The Sims is one of the most successful PC games of all time, so it's about time that EA's Maxis studio gave GameCube owners a chance to play it.

For those of you that are completely unaware of 'The Sims' (where have you been for the last few years?) it's a life simulator. Whilst the Sim City games had you managing a city, here you manage people. Every part of the Sim's daily lives will be managed by you, everything from getting a job to arranging the furniture in your house. You even have to keep an eye on bladder levels to ensure that your Sims don't wet themselves!

The GameCube version of The Sim's features a level-based mode, called 'Get A Life'. You take a single Sim through his life, starting off living with your parents, and aiming to get married, and raise a family. Throughout this time you must monitor the general well being of your Sim. Keep an eye on health levels, hunger and comfort, and take actions to make your Sim happier.

As each Sim can be very different, depending upon how you treat them, as well some other measures, such as their interests and star signs, each time you start a new game it can go in a different way. This should add lasting appeal to the title, and keep you interested for many months to come.

Perhaps the most fascinating features of the game are not available on the PC version, one of which is the inclusion of new characters; one in particular is a monkey butler. Yes, you know that your life is complete when you have a monkey butler.

Also new to the console version of the game is a two-player mode, and they sound like they're great fun. You and a friend can use your Sims to compete in a number of different areas. See who can dance with the most people in a given time, how many people you can speak to, and how much food you can eat, gained by begging and stealing! This will certainly add more appeal to the game for those that don't want to sit and watch someone else play, waiting for their turn.

The Sims could be very well received on the GameCube, given that good simulation games are a little thin on the ground. It's about time we had an addictive game like this. Let's just hope that Maxis can get the conversion right, so that it works on a GameCube pad.