Review: MySims SkyHeroes

If you (or those in your life with single-digit ages) are a fan of the MySims series, you’ll likely find the same presentation and type of gameplay you’ve grown used to.

MySims SkyHeroes

At this point, The Sims franchise has sprawled into a byzantine library of titles, burgeoning with expansion packs and spin-offs galore, like MySims, a kiddie-fied version of The Sims. Instead of representations of normally proportioned humans, the MySims crew are adorable “chibi” versions of Sims: small bodies, huge heads, puppy-dog eyes. So far, these little guys have ventured into party games, racing games, spy adventures, and more. This fall, Electronic Arts has given us the latest in the MySims series: MySims SkyHeroes, a light and breezy aerial dog-fighting game.

True to The Sims, customization plays a key role in SkyHeroes’s appeal. The premise of the game revolves around creating your own mini-Sim (sort of like a Mii avatar), as well as your own aircraft, and either racing against or battling enemy pilots. There’s a variety of hairstyles, skin tones, accessories, paint colors, and so forth to make your character and its plane just how you want them.

The gameplay itself is easy to pick up. Your plane has a basic machine-gun function, and you can implement speed boosts, barrel rolls, and so forth. And in a throwback to games like Nintendo 64’s Diddy Kong Racing, there’s a large collection of zany power-ups floating around the course. They’ll give you the edge you’ll need to fell those cute lil’ bobbleheads who, y’know, want to kill you. One power-up includes a tornado that swoops around the vicinity to scatter away nearby foes; another outfits your craft with missiles.

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There’s also a Story Mode that offers missions and extra plane parts, but the dragged-out dialogue sequences and annoying-as-the-dickens “Simlish” (the Sims’s fictional gibberish language) put a bit of a damper on things. It’s obvious the game is marketed toward children; in addition to the cute graphics, the difficulty level is fairly low. Multiplayer mode is pretty fun, and there’s Wi-Fi capability, so that’s a plus.

If you (or those in your life with single-digit ages) are a fan of the MySims series, you’ll likely find the same presentation and type of gameplay you’ve grown used to. For everyone else, it’s fun, but not exactly loaded with high-challenge content.

Score: 
 Developer: Virtual Life  Publisher: Electronic Arts  Platform: Nintendo Wii  Release Date: September 28, 2010  ESRB: E10+  ESRB Descriptions: Cartoon Violence  Buy: Game

Bryan Lufkin

Bryan Lufkin's writing has appeared in GQ, Fast Company, National Geographic, The Atlantic, Popular Science, Popular Mechanics, Scientific American, and many more.

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