The year is 2025. The Sims 4 has been the main Sims game for 11 years, and now it’s finally, finally, brought some key elements back. So, why don’t we have any spin-off games returning to Nintendo systems yet? I can’t be the only one who grew up running a hotel on my DS or walking around Miniopolis on a Game Boy Advance, and I really miss the weird and wonderful world outside of The Sims mainline games.
The Sims franchise recently turned 25, giving us some blast from the past-themed items and burglars creeping back to our lots in The Sims 4, along with a re-release of the first two mainline Sims games, complete with all DLC on Steam. I, naively, hope that this means we get other old games back on modern platforms. I want to play The Sims on Nintendo Switch. Perhaps the Game Boy Advance games on Nintendo Switch Online? Maybe?
Let’s get into the meat of this Sims sandwich. First up, here’s a concise list of all the Nintendo-based spin-off games on the Game Boy through to the 3DS to remind you of the weird and wonderful games we used to get alongside the PC mainstays.
The Sims on GameCube
Get a Life! That’s the name of one mode you can play in The Sims on GameCube – the other is a free-play mode like the PC game. It might look crude now, but playing as the Goths, Newbies, and Pleasants on a console was revolutionary. Get a Life has goals for you to complete, such as getting a job and moving out, whereas free-play lets you take over a family and just, well, play The Sims.
The Sims: Bustin’ Out on Game Boy Advance and GameCube
Welcome to SimValley, where you start off living in your Uncle Hayseed’s barn and have to earn money mowing lawns and tending bar while making friends with neighbors like Nora Zealott and Vera Vex, and moving into your own rented home. This was the first handheld spin-off released on December 2, 2003, and holds up to this day as a fun game packed with silly missions, skill-building, and wild storylines.
The GameCube version of this is the game most people think of when they hear ‘Bustin’ Out’. It works similarly to The Sims in that you can move freely around in a 3D space, but you still need to make money and friends. Your job is – for some reason – to buy back everyone’s repossessed furniture by moving in with them and getting to the top of different career tracks.
The Sims: Urbz on GBA and Nintendo DS
These two games are the same, just on different platforms. I’ve played both, so I can safely say that. It’s a sequel – sort of – to Bustin’ Out, except you’re now in the city surrounded by a new cast with more punny names like Ewan Watahmee and Sue Pirnova. Make your way through wacky quests and make enough money to survive while building your street cred, of course.
The GameCube version is the Sims game that has the Black Eyed Peas in it. You’re in SimCity and have to help the coolest guy in town, Darius, to repair a secret machine by defeating villains. You do get a sweet penthouse for your trouble, though.
The Sims 2 on Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance
You know, the one where your car breaks down and then you’re talked into running a hotel in the middle of Strangetown’s desert. Then you find Bigfoot in the basement, foil a plot to blow up the mayor, and fight a robot as a rat-themed superhero – all while checking in guests and hoovering the floor.
In The Sims 2 on Game Boy Advance, we’re back to Strangetown, but this time, it’s all a big TV set, and you’re here to help the ratings go up. Through 12 episodes, you meet franchise faves like biker Dusty Hogg and the alien Burple stuck on a toilet and once again have a showdown with an errant robot.
The Sims 2 Pets on Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS, and Wii
This marks the last Sims game released on the Game Boy Advance and the GameCube. It’s also got absolutely nothing to do with the PC game, aside from sharing a name and artwork on the case. It’s more like Urbz and Bustin’ Out but with pets. You do the usual – work jobs, pick up stuff to sell, pay your rent, mop your floors, and feed your pet.
The DS game was pretty drab, though – you’re a vet in this game, but it’s easily the worst Sims spin-off I’ve played. All I remember is buying singular food ingredients to make meals and struggling to actually heal any pet that came in through the door.
The Sims 2 Apartment Pets on Nintendo DS
Fun fact: unlike everything else on this list, this is the only game that isn’t on PC or other consoles. It’s sort of a follow-up to Sims 2 Pets, where you look after pets in your Uncle’s spa. Other than that, you take care of your own custom Sim while being surrounded by pets. Also, you can get rabbits, a snake, and a parrot.
The Sims 2: Castaway on Nintendo Wii and Nintendo 3DS
The Castaway games all follow a group of Sims washed up on an island after a storm. You must then survive across islands that have volcanoes, shipwrecks, tribes, and more. Skills are still a key part, but your main goal isn’t to decorate, it’s to survive.
