The Urbz: Sims in the City

Many of the activities that make the original Sims games so fun are marginalized in The Urbz. One of the greatest pleasures of the original game is designing your house, but your Urbz apartment is so small -- and you spend so little time there -- that you can't really unleash your inner decorator. Instead, The Urbz emphasizes social networking. Now you can dance the tango or play air guitar with an Urb you admire, pick a fistfight with an enemy, or use a strobe light or a stink bomb "power social" to overpower disinterested counterparts.

But putting forth the effort often seems pointless when you're spending much of your time comparing cell phones and gossiping about other Urbz. The Sims was all about being playful and letting your imagination create a fantasy life. The Urbz' emphasis on being just like everyone else is a lot more limiting, and a lot less fun. Ultimately, the heart is missing from this game.