The Urbz, EA's latest iteration of the popular Sims franchise, is coming toall consoles around November-time with the aim of 'urbanising' your Simsand focusing more on their social lives as well as building up your 'rep'amongst your fellow Urbz in the city of Minneapolis. Your days within the cityare filled with various tasks which result in your 'Urb' earning newitems and beads (which can be exchanged for power-ups called 'xizzles').Your Urb (you only control one) also worries less about aspects more importantin previous games such as hygiene (so don't stand too near him). You canalso gain features such as insomnia allowing you more time to focus on thelife of your Urb. The graphics look similar to the GBA version sadly with little use of the DS's advanced graphical capabilities.

 

So, what will make the DS version of The Urbz special, compared to its GBAcousin? Well for starters, the DS will not only have unique objects notseen in the GBA version, such as sensory deprivation tanks (as part of a grand total of 140 objects no less), but the DS version will play hostto five exclusive minigames which will require use of the touch screen and which allow you to compete with your friends thanks to the machines'wireless capabilities. As for the main game, future DS gamers can lookforward to seeing seven new characters, eight new species of pets, a PDAstyle interface involving the touch screen, and an extra mission in an all-new, DS exclusive area called Splicer Island. To 'splice' something is tojoin two or more things together – will we be seeing some innovative use ofthe two screens, perhaps? Or maybe joining something with the stylus? Thisis all just speculation – but either way, with 'The Urbz' slated as alaunch title for the DS, import gamers will soon see if EA can deliver thegoods.