Last weekend, I was at a wedding when I struck up a conversation with a stranger. When she asked what I did for work and I mentioned I wrote about video games for a living, she was eager to tell me about her favorite games. A personal favorite of hers that I wasn’t expecting to hear? MySims. The somewhat obscure spinoff had a short life in the Nintendo Wii era, delivering a more approachable Sims experience built for casual audiences.
Lucky for my new wedding pal, MySims is making a surprise comeback this year with MySims: Cozy Bundle. The re-release packages up both the original MySims and the fantasy-driven MySims Kingdom with a few modern touches. I went hands-on with the package at a Nintendo holiday preview event, where I got a taste of how these cult classics have been reimagined for Nintendo Switch. Though not much has changed, there are two welcome — and much needed — adjustments that fans will appreciate.
My short demo dropped me into the very beginning of MySims, where I could create my character and build my house. This isn’t a remake, so the opening moments play out just as they do in the original release. I named my town after Shadow the Hedgehog and made an edgy Sim to match before getting to work making an impractical, boot-shaped house fit for a goth.
The most notable change here is in Cozy Bundle’s reworked control scheme. The original release relied on motion controls, so it needed an overhaul to make it work with a standard gamepad. That transition is a little clumsy at times. My joystick essentially functions as a pointer, as I need to move a cursor around the screen to hit dialogue boxes or pick up house customization options. Camera controls during house building can get especially confusing, as the left joystick both tilts my plot of land and zooms in and out. It took my brain a bit to get used to what very much feels like a motion-controlled game crammed into standard joystick controls.
There’s great news, though: Cozy Bundle supports the Nintendo Switch’s touchscreen. That seems like the ideal way to play, too; this is the kind of game you want to play bundled up on the couch during winter. I didn’t get to try out the touch controls during my demo, but I can already see how navigating menus and customizing houses will be much easier that way.
The other big change is a visual one. While Cozy Bundle doesn’t overhaul the Wii game’s chibi visuals, it does make them look much cleaner. The lines are significantly smoother with no noticeable artifacting around characters and objects. It’s a small change, but one that makes the package feel just a bit slicker.
Aside from those changes, the core MySims formula appears just as you remember it here. You’ll be able to live out your small town life, collect essences, and customize your town. If you never got to experience that on the Wii in 2007, now is as good a time as any to give it a shot — especially if you’re looking for another game like Animal Crossing to fill the cold months. All I hope is that my new buddy is happy about those changes, and I reckon she will be based on what I’ve seen in this first preview.
MySims: Cozy Bundle launches on November 19 for Nintendo Switch.