sims 3 DVDs attempted a form of region locking, but it was very easy to bypass on Windows, by setting "Country" in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\Sims\The Sims 3 to IN.

References[]

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