What Parents Should Know
Parents should know this portable installment features much of the same subject matter as its PC and console cousins. Players have to work to balance their short term needs with their long-term goals in order to advance the story. Sims can slap and intimidate their neighbors. Hundreds of consumer items help players design and furnish their homes. Sims make barely obscured visits to the bathroom, which feature pixilated naked bathing bodies and realistic toilet sounds. Flirting with members of either sex results in some suggestive kissing and even a passionate cloud of love dust.

Families who play this game may want to discuss how a successful franchise is leveraged from one system to another. Is the success of the Sims 2 on the PC being used to recruit fans into buying a PSP? Families will also want to analyze the social tools at their disposal and discuss the situations when "chatting," "flirting," and "intimidate" come into play. Do people use these tactics in real life to get what they want from others?

Common Sense Media Review
The long-running Sims franchise makes its move to handheld with THE SIMS 2 FOR PSP. And on the surface it seems like a brilliant idea: Portable systems are perfect for quick gaming sessions, and The Sims -- while capable of sucking up hours of time -- has always been a game of small accomplishments.

Sitting on the bus? Why not spend 15 minutes showering and feeding your Sim, and then treat him to a phone call with a friend. Or redecorate your house in the half hour before soccer practice. Improve your cooking skills while waiting to see the doctor. You get the idea.

Fans will appreciate some of the fun changes here. Too bad they'll spend half of that time waiting for the game to load.

The Sims 2 for PSP strands you in Strangetown, a desert city populated with ghosts, aliens, psychics, and mad scientists. When your car (and the auto shop it was in) suddenly disappears, you're forced to wander Strangetown's five neighborhoods in search of secrets and clues about what's really going on in this curious city -- and then get back on the road.

Players customize their avatar, designing his or her face, hair, clothing, and aspirations before setting them loose to interact with Strangetown's bizarre residents.

The core of the game centers on this interaction. This version of The Sims 2 changes the social game: You build your relationship with other Sims -- and increase your influence over them -- by quickly matching an icon with one that represents your counterpart's conversation, maybe even getting them to share a secret.

Secrets help you achieve game goals but can also be sold for cash to help furnish your new Strangetown residence. But some secrets are more closely guarded, requiring you to sweet-talk or even intimidate other Sims. This results in kissing and implied lovemaking or physical violence, respectively.

What the portable Sims trades in freedom (there are no jobs or families, no ability to write your own back story or let your Sim wander on its own) it makes up for in story. Strangetown is built on an amalgam of paranormal myths and feels like a lighthearted X-Files. Settings and graphics are nice enough, and the sound does an excellent job of setting the mood -- something along the lines of a campy 1950s B-movie.

If this sounds like a lot to pack into a handheld game, it is. The limitations of the portable system (or EA's development approach) require The Sims 2 to load game features on an ongoing basis. This means players spend as much time waiting around for something to happen as they do actually playing. On top of that, success in the social game -- and in various mini games spread throughout Strangetown -- comes down to well-timed button pushing. When the game hangs for several seconds as data loads, timing gets thrown off, mini games are lost, and frustration ensues.

Which is a shame, because The Sims 2 for PSP has a lot to offer a still-young game system looking for a signature game.

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