Having made quite an impression on the PC crowd, Electronic Arts’ decision to bring The Sims to home consoles everywhere was a really good one.  It not only did a good job of bringing us a great port plus a pretty darn excellent second offering (The Sims Bustin’ Out is still a personal favorite), but now they’re taking the series to new heights with The Urbz: Sims in the City.  Is this a new direction fans will fall in love with or is this just simply a gimmick?  

We’ve seen the Sims step out of their homes and explore new locales with Bustin’ Out,  but The Urbz forgoes the usual emphasis on home and the conquest of Mister or Miss Right for making your character the most popular Urb in the city.  You start off by selecting one of the nine different districts in the city, each one with its own specific subculture and, naturally, its own lifestyle.  The Neon East district, for example, is composed of Ravers infatuated with glow sticks and youthful Japanese fashion sense.  The Kicktail Park district is composed of skaters while the district known as Central Station is composed of punks in leather and spikes.  Then you create your Urb, choosing its sex, hairstyle and body shape.  Notice how you won’t be picking out an outfit for your character.  The reason is simple, you have to earn the right to dress like your chosen city inhabitant and that means earning money (called Simolians in this universe) by getting a job.

Each district also has it’s own job-type and, like the first two games, you can work your way up the career ladder.  For example, in Neon East you can get a job in the sushi bar and, naturally, work your way from the very bottom, then become an Assistant Chef and finally become a bona fide Sushi Chef.  The more money you’ll make the more you’ll be able to afford the more expensive threads and thus make an impression of the characters in the district.  Yet a fancy wardrobe isn’t enough to get you in the door of the most popular club in the neighborhood.  You’ll have to network and befriend people if you want to become a member of “the crew.”  As luck would have it, your friend Darius is great at giving you pointers in how to earn Social Moves and how to befriend other popular Urbz.  While you get an apartment, 300 bucks and a few items to add to your apartment, your most valuable tool is your cell phone/PDA - you’ll be using it a lot to keep track of friends and opportunities.

As the subtitle reveals, your Urb will be mainly interacting within the city.  Sure you can crash in your own apartment but each district has a place you can spend the night, use the bathroom and grab a bite to eat … in other words, all the basic needs that require attention can be attended to out in the city without you ever stepping foot in your pad.  This gives you a chance to concentrate on your career, making friends, dating and gaining a reputation.  Making friends is a question of walking up to the person and choosing from the list of conversation types (Ice Breaker, Network, Act Friendly, Act Mean, Act Romantic and Power Social).  Ice Breakers are a great introduction since Gossip and Talk allows the other Urb to become comfortable enough with you to allow you to get romantic with them.  Once you’ve befriended another character, he or she will offer Power Social options as well as Social Moves you can learn.  The game leaves many of the smaller decisions up to you such as who you’d like as a lover and who you’d like to be mean to and, thusly, have as an enemy.

Yet going from soda pusher to popular bartender and becoming friends with the main power diva in town isn’t hard to do since much of what you’ll be doing is the same old thing over and over again.  Want to become a contract model, simply show up to work whenever you’re asked for and make sure you’re bathed and wearing the right clothes.  Do you want to get into the coolest club in the district?  Talk to the most popular person around by simply following the same conversational formula.  Yes, this sounds utterly repetitive, but if you’re tired of being a classy Urb you can simply move to another district and keep it real as a hip-hopper.  It’s like starting over and wowing a different set of people all over again.  In a way, you can keep playing the game forever.

One of my biggest gripes, aside from the repetitiveness, is the fact that the clothing options are very limited.  For a game that stresses the importance of looking fabulous, you’d expect the game to be overflowing with a wide variety of garments and accessories.  While the game does a great job of allowing you to dress up in your own style while keeping with the style of those around you, you’ll wish there were more choices.  My other gripe is with the load times – they’re pretty long.  These complaints might seem unimportant and they don’t really get in the way of the game’s main goals or exploration, but they could have made this game all the more addictive.

Visually, the game is pretty sharp looking and wonderfully colorful.  The Xbox clearly gets the crisper graphics and you’ll see this the moment you get close-ups of your character.  The animation is nice and fluid, and you’ll get a laugh or two from watching characters interact with things (or dance).  It’s cool to watch each different subculture do what they do best (the Diamond Heights people love posing for pictures).  The locales have plenty of different buildings and the clubs are so cool that you’ll certainly understand why you have to dress to impress and know the right people.  It’s not bad at all.

If you like the musical styling of the Black Eyed Peas then the soundtrack will definitely be up your alley.  Each of the nine districts not only has their own appearance but different music that suits the style of the people that make up that part of the city.  The typical Sims sound effects are back and so is the weird gibberish that makes up their language.

The Urbz: Sims in the City tries to be different and succeeds but its repetitiveness keeps the fun from being both fresh and stimulating.  The Sims fans will appreciate the socializing outside the usual home setting and making friends, lovers and enemies in a city with much to do.  Yet even the most hardcore fan (you know who you are) will find changing fashion styles to fit the type of people you’d like to befriend gets pretty old.  This is a game long-time fans should definitely check out. 

Gameplay: 7.5
Your Urb is a tad more easy to manage than your average Sim seen in previous console versions of The Sims, and that’s a really great thing considering there’s about a hundred things you can do in the city.  You can stick with your own crowd of friends but if you want a change of scene you can just move to another district and dress accordingly.  Your job can have you going against competitors as well.

Graphics: 8.0
Crisp and clean Xbox visuals make this the best version to own and you just have to love the cute animations.  You’ll find the usual Sims-styled lag, but it’s nothing that gets in the way of the action.  Each district has its own look and therefore so does each Urb.

Sound: 8.0
You’d think a soundtrack that consists of mainly Black Eyed Peas tunes would get seriously boring (and in some instances it does), but each district has its own musical style so you’ll get something different in each section of the city.  Sim-speak is still kind of freaky to me.

Difficulty: Medium
It’s all about putting yourself out there and grabbing as much attention and street cred as possible while looking your very best in the process.  It’s whom you know that gets you in the door of popular nightspots, and you’re nothing without money or a reputation.  You’ll have to step on a few toes to climb to the top so you‘ll definitely make some enemies.

Concept: 7.2
The Urbz does a great job of immersing you in the city and its many inhabitants that form their own subculture.  You can go punk for a while before deciding to become the next Paris Hilton or P Diddy. There’s also more smooching and less Martha Stewart-styled home decorating, although you can design a neat pad and own a pet.

Multiplayer: 7.5
Two players can head out into the city and outshine each another by getting better jobs, making more money or becoming members of a very select clan.  It’s a great way to work together or work against each another.

Overall: 7.5
There’s plenty of fun to be had with The Urbz but its appealing freedom to be whatever you want loses its charm way too quickly.  However, if you’re a fan of all things Sims and would love to see them out of a home setting and becoming the ultimate social butterfly, you’ll get a kick out of this game.