Parents' Guide to

MySims Kingdom

By Erin Bell, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 8+

Delightful role-playing game where you build & repair stuff.

Game Nintendo DS, Nintendo Wii 2008
MySims Kingdom Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this game.

Community Reviews

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age 9+

Based on 4 parent reviews

knoxvillemomof2
knoxvillemomof2 Adult
August 22, 2011
age 18+

Voodoo dolls and seances? How is that child appropriate?

Not age-appropriate at all. There is an island on the game (Spookane) where the player is expected to find voodoo dolls and then has to hold a seance in order to progress. I can't believe no other parent has noted this in the reviews and that this site thinks it's acceptable content for a child of any age.
alimba
alimba Parent of 5 and 9-year-old
August 15, 2010
age 5+

Our family loves playing this game

This game is great. It's fun, it's challenging, it develops problem-solving skills, and best of all, it rewards helping others. The one bad thing is that it requires reading. So if your child doesn't read yet (like my 5-year old), someone older who can read needs to play with him or her.
See all 4 parent reviews

What’s It About?

The follow-up to last year's MySims, MYSIMS KINGDOM takes Electronic Arts' wildly popular Sims franchise further away from its open-ended life simulation roots with a story-driven role-playing game geared towards kids. After creating and customizing your own Sim, you'll jump into the story to learn that you're the latest Wandolier, wielders of magic sceptres that are capable of conjuring objects out of thin air. At the request of the Sims' cupcake-loving ruler, King Roland, you'll travel throughout the kingdom helping people by using your magic to build houses, repair bridges and machines, and anything else they request.

In order to acquire the necessary building materials, you'll have to collect Essences to unlock scrolls. For example, collecting 25 Metal essences unlocks the Small Gear scroll, which allows you to use gears to power machines. Essences are collected performing various special actions and mini-games, such as chopping trees to get Wood Essences, or hitting rocks with a pickaxe to get Metal Essences. You can also earn Essences by treasure-finding or fishing. When you're ready to build a structure, you'll enter a special mode where you can place scenery such as walls, a roof, chimney, doors, windows, shrubbery, and interior furniture.

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (4):
Kids say (20):

While the emphasis on building made the original MySims game a bit of a chore, MySims Kingdoms is kept fresh by the mini-game challenges and delightful character interactions. You can talk to other Sims and hear them respond in their unique Sims gibberish language that is actually quite expressive and cute. Another nice touch is that Sims actually interact with the environment, including objects that you've added to it. Build a set of drawers, for example, and a Sim will rummage through them, occasionally turning up a trinket for you to keep. It's little touches like these that make MySims Kingdom a delightful and accessible simulation for a younger audience that perhaps isn't quite ready for the classic Sims games for PC.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about what was more fun to build, houses that let you place the pieces in creative ways, or structures where you had to follow a rigid floor plan (the game contains both). Did designing the interiors of the houses give you any ideas about how to set up the furniture in your own room?

Game Details

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