Android App of the Day: The Sims FreePlay

Posted by Amy Eichelberg

Friday, April 27th, 2012

Are you a fan of The Sims franchise and looking for a mobile version of the game? I recently discovered The Sims FreePlay for Android, which is a game that is both sleek and addictive and didn’t cost me a penny to download. Thanks to EA Sports, the Android community can now add The Sims FreePlay application to their personal mobile gaming collection. As a long time fan of The Sims, I was delighted to see a free version arrive for Android and couldn’t wait to give it a try. For a free app there’s no denying that it has its limitations (if you are trying to compare it to the full version of The Sims game), but for my taste it definitely satisfied my Sims cravings on-the-go.

Pros:

Free
Fun and addictive play
Create and customize 16 Sims
Design homes or get fully furnished houses
Care for garden and family pets
Complete goals for lifestyle points, spend points on cool items
Sims are on the same time as the user (when it’s day or night for you it’s day or night for the Sims)
Expand your city with more Sims
Build relationships
Great graphics

Cons:

Not connected to Facebook Sims game
For faster play Wi-Fi is necessary
Can’t play in offline mode
4G has to be disabled (Developers are looking into this issue)
Less advanced than regular Sims game
Better suited for tablet play vs. a smaller smartphone screen

How it works:

In similar fashion to the desktop version of the Sims game the mobile app will allow you to pick a SIM, give it a name, create a personality, pick out their clothes, and build relationships with the other Sims you create. In the Sims FreePlay app you will have the opportunity to reach goals to earn XP, Life Points and sometimes cash. You can then use these incentives to buy hip items for your Sims. The goals are tedious and time-consuming to obtain, so get ready to invest some serious time into your Sims. In true Sim fashion, you have the power to use your Sims lives to do good or do bad, the choice is up to you. A cool feature for this app is that the Sims live on the same time that you do. If it is night or day where you are then it is the same time for your Sims. Overall, I found the game to run really smooth on my Galaxy Tab, and found that playing in Wi-Fi gave me the fastest gaming experience.

Conclusion: If you are already a fan of The Sims and are looking for a free version of the game to play on your mobile device, then this is the way to go. The graphics in the game are impressive, but I would suggest playing this game on a tablet versus the smaller screen of a smartphone.The game is a large initial download with extra content required to run the game so beware that this game could max out your available memory. For a free mobile app I found The Sims FreePlay to be highly addictive fun and would recommend this game to all Sims fans out there.