EA busts out The Sims on GBA
Some more details following that E3 announcement.
Will Wright and Shigeru Miyamoto waxing on about the brilliance of The Sims on Game Boy Advance and GameCube, and the benefits of connectivity. Were you convinced? We were having trouble.
Still, EA has finally piped up about The Sims Bustin' Out for GBA (screenshots) and Cube. The game is apparently being developed at Maxis' Walnut Creek studio in conjunction with Griptonite Games (whose credits include two GBA Lord of the Rings games and Harry Potter), and should be out in time for Christmas.
Apart from the obvious benefit of being able to carry your little Sims around on the GBA, Bustin' Out on the handheld sounds a bit like Vice City without the crime. Players will begin living in a barn, and have to earn their way to owning a swanky mansion on the hill, navigating more than 20 locations (such as the Biker Juice Bar and the Ultimate Dance Club) on their way to success. There will be eight new career paths (including Cliff Diving Instructor and Iron Pizza Chef, apparently), an unlockable scooter to get around SimValley quicker, and a cast of more than 30 new characters.
New to the Sims is a two-way chat window that lets players converse with other Sims and establish friendships, and Sims will no longer purchase items from a catalogue, instead collecting over 150 GBA-exclusive objects at auctions or shops, or by trading with other players via link-up.
Once hooked up to the GameCube, the GBA version of Bustin' Out will unlock a hidden level on the GBA, and Cube owners will get a hidden game cabinet that will let their Sims access mini-games - playing these on the GBA will help earn extra cash. Presumably the 150 plus special items will be transplantable too - we imagine that's the lure, although with The Sims these days, it's difficult to identify specifically why anyone's still playing...