Short circuits

Everyone loves a bit of karting. Jenson Button started his racing career that way. Mario and his mates are mad for it. Now Electronic Arts’ cute little MySims are after a slice of the racing action too. In keeping with the Sims franchise in general and the MySims spin-off series in particular, the game’s racing action is played out through a story mode. In this instance you explore a series of neighbourhoods, getting friendly with the locals, and carrying out racing-based challenges in order to develop your skills and, more importantly, achieve your ultimate aim of expanding the town and its racing track.

There are loads of courses (12 available in multi-player right from the start) and they are themed, naturally, with woodland courses, snowy tracks, mountainous terrain and ultimately a futuristic environment all making an appearance. Along the way you can pick up new skills, spare parts and gold medals with which to buy special kart modifications.

Avatars and cars

For some reason MySims Racing doesn’t allow you to migrate the Sims you’ve already created in other MySims products. It’s a minor disappointment though, and great fun can still be had in designing an all-new racing driver from scratch using the game’s extensive and easy to use Create-a-Sim tools. While we’re on the subject of MSR’s ease of use, Electronic Arts has stated that, far from this being simply a carbon copy of other kart racing games with the MySims brand slapped on the top, they’ve made every effort to keep it friendly to the MySims audience which consists of 8-12 year olds. That’s not to say older gamers can’t enjoy it though, as there’s lots to play around with.

Once your character is created you can also design your own kart, a feature that is almost as much fun as the racing itself. There are three categories of vehicle on offer. First there are the small or compact vehicles, which are light and nippy but tend to get bumped around by the larger vehicles on the circuit. The mid-sized vehicles are good all rounders; fairly fast, stable and robust. Then there’s the large class which contains trucks, SUVs and a van.

Pimp Your Ride

Having chosen a base vehicle the players have the option to adjust performance in four categories. Tweaking the engine, frame and handling, and using special upgrades will significantly alter the performance of a kart. The great thing is, thanks to the garage feature, players can decide which kart setup to use on each individual course.

As any self-respecting racer knows, it’s not just about performance, you’ve got to look good too, so there are loads of styling upgrades including body types, bumpers, headlights, grilles, wheels and various other ornaments, including a variety of horns. Finally slap on a coat of paint and the kart of your dreams is ready to race. One very neat feature is the option to save your kart to your Wii Remote and take it round to a friend’s house.

Dangerous Driving

As you’d expect in a karting game, there are plenty of power-ups to collect and use during a race. The dozen or so power-ups to be found here include Bunny Luv (which covers an opponent’s screen with rabbits), Pumpkin Catapult (erm, it catapults pumpkins at enemies), the Bubble Dropper (if an opponent hits your bubble he or she becomes trapped) and, our favourite, the Tornado Inverter which turns your opponents’ screens upside down for a short time. Evil, but funny.

MySims Racing then, seems to tick all the boxes you’d want ticked for a successful session of cartoony kart racing, but it’s all presented in a way that’s friendly and simple enough to appeal to the legions of young MySims fans already out there.

GAME's Verdict

• Great customisation features.
• Nice story mode.
• Amusing power-ups.
• Fun multi-player game.

• Can’t import Sims from other games.
• Less suitable for older gamers.

Review by: Simon 'Backfire' Kirrane
Version Tested: Wii
Review Published: 19.06.09