What We Liked

The overall theme and message. The whole theme of SimAnimals Africa is refreshing and appealing in a video game market that is saturated with titles focused on destruction and violence. The calm peaceful setting is such a relief, especially if you have little ones. And the goal is all about keeping the natural environment in balance to restore power to the Tree of Life. Everything is based around creating enough good energy to restore the proper balance to the land. It teaches respect for animals and the natural world, and we love positive messages like that.

Ease of play for younger kids. While SimAnimals Africa offers a wide range of tasks for your child to complete in order to restore balance to each land, the game play is easy enough for young children to master. We also liked the use of simple shakes of the Wii remote to play the mini-games and to pet the animals. In a post on the gaming blog Kotaku, Sam Player (producer of SimAnimals Africa) said “the team looked into supporting the new Wii MotionPlus peripheral but realized that their target audience wasn’t right for the degree of control MotionPlus enables. Little kids don’t do finesse.” We’re really glad they made that decision because our kids found the combination of the Wii remote and nunchuk controller to be just right in terms of their motor skills.

Depth of tasks. The depth and complexity of the tasks you need to accomplish to restore balance to each land was perfect for the kids we tested with. We were really glad that the tasks were not oversimplified and required our kids to think a bit about the connectivity between certain lands and animals. You don’t just arrive at one land, solve the puzzle and move on.  You need to pet animals to gain their trust and friendship, or play games with them to increase their strength.  In return, each different animal has their own special talent that helps you solve different problems.  The puzzle for each land is connected to other lands and animals in those other lands. It really hammered home the point of the interconnectedness of everything in nature.

Animal markings. SimAnimals Africa uses a really unique system to help you and your kids recognize which animals have high charm and strength ratings. Instead of relying solely on status screen icons to know which animals are stronger or have more charm, SimAnimals Africa uses clever color coding right on the animated animals. You can see at a glance which animals are which by their coloring. This made it much easier for our kids to understand which animals they still had to work on versus those that they could use to complete various tasks.

What We Didn’t Like

There wasn’t much that we didn’t like. Overall, SimAnimals Africa is great for kids. However, while really cute, the graphics were a little over simplified. We liked the bright, cheery, and colorful cartoon feel of the settings, but just wish the animals looked a little more realistic.

We also wish there would have been more mini-games to keep the kids interest level higher. There are three mini-games (animal petting, ring-toss and the drum game) that you use to increase your animals’ charm and strength. It would have been more interesting if each type of animal had their own unique mini-game to increase their charm and strength.

Why It’s Good for Your Kiddos

SimAnimals Africa is rated E for Everyone and we agree with the rating. The story line is appropriate for kids of all ages. There is no graphic violence, profanity or adult themes anywhere in the game.  It’s a family-friendly adventure from start to finish.  We have 3- and 6-year old boys that we tried this game with and there is nothing we needed to skip over or cover their eyes for.

The Circle of Life. What we really liked is that SimAnimals Africa does not blissfully ignore the laws of nature. Animals need to and do mate in order to solve some of the problems. But, we never see the mating occur. To populate an area with more animals, you just click on mate. No graphic mating scenes or even an indication of real mating. The closest you get to seeing any mating activity is a male and female zebra rubbing necks. Then magically, you’ve mated and baby animals appear a little while later. Likewise, gazelles and zebras can be eaten by lions and crocodiles. However, when a predator makes a kill, it is obscured by a cloud of savannah dust. There is no blood, no gore, no guts. Just a puff of dust and the prey “disappears”. This pretty much leaves things open in terms of how you and your children approach the “Circle of Life” conversation. Our kids were slightly interested in how the babies got there, but very interested in the who-eats-who of the African savannah. It led to a good discussion about predators and prey without the gory detail.

Reading skills. We loved that there is plenty of reading in SimAnimals Africa. To start with, there is the Storybook. As you progress through each land, you are exposed to chapters in the story of the Tree of Life. There is no voice over, so your kids need to read along to get it. At any point, you can return to the story book and read the chapters you collected. By the end of the game, you have a complete story book to read whenever you want to.

In addition to the story book, there is also an Encyclopedia. The Encyclopedia includes detailed information about all of the things you have discovered on your quest. It includes textual information about the animals in SimAnimals Africa and what kind of food they like to eat and where they like to live. It also provides details about the plants, rare fruits, and insects that you have discovered. In addition, you need the Encyclopedia to understand the powers you have gathered and the medals you have won. And, all of it is text based, which means lots of good reading for your kids. The reading level is basic and our first grader had no problem following along.

Animal facts. Aside from the Encyclopedia, there are a lot of facts about African animals and ecosystems. While games or lands are loading, you are presented with interesting tidbits about the critters. By the time you finish this game, we bet you’ll know how long a giraffe’s tongue is!

Cultural exposure. We really like the fact that SimAnimals Africa exposes children to aspects of traditional African cultures. The Storybook itself presents African style art along with a story about the natural world that is rooted in African lore. Each land also has an animal totem that guides you through the tasks needed to restore balance to the land. Right from the start, my six year old asked what the totems were and what they were for. It gave us the chance to talk about different cultures and belief systems. I’m not sure how many video games do that, but this one stood out as pretty unique from the cultural point of view.

Good message. We loved that there was a good environmental message to the game that doesn’t club you or your kids over the head! We work really hard with our kids to teach them about environmental issues, but we always try to do it in a balanced and non-preachy way. That’s why we were so glad this game was able to do the same thing. Kids are pretty smart and through the very subtle hints scattered throughout the game they quickly understand the interconnectedness of everything.

Golden Egg Rating

Overall, we give EA’s SimAnimals Africa 4.5 out of 5 Golden Eggs for such a positive theme and message, family-friendly game play, and it’s educational value. We loved the high level of interactivity and feel that it is extremely well suited for children 6 and up.   And, just like MySims Agents, it encourages reading, reading comprehension, and problem solving. The only flaws we noted were graphics that could have been a little more detailed and the lack of more mini-games. That said, SimAnimals Africa is another solid family game from EA.

Win a Copy of SimAnimals Africa

To celebrate the release of SimAnimals Africa, we are giving away a copy of SimAnimals Africa for the Nintendo Wii to FIVE of our lucky readers this week courtesy of Electronic Arts.  Head over here to enter for a chance to win.

As an added bonus, we are also giving away one copy of SimAnimals Africa for the Nintendo DS.  Click here for details on how to enter for a chance to win.

SimAnimals Africa Slideshow and Screenshots

Check out the lightbox slideshow below for images of the new game SimAnimals Africa. Simply click on a thumbnail to start the slideshow. Details and information for each screenshot are located at the bottom of the image in the slideshow. Images courtesy of Electronic Arts.