Since its original conception, The Sims has made quite the legacy for itself in PC gaming history. If one were to line up all of the expansions, it would go on relentlessly for miles - and that’s not even taking into consideration the console editions of the Sims brand. On the PC, we’ve seen Hot Dates, Vacations, and even Magic Makin’. The fun doesn’t end there - following the trend, we find ourselves blessed with a “street” style Sims title called The Urbz: Sims in the City.

Urbz takes players to the gritty streets of the "city," or Miniopolis, with dreams of hip-hoppin’ clubs, stylish new street design, graffiti, litter, and other awesome stuff you’d find in the city. Make no mistake, Urbz does not fail in delivering a greater urban feel than past entries to the series. You’ll meet all sorts of hip dudes with afros and other crazy urban styles that you just won’t find in The Sims.

If you haven’t played some of the more recent games in the Sims line, the first thing that’ll stand out to you about Urbz is the more open-ended style of game play. It’s interesting how far The Sims has come. Initially we were restricted to a house and a lawn with not much control over else, then we expanded to the neighborhood, and now we’re roaming the streets.

Unfortunately, a lot of that time you’re roaming those streets is going to be filled with massive tedium. The Urbz features many "quests" or "missions" that you must do in order to advance the storyline, and various sidequests as well. Unfortunately...these missions often involve very simplistic tasks, and they are often multi-tiered as well. For example, one mission involves unlocking the bike mini-game. To do this, you must first raise a certain amount of money, then bring one character lunch at a specific time three days in a row. Other missions that you receive from characters are often fetch-based, leaving you with a mundane bundle of missions to entertain yourself with.

In addition to the tedious missions, there’s the matter of taking care of your Sim. As usual, it’s the player’s job to take care of his or her Sim’s feelings and needs, such as bladder, hygiene, nourishment, sleep, and so forth. This isn’t a big deal - it’s fun in a unique sort of way to keep track of and manage these needs, as it always has been. But unlike the original Sims, you’re not confined to your house where these things are easily taken care of - you’re out and about, roaming those wild, litter-filled streets.

Granted, there are toilets and or occasional couches within local shops and houses for the player to use (well, they may not be there with your use in mind, but you can certainly make use of them!). It is merely agitating, as you’ll find yourself full across the spectrum and yet only be able to last long enough to build a quick friendship or association and a hasty "job" mission before having to buckle down and run back home to fulfill your needs.

Another issue that "roaming the streets" brings to the table is the diverted focus from building and enhancing your home and character on a personal level to the aforementioned missions. The more "open" feel of Urbz creates less of a personal feel when you’re customizing your abode with fancy electronics, utilities, and so forth. As a matter of fact, your home is very unimportant in Urbz as a whole, which is somewhat disappointing.

To its credit, Urbz is a fairly large game. You’ll spend a good amount of time just getting up and running, much less expanding beyond your initial barriers. And once things get rolling, the world of the Urbz is a surprisingly large area to explore with at least a few interesting things to do.

Among those things to do is earn Simoleans, or currency in the Urbz. Currency is used for all sorts of exciting things, such as missions, new items for your household, food, and more, so it’s pretty fair to consider this a necessity. Unfortunately, the way your Sim goes about making the money isn’t so exciting.

As you play through the title, you’ll unlock mini-games, each of which your Sim is allowed to play once a day. These games range from shooting hoops, cleaning up a rooftop, racing bikes (Excite Bike style!), to playing doctor.

When you first initiate these games, you’ll be making mere pennies - but in typical Sims fashion, upon raising your character’s statistics, you’ll be available for a raise (referred to as "levels" in Urbz) allowing you to make more money per play. Unfortunately, these mini-games are all boring and monotone. Very drab, to say the least. To the Urbz‘s credit, the mini-games are all very easy as to not force you to do something overly difficult and tedious to acquire Simoleans.

In addition to doing missions, raising funds, decorating houses, and picking up litter, you can also make friends with stereotypical social groups! By having conversations with members of certain groups (such as nerds, richies, or streeties), your credibility with them rises as well.

Buuuut...conversation isn’t as deep and rewarding as it could be. It essentially boils down to a game of memorization, not even unique to each character. Conversation topics are few and rotated frequently, leaving you mind numbingly bored when attempting to build reputation and friendships.

And what of the fact that this title is on the Nintendo DS? In what ways does The Urbz make use of the hardware's unique features? Well, let me go ahead and say just about none. Yeah, you can spin the record around a little bit on the title screen. Sure, you can manage menus with the touch screen. But are there any uses that are actually intriguing or useful? Any wi-fi support? No. To put it bluntly, this port was made in a hurry to capitalize on the emerging DS market and failed to incorporate any useful features exclusive to the DS, which is a shame.

When all is said and done, Urbz is by no stretch a bad game. However, while there are plenty of things to do, it doesn’t take long for the title itself to become a whirlpool of tedium, sucking you further and further within its grasp. It's a good port of a solid game, but it doesn't really do much to distinguish itself in a bland DS market.