The Sims 3 on Nintendo DS, 3DS, and Wii
This is where the whimsy stops – The Sims 3 across all three Nintendo consoles are all just various ports of the PC game. They weren’t great, really, they were condensed life sims with lackluster stuff to do.
The Sims 3 Pets on Nintendo 3DS
Here we have the last Sims game that came to Nintendo consoles – The Sims 3 Pets. Somehow way better than The Sims 3 on 3DS, potentially because it has animals in it, but overall just an improved game. Plus, you can control the pets and make sure their needs are fully met.
Also, I’m shouting out The Sims 2 as one of the best PSP games, as that’s another unhinged adventure set in Strangetown after your car breaks down, where you immediately have to flirt with Bella Goth and fight a store clerk.
Well, there’s clearly a drop-off point during Sims 3’s life cycle where EA decided screw it, we’re not doing spin-offs or any Sims games on Nintendo consoles anymore. A sad day, and the day my childhood truly died. But… why? A little bit of history for you – EA bought Maxis, the studio behind the original Sims and Spore, in 1997.
Will Wright, who was a co-founder of Maxis and the brains behind SimCity and The Sims – fun fact: you can see him in The Sims by climbing a magic beanstalk, and there’s a statue of his head in The Sims 2 – left the company in 2009. Since then, The Sims franchise has all been under EA. Are you seeing where this is going? The Sims 4 released way back in 2014, and we’ve had no ports or spin-offs since. Maxis also only deals with The Sims 4 as a subsidiary of EA now, with no other IPs.
I understand that games cost a lot more to make nowadays, and people don’t use as many quirky handhelds, but there could so easily be something other than the main PC game and its myriad expansions that now cost over $1k, which clearly aren’t that hard to make given there are so many and plenty that barely work. The Sims 4 barely runs on a lot of PCs and laptops as it is, so it would likely be hot garbage on a Switch, but how come there aren’t any specially made games akin to Urbz, Bustin’ Out, or the Pets options?
Well, it boils down to EA being EA and an alleged breakdown between Nintendo and EA’s relationship as the Switch launched. An article by IGN from 2019 goes over comments from a meeting with an analyst, where the “head honcho disagreed” with putting The Sims on Switch. Thanks, dude, my inner child is crying. Further down the article, it talks about players preferring certain consoles, which again I agree with, but we also want other games in the franchise as an option.
I just want to know where the whimsy went. Why can’t I run a hotel or some other equally nonsensical business in the middle of the desert, or head into a town filled with loveable NPCs and do quests like catching a Velocirooster and charming a ghost anymore? The Sims 4 is a little soulless compared to the weird, wonderful, and detailed content in The Sims 2 and even The Sims 3, but even now, there’s definitely room for some spin-off titles.
For example, here are some ideas I came up with just now. There could so easily be a House Flipper or Animal Crossing: Happy Home Paradise-style game focused solely on building or flipping houses based on Sims’ wants, akin to the Dream Home Decorator game pack. Or, a whole game focused on any of the worlds – probably Strangerville like the old Strangetown games – going down any weird rabbit hole. Occult Sims? Aliens? Plant Sims? The fodder is already there.
Seeing as there were SO many Pets spin-offs, why not one (or even two!) The Sims 4 Pets games focusing on cats, dogs, and horses? You can be a vet in The Sims 4 using the live career mode, so why not simply make that a separate game on Switch? In fact, why not make the Get To Work pack its own game with more in-depth careers?!
A comment by user tonsquared on this Reddit post, asking much the same question as I am, sums up the situation well. Essentially, due to the Wii U’s, uh, lackluster sales, EA then pulled away from Nintendo. The comment brings up The Sims Mobile – the existence of this game and the upcoming The Sims: Town Stories show that EA isn’t allergic to making other games, they just don’t like the Switch.
It boils down to a changing market, a breakdown of EA and Nintendo’s relationship, and maybe just a sprinkle of the original Sims teams moving on. While I have almost all the portable Sims games, I’d immediately fork out for any ports of Urbz and Bustin’ Out on the Switch. Perhaps this can help manifest a The Sims: Bustin’ Back Out or Urbz Going Rural or something.
If you, like me, love the old Sims games, take a look at our best retro handheld picks and see if anything takes your fancy. Or, see if you can play The Sims on Steam Deck and how well it runs.