Another year another Sims “update” from EA except hasn't it been only mere months, if that, since the last Sims game (My Sims) appeared on the Wii? Not to mention the ported Pets variant of the ever popular franchise. It would seem that EA's mass-production line has gone into overdrive recently with this being the third Sims game due for release on Nintendo's superbly successful system.

The Sims 2 Castaway follows a troublesome troop of Sims on safari to a distant island except they find themselves sort of stuck there, seemingly stranded, not going anywhere anytime soon, yeah you get the picture. The developer has effectively decided to ride on the recent success of the reasonably popular television show Lost, by part parodying it and shoehorning in all those familiar elements while also adding a few new “odds and sods”. It wouldn't be an update if they didn't add anything deceptively new.

Personal cynicism towards one of EA's more regularly milked cash-cows aside, this latest installment is certainly set to shake things up a bit and not just because you get to use the Wii remote in “a variety of fun and exciting ways!” (press-release type speak not mine). You get to do things such as interacting with the Islands varied species of native animals (read Monkeys etc) and exploring the handful of areas that are available to you on the games selectable Islands.

In total there are three individual islands which contain a total of twenty-six apparently expansive areas to explore. This may keep the intrepid explorer occupied for a few minutes / hours / days (delete as applicable depending on your individual playing habits).

As usual you will need to keep your Sims happy by paying attention to their every want, need, whim, desire etc. In a bid to keep things casual though you will only need to worry about how much they eat and sleep with exploration based ideas popping into their heads later on in the game. Assuredly the experience does get deeper depending on how far you choose to dig into the game, equally though you could just scratch the surface if you wish. So it should satisfy a broader audience than the series has previously.

Essentially this again looks to be like more of the same just taken in a different direction but it may well be what the series still needs to prevent the franchise from becoming even more tired than it already is. Will it achieve this? Who knows and by this point many may be thinking “Who cares?” nevertheless stick with N-europe for our verdict on whether or not this is a title worth reinvesting in yet again.