The Urbz at 18: EA’s most bizarre spin-off experiment may be one of its best

The Urbz is a game that has eluded most of the people I’ve mentioned it to. An odd spin-off of The Sims series, the game came to GBA, GameCube, PS2, Xbox, and Nintendo DS in 2004. The simulation title turns 18 years old today, and I’m still baffled at how more people haven’t played it at some point. or another.

What also makes The Urbz strange, as is the case with some other titles in The Sims series, is that both the console and handheld games are different. Now, regardless of which version you’ve played, both versions of the game are pretty wacky. These are games that I remember fondly, and I don’t know about you, but I miss the days when Maxis produced different spin-offs in the series. The portable version of The Sims 2 had one of the most compelling stories of any Sims title, let’s not forget The Sims Castaway, MySims, and even The Sims Bustin’ Out.

I mean, the soundtrack for the console version of The Urbz is literally The Black Eyed Peas music translated into simlish. The group itself also appeared as a guest in the game. Did I just luckily play this as a bored kid, with an avid interest in The Sims? I could have sworn The Black Eyed Peas were all the rage when I was a kid…or maybe I had bad taste.

Anyway, what happens in the console version of The Urbz is that The Black Eyed Peas come and kindly help you into a club. You’re new to Simcity, you just fled the nest and the club decided they didn’t like your dance moves. But that doesn’t matter, because The Black Eyed Peas are here. After that, you basically make friends with the most popular person in town, Darius, and beat up some bad guys. The rest is history.

Ultimately, when you’re not tending to your Sim’s needs, you spend most of your time socializing in The Urbz; you travel through each area of ​​Simcity to meet each of their respective cliques, tickling them into submission (literally, sometimes) and forcing your friendship with them. Let’s put it this way, Sims in The Urbz don’t seem to care much about personal space, and you end up being the life of the party.

Once you befriend each social group and banish three bad guys who were wreaking havoc in the city, it’s no wonder everyone loves you and you’re the new star of SimCity. Darius then hands over the penthouse key to him, and that’s it, you’ve reached your peak.

As for the portable version of the game, it would act as a sequel to the GBA release of The Sims Bustin’ Out. Unfortunately, this one didn’t feature The Black Eyed Peas, but you can end up with a great statue of yourself being built; I’d say that’s equally cool.

The handheld version of The Urbz is a more linear experience, following a much more complicated story that involves thwarting capitalism and time travel. It’s great, the pixel art style still holds up to this day, and I’d still recommend it if you have an NDS or GBA somewhere.

The similarities between the handheld and console versions of the game lie in socializing and popularity, which is an overarching theme in many of The Sims titles (except for The Sims Castaway, where socializing is, unsurprisingly, hard to get). While the portable version’s story is certainly more linear and detailed, and has you meet even more unforgettable villains like Urangoo McBain, Kiki Blunt, and Harry Snivel, it’s still about fitting in, gaining Sims’ trust, and befriending. near. everyone in this town. You can also swallow swords, dance on a dance mat, and boil enemies’ urine with stink bombs. I wasn’t kidding when I said this game was completely weird.

As a result, you fall for a plan to end capitalism, using time travel, which most games would probably avoid. But this is The Urbz, and nothing is too much trouble for a lonely Sim away from home. Ultimately, you become the hero of the city, saving Simcity’s King Tower from Daddy Bigbucks and pocketing a place of respect in the hearts of every Sim you’ve met so far. This is where the large statue of your Sim comes in.

It really shouldn’t surprise you that The Sims series as a whole is a satire on consumer culture. But this is never more obvious than in The Urbz. Given that consumer culture is backed by money and materialism, it’s no surprise that Daddy Bigbucks looks to reclaim power over the city in a real estate takeover. Or when villains like Urangoo McBain steal funds and worker capital. The Urbz actually gives the player a chance to stand up against consumer culture, and even paves the way for us too to look at countercultures throughout society and how they work.

Who would have thought that The Urbz would end up being a great sociology lesson? For a spinoff in The Sims series, there’s a lot to take from The Urbz and all the socializing you’re going through to bring about meaningful social change.

You could take the game with a grain of salt and see it as a crazier urban version of The Sims 1 and 2. Or you could look at the game through a more sociological lens and see that The Urbz can actually teach us a half-decent lesson about the importance of the counterculture, and how society at large needs them to hold unchallenged social paradigms to account. Urbz, perhaps, is an essential look at the world of The Sims: the dirt under the fingernails of a world we can’t see in the carefully selected suburbs and communal utopias of the sequels.

Either way, The Urbz has to be the best version of Maxis to make a satire of society. But I’m not sure what The Black Eyed Peas necessarily had to do with any of that.