GameCyte

EA's latest addition to the highly successful "Sims" franchise is "SimAnimals," a wildlife simulator recently released for the Nintendo Wii and DS promising you the ability to "touch, move, and play with a forest full of wild animals."

At first blush, "SimAnimals" appears to be a "Sims" interpretation of Rare Ltd.'s animal husbandry/gardening simulator "Viva Pinata" -- albeit a low-res, drab, reality-based version. An apt comparison, as cultivating an environment in order to attract and breed animals lies at the heart of both. However, "SimAnimals" differs in its greater emphasis on the environment as a whole.

In "Viva Pinata," each garden is separate and distinct, offering full control over what animals and plants come, stay or go; and even how they interact. Not so in "SimAnimals," for which a more accurate title would be "SimEcosystem." The game begins with access to one relatively closed habitat, but, as you progress through the game, unlocking additional habitats, you see each habitat's place in the greater ecosystem. New environments bring new animals, and predators happily wander into earlier habitats to prey upon the innocent herbivores you've bred in previous isolation. Pollution in one habitat poisons vegetation in areas further downstream, making them inhospitable to even the smallest links on the food chain and therefore unappealing to anything larger.

Playing "SimAnimals" is thus centered around achieving balance across the entire ecosystem. Success is measured in happiness. When the needs of plants and animals are met, they release happiness into the environment. The environment's ambient happiness is registered in an onscreen "Happy Bar." Fill the Happy Bar with enough good vibes and you'll unlock new habitats, creatures and abilities. Allow your plants and animals to experience distress, however, and you'll find your happiness meter and environment emptying. Unfortunately, managing a habitat's mood results in a sort of constant, "big picture" plate-spinning effect that often feels more like work than play.

If "SimAnimals'" strength is the complexity and interconnectivity of its world, then its weakness is the mechanics of interacting with this world. The player (represented by a disembodied hand) moves, manipulates items and changes camera angles using the Wii Remote. Unfortunately, the game appears to have immense difficulty in registering where you're pointing or how you're moving. Since so much of your time is spent working with vegetation -- shaking berries, seeds or nuts from plants by waggling your Wii Remote -- the controls get very frustrating very quickly.

If you're a "Sims" fan, you'll likely enjoy "SimAnimals." It's a complex game that, like the rest of the "Sims," offers open-ended gameplay, interesting challenges and endless potential for micromanagement and busywork. If you're a "Viva Pinata" fan, you may find "SimAnimals'" animal interactions too shallow. There's no naming your animals, dressing them up or teaching them circus tricks. Though you can alter your animals' behavior through conditioning, they always remain wild animals and are never pets. Perhaps, though, this is one of the lessons behind "SimAnimals."

If only the game had fewer lessons and more fun.