Can't get the kids away from this game. It's fun to see them problem solving, and making their way through the game!

• from

I bought this game for my 5 year old for Xmas. It's been her favorite thing and we both play it for hours everyday. Very challenging even for me. Teaches thinking outside the box and problem solving . You need to be able to read to play this game so you have to sit there with your kids. I really like it

• from

My son loves playing on the Wii. I love point-and-click adventures and mysteries. This game combines both of our preferences in a cute, entertaining way. I'd worried at first that the mysteries and "dispatch missions" would be too difficult for my 9 y/o, but he picked up on the clues easily. Interestingly, I've seen his inductive and deductive logic improve in the process. Me? I just think the Sim Agents are adorable, yet I find the play is interesting enough to keep me entertained, too.

• from

My 5 and 7 year old got several Wii games for Christmas, and this was one of them. It sat on the shelf for two months until they had played out their other games. Once they tried it, they declared it the best game they ever played. We all sat together as a family and worked through the mysteries and puzzles at the end of every day, and when we turned it off every evening, we couldn't wait to play the next day. We talked about it at breakfast, lunch and dinner. What did we need to do next? Who did it?

The best thing about this game is that it requires kids to read and solve puzzles to get through it. My 5 year old is a good reader, but he didn't understand how neat it is to read, and he would never just pick up a book and sit down and read it. This game got him really excited about reading because he had to read to make progress in the game. About a week after we finished the game, I found him in his bed reading a book to himself for the first time!

There are little puzzles that need to be solved in order to unlock items or get new clues. These puzzles are one of the big highlights of the game. It's great to watch my kids thinking process as they are working through them. The puzzles start out fairly easy, and get harder as the game goes on. I think most 6 year olds can solve the easier puzzles on their own, and the hardest ones are still kind of challenging for adults. Once you've solved the puzzles, they go into your arcade unit back at headquarters so you can play them again.

The kids also loved all of the little extras such as changing their characters costumes and customizing the office spaces at headquarters.

Our only disappointment in the game is that it seemed a little short. We solved the game in a little less than 2 weeks. That was partly our fault for playing it so obsessively, but we were kind of sad to see that it was over. We are hoping for a sequel.

If I had to compare this to other games we know, I would compare it to Harvest Moon: Tree of Tranquility. On the whole, we liked Agents better, and found it to be more engaging. Also, Agents doesn't have some of the tedious, repetitive parts of Harvest Moon, such as having to go to bed every night.

It was great family fun, and as a parent, I never felt guilty about my kids plying it, which I can't say for all games. We are looking forward to more Sims games like this!

• from

I bought this game for my daughter's 10th birthday in early March and tonight, about 6 weeks later, she finished the main story line. The experience was bitter-sweet, as she absolutely loved the game and was pleased to have solved all the puzzles but was left wanting more. I think that this is an inevitable feeling when one finishes a well constructed game -- I remember it from my own gaming past.

As a parent, I want my daughter to have a range of interests and not be a "couch-potato" -- but I also believe that age-appropriate games such as MySims Agents are a fun way to introduce important problem-solving and critical reasoning skills to young students. This game is filled with mini-puzzles that get harder as the game progresses (3 basic models -- gear and pulley puzzles that require the player to connect power sources and machine parts to "fix" game elements; a "chemistry" game that involves matching colored dots representing chemical "elements" with different numbers of dots that correspond to the number of connections each element must have to other elements, and; lock-picking puzzles that require moving various pieces to clear a path for the key -- these last ones were very easy for my daughter, but this was OK as she liked doing these without too much trouble and that took the sting out of the more challenging puzzles). The overall game narrative also involves a mystery and provides numerous interesting scenes for the player to explore, interact with game characters to gather clues and to solve game puzzles (usually involving collection of various pieces from each game area needed to open up the next level). Included are lots of challenges involving the movement of boxes or other equivalent objects to gain access to hard to reach areas. These are common video-game features, of course, but she did not know that so it struck her a pretty cool the first time. And of course, that is the beauty of video games! By playing the games and solving the puzzles, you are sharpening the very analytical skills necessary for success in school, on standardized tests and in day-to-day life. When my daughter asked for help, I chose to talk her through the challenges so that she could see the process I used to solve the problem -- and then i watched as she brought to bear the same process herself on the next challenge! That alone was enough to earn the game 5 stars in my book!

