Even being a “The Sims” lover, I can’t say that I was that eager to play SimAnimals. I’m not a huge fan of the DS in general, but I was pleasantly surprised by this little game. It’s not half bad. The basic idea is for you to look after various animals and plants in your area of the forest. Once you’ve fulfilled the needs of the assortment of species you’ve attracted to the area and completed a couple of optional tasks a further level is unlocked.

All plants require regular watering and their need for water is shown by an icon above them. You water plants using Rain Clouds that are conjured by holding your stylus over a body of water in the area. Once you’ve completed two-thirds of the level you gain the ability to make storm clouds, which are created in the same way as rain clouds but require you to hold the stylus over the water for a bit longer. Storm Clouds instantly create lightning, and will destroy anything they touch. These are used to destroy decaying plants and piles of rubbish that are sometimes littered around the level, but can also set fire to healthy plants if you’re not careful.

Food is harvested by holding L or R, and using the stylus to shake the plants from side to side. Once a third of the level is completed you can blow into the microphone of the DS to use wind, which can also be used to harvest food for animals. Wind can also blow animals around the level, which unsurprisingly upsets them sometimes! Certain species will only eat certain types of food, and their food preferences can be seen by holding L or R and tapping them, bringing up a display on the top screen of the DS. This menu also shows the animal’s happiness level, where they live, their gender and their name (which you can change if you want to). Once an animal is at maximum happiness (and an animal of the same species and opposite sex is in the area) they will breed and have a baby. Some carnivorous animals won’t eat food from trees and bushes, and prey on other animals...

SimAnimals is a pretty solid sim, and despite obviously being aimed at kids, it’s playable by just about anyone. It’s not difficult and navigation around the area is simple using the stylus or the D-Pad. However, it is very easy to get caught up with the maintenance of the forest, and at times it feels like this is a bit more of a groundskeeper-sim than anything else. The graphics aren’t bad, but probably needed a bit more “oomph” to make SimAnimals stand out. The animals really don’t do an awful lot once you’ve attracted them and you’re never that worried when one of them gets angry and decides to leave because they’re bound to be back in a few minutes. SimAnimals isn’t a bad game by any means, but there was a lot of potential that wasn’t realised here.