The Sims Bustin' Out PlayStation 2

Your very own interactive soap opera!

By Bohemian Girl PDX  Mar 30, 2006 | 1 out of 1 found this The Sims Bustin' Out review helpful

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As most people familiar with the Sims phenomenon are aware, Sims Bustin' Out allows you to create characters who interact with other "Sims" in various everyday--and not so everyday--situations. In Bustin' Out, your character starts ...out living with Mom, who sports a pink bathrobe and bunny slippers and nags you about getting a job while you figure out the basics of operating the game controls. Your Sim can select from several careers: movie star, fashion victim, jock, mad scientist, counter culture, gangster, and paramilitary. If you climb the ladder of success all the way to the top, you get to move into Malcolm's Mansion. While the Mansion has some cool features, I find it kind of tacky overall. And since you don’t live with anyone unless you get married or have a baby, “lonely at the top” proves true. Since my Sim has so far managed to remain single and childless, I can’t speak to what Sim family life is like. What I can say is that Bustin' Out is incredibly addictive! The challenge of getting the next promotion, or accomplishing some other goal, really hooks you in. Bustin' Out has some fascinating and odd places where your character can live including a haunted house, an art gallery, a disco, a gym, a military outpost, and a beach-side love shack. Each location features various goals to accomplish, which will unlock new items and new outfits. Making friends with other Sims unlocks interesting social options ranging from the elegant (air kissing or kissing the hand) to the crude (burping in face and give noogie). One of the more amusing interactions is watching Mom laugh when you ask her to pull your finger. Despite the goofy robe, she definitely wasn't based on MY mom! The Good: * Aside from the androgynous scientists, each Sim character is quite unique. The Sims who you encounter as roommates and party guests each have their own reactions to the different social options you use. Hand kissing may score happy points with Mortimer, the elegant Vincent Price-like resident of Goth Manor, but seems a real turnoff to Dudley, the perpetually sloppy owner of a white-trash trailer. * The stuff you unlock as you progress gets pretty cool: robots, aromatherapy mood enhancers, musical instruments, mooseheads, bookcases disguising a door, etc. * Keeping your mood sufficiently elevated by taking care of basic needs (rest, fun, comfort, food, hygiene, potty breaks, a clean house), maintaining relationships with friends (necessary for promotions) and getting to work on time grows challenging. * You aren't locked into one career, and don't lose ground if you switch careers in the middle of the game. Strategic career switching is one way to avoid going to work without getting fired so that you can concentrate on developing friendships necessary for promotions. * You can start right in, without spending much time reading the manual. Other Sims will tell you how to operate the controls as you go along. At initial levels, you will get broad hints, such as roommate Dudley commenting on how badly you stink, if you need a shower. * You can move back to earlier homes, which helps save money if you want to mooch off Mom, or if living with someone rebuilds a friendship faster. * The Sims wardrobe contains pretty hip clothes, and each time you restart the game from after saving and closing, you can have your Sim change clothes. Your Sim will automatically change clothes for other activities: working out, swimming, heading to bed, heading to work, and bathing. (Intimate areas are blurred out for this last activity.) The Intriguing and Amusing: * Oh, that thing called love! Not easy in life. Not easy in the Sims’ world either. Sometimes, after sufficiently interacting with another Sim, he or she will fall in love with your Sim. But if your Sim then starts paying too much attention to someone else, tempers flare, hearts break, and fights break out. * Oops, I ki Read more Less