I should also note that the characters talk in standard "sim-gibberish", which is sometimes annoying but also pretty funny (my wife and I find ourselves using it sometimes at random moments!). The "translations" that appear on the screen are also often very funny and the vocabulary used is understandable overall, but includes some challenging words used in context so the young player can hopefully expand their language-horizons as well.

Overall a great and fun game. I should note that I was frankly not expecting much from this game. My daughter loved the original MySims game -- but i found it pretty tedious after a point (just building and running about) and did not see much narrative progression. Still, she found it fascinating after hours of play so I though we would give this a try. I am glad we did! We are looking forward to the next episode of Sims Agents.

• from

This game is extremely fun and addictive (for both children and adults). There are many unlockables including outfits, furniture, trophies, and characters. It is fun for my school age children to play again even after beating it. Definitely worth the money, which is hard to say for all wii games!

• from

"Santa" brought this game to my six year old boy. He wanted this game sooooooooooo badly, however he cannot read yet and you absolutely cannot play this game if you can't read, or can't read well. I was sad for him since he cannot play it now, however my 13 year old girl loves it. It's one of her favorite games! Bottom line...fun game, but I would not purchase it for someone who cannot read well, or who doesn't want to read while playing.

• from

This game was fun to play and fun to watch being played. It was a Christmas gift this year and was played everyday since. The characters are cute and fun, you can design your own and there are others already made. Like Trebor, the robot afraid of kelp and Dr. F the mad scientist, his creator. The comments are funny for the kids and had my husband and myself giggling. The characters speak in gibberish, which took a little getting used to at first, but become part of the appeal of the game as some of the gibberish is pretty funny too. You do need to know how to read to play the game. Great and creative missions, some not too easy or too hard puzzles along the way. My 10 year old struggled only slightly with some of the puzzles but did get them all solved. The only thing is as someone mentioned, it's not a long game. Still not a reason to not purchase it, but maybe the next one can be a little longer. She just finished the game last night and we're all like, when's the next one coming out?? Great job EA on everything with this agent sim game, it's very fun, bright art, smooth animation. I hope EA does another one just like it, don't change the kooky and cute characters, maybe a few more different puzzles, a little longer game, (with possibly some alien related mission, or a ghost one, there's tons of ideas to go with, all the legends out there, loch ness!) but that's it. Ok, request out and review in :)

• from

My grandaughter enjoys the game and has repeatedly said it was fun to play and at times challenging. She recommends it.

• from

I thought this game was going to be fun for kids of all ages but it is not at all. The controls are very simple which can be good in some cases but they dont include the wii motion controls whatsoever. THe graphics of this game are good for the wii, nothing special but what really bummed me was the lack of replay value. Once you are done with the game. (which happens to be in three days) you are done, thats it no unlockables

• from

I got this game as a gift for Christmas. I think it took me a total of 8 hours to beat the game....although it does say that you can continue exploring but there is only so much to explore....the concept was good and it was fun just not long enough.

• from

A huge hit at our house... the Sims have been welcomed in many forums. My Sims Agents is probably the "cutest" of all the games. The graphics and design are superb. The game play fairly straightforward once you catch on. We have people waiting in line to play it, and have had to limit playing time to 30 minutes/person so everyone can have a chance. That's the first time ever for any video game at our house.

• from

Great game for strategic minded individual. 12 yr old sons does get stuck on some puzzles but always figures them out after time. Great game, he doesn't just fly through it like some other games. More challenging.

• from

*tomatoed over pun* Building and decorating take a back seat in this oddly unique edition to the "My Sims" series. Indeed, it's not quite what I was expecting: which was another "building block" type of game with a spy story attached. Though such elements do still exist, it's only necessary for the powering of your team (meaning you don't do it that often); THIS game is actually all about detective work! Think of a more basic version of Nancy Drew. In rating:

Story 10/10: The story is great! Though I haven't completed it yet, it's interesting, and flows well from point A to point B. You start off as a beginner detective, solving simple neighborhood crimes, with your office being a table in Chef Gino's pizza restaurant. You customize your own Sim's appearance and identity, and your "partner" is Buddy, who draws absolutely everything (I guess it beats being a bell hop, like he was in the first "My Sims" game). I use the term "partner" loosely, because he's mostly for comic relief over actual help, as he tends to simply mill about the same area you are in and crack jokes on train and jet rides. Continuing on, after you solve your first case in identifying the true owner of a dog, an agent notices and promotes you to "Junior Agent"; from there, you solve more cases to progress to "Special Agent," get your own Headquarters, and then solve truly important crimes.

