My dad loves sports video games… like, loves sports video games. Those are almost the only games he plays. “E A Sports… it’s in the game” would be on repeat on a regular basis. So imagine my surprise the night he introduced me to The Sims.

I almost remember it like it was yesterday. It was my first time spending the weekend at my dad’s house, when he brought me this game and told me to try it out. I’m pretty sure I looked at him sideways, because I had never heard of The Sims, but I tried the game out anyway, falling in love with it only after a couple hours, to the point where I fell asleep with the game on pause. My dad eventually woke me up in the middle of the night and I finally went to bed, but I was forever impressed by The Sims.

This game was completely different from any other game I had ever played. Nothing like the games that I grew up playing, and nothing having to do with sports, this game was a complete simulation of our daily lives. Waking up, using the bathroom, cooking, taking a shower or bath, cleaning the house, talking on the phone, watching tv, going to bed, and even making your sims “woohoo,” was all a part of the game. And to add a little more realism to it, the story mode started off with you having to live with Mom: a woman with an attitude, who never wanted to do anything but lounge and watch TV, while you did all the work around the house. This was surely different from my everyday experience, because my mother was, and is, far from lazy… but this mom was. If she made a mess in the kitchen, she expected YOU to clean it up.

For extra kicks, if you could not cook, you were liable to burn down the house. Randomly, somewhere between midnight and 3 a.m., a burglar might be seen walking down the sidewalk. If you did not have an alarm system installed, there was no turning back. The “buy” menu would be disabled, and the burglar would come into your house, and take any and everything of value. If you had a swimming pool, be sure to not enclose it with walls, or that could be another disaster waiting to happen. Of course, not only was there “buy” mode (where you could purchase items for the house with simoleons), there was also “build” mode, where you could build your house the way you wanted.

Let’s take a break to talk about the “buy” and “build” menu music for a second. I read an article some years ago, that stated that The Sims soundtrack is still one of the best video game soundtracks, especially for jazz music. I have my moments where I still will listen to the soundtrack today.

Of course, The Sims 2 would follow, along with The Urbz: Sims in the City, Sims 3, Sims 4, The Sims Mobile, Sims FreePlay and other spin-off games and expansion packs.

The Urbz was a different type of game. You lived in an apartment within a city environment, and the gameplay was very similar, but there were a few more features. The Urbz was a decent game, but like the other Sims games, none of them compared to the very first one. The original Sims is still by far the best Sims game in the entire series.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I loved Sims 2 University. Not only could you build your own house, but being in college at the time, I built an entire dormitory. Granted, I was the only sim there, but still. The idea of making your sim go to class, along with other regular adult things that they needed to do, was somehow enticing to me, being a student myself.

Fast forward to the Sims FreePlay, where, probably similar to The Sims Mobile, you can do even more: create multiple sims with multiple houses, who work jobs, earn simoleons, adopt a pet, date, get married, woohoo, have a child, or adopt a child, who can later celebrate birthday, buy a car, go for a drive around the neighborhood, and even meet other sims online. But, in my opinion, nothing compares to the original Sims game.

And isn’t that usually the case? The first installment is usually the best. The music, the old graphics, the story mode, the simplicity (because less is more)… everything about that game still reigns supreme to me. Needless to say, if I ever play The Sims again, and it’s not on my phone, it will be the original Sims game.

_

ESRB Rating: T for Teen

Developer: Maxis

Publisher: Electronic Arts