Gameplay 8/10: The gameplay is great fun, and addictive, but not perfect. Because I haven't finished it yet, I can't fairly comment on it's length; but I have heard it's a somewhat short game. No map feature means that you'll be mindlessly wandering areas from time to time; though, thankfully, the areas aren't big enough to make this an overwhelming issue. Talking with suspects and the like is key, as it will help you figure out what to do or where to go next. At the same time, however, if you discover too many things at once, it won't all help you at that point in time; it can be frustrating when you know the location of a security camera, and know how it can help in the case, but can't use it until someone else tells you to. The Agent Dispatching system is unique, and it can be fun--but also hectic--at times; however, I find myself wishing from time to time that I could go on one of THEIR missions rather than be stuck at the location I'm currently at. They text you with updates often, which can be annoying (when you're bothered five times in a row with silly comments) but also intuitive as they occasionally ask you questions where your answer affects their case (although, your answer becomes less important if you have an "excellent" or "great" team on the job) . I find the number of text messages are reduced if you have a team that's greatly suitable for the task. Hiring and firing new agents is interesting, and learning how to team them up and match them to client interests and needs is a nice stroke of extra strategy. One other problem: it can be easy at times to get stuck on a puzzle. If you get stuck, the WHOLE operation comes at a standstill until you solve the puzzle; the fact you can't even get hints on any of them only makes it worse. Thankfully, this only happens every once in a while, but it still gets aggravating when you're tired of the puzzle and want to move on.

Controls 8/10: The controls work well enough, but there's little motion involved as you'll mostly just be pushing buttons. Fine by me, but not by motion enthusiasts. Switching and exiting gadget modes can feel awkward, and you can't communicate or investigate while holding a gadget (which I often neglected to remember). The way your Sim jumps seems super-human, though oddly fun. Overall, the controls work, but could've undergone a touch up or two.

Graphics 9/10: Not bad graphics at all! If you take the time to look, you'll see quite a few details for a "My Sims" game; maybe not the best on the market, but it's good. My only real gripe is that the tool icons are a little too small: in the early run, it's easy enough to tell a crowbar from a wrench, but the advanced tools start looking a little too similar. I often wander around trying to do something with one tool, only to figure out I have the wrong tool equipped. Other than that, very nice!

Music 10/10: The music is pretty darn good, and successfully captures the feel of each area. I love hearing the short little tune after you find incriminating evidence against a suspect: it's pretty epic! You can get little radios for your Sims at HQ, which produce some nice extra tunes. Overall, they did a really good job!

Characters 10/10: Love them or hate them, you got to hand it to the the character designers. Both the return of old characters and the addition of new characters make for so many different personalities and appearances, your head will spin! They even have dogs for the animal lovers! It's guaranteed you'll fall in love with the characteristics of at least one Sim (or even get clothes that you like from one)!

Conclusion: "My Sims Agents" is a great game; though it has a few minor flaws, none of them are enough to ruin how fun, addictive, and epic this game is. If you're looking to see the cute Sims in a whole new way, this game is for you!

• from

To be honest, I haven't played the game. What I do know is that the kid who got it thoroughly enjoyed it. It was purchased as part of a wish list for the charity, Child's Play. It's a charity where you purchase a game on a child's wish list who happens to be very ill at one of the many excellent children's hospitals across the country. The item is one actually wished for by a specific child and then put on the wish list from which you choose what to purchase. It's a very worthwhile charity run by gamers for very sick children. Child's Play is run by the folks at Penny Arcade and they run it every year leading up to Christmas, so that the very ill kids can have a slightly less horrible holiday. I can't actually think of a better charity than to help terminally and seriously ill children experience a little bit of the childhood fun that they are missing as a result of their illness.

• from