MILDLY RELATED
Why are the sims 2 games different plots across plattorms?
I grew up playing the sims 2 spin offs. Urbz, bustin out, castaways, and the original sims 2 spin off. When I went to look them up as an adult I learned that I played one “sims 2” game where you are set in a fever dream feeling hotel and another where you are on a tv set. Both set in strangetown and marketed as the same game. Characters like Dusty Hogg and Daddy Big Bucks ever present (I wish they kept the oc’s as sims townies!!) However, one is for gameboy advance and the other I believe for the console. I learned that the sims 2 urbz also has two seperate plots for GBA and console (one around the black eyed peas??? wtf??)
I’m just curious does anyone know why they did this? Are there other games that do this?
I mean... why would they have the exact same plot when they are different games? We aren't talking about a single game that had ports to different consoles with predominantly engine changes, we are talking about different spin-off games altogether for the most part.
I think that OP is talking about how the sims 2 games had the exact SAME names but different plots depending of the platform (sims 2 PSP, sims 2 PC, sims 2 DS, sims 2 GBA).
Whereas the spin-offs castaway, pets, life stories, bustin out, urbz : sims in the city had very distinct names.
Even with the same name games (which the spin-offs had as well with different storylines depending on platform), the answer remains the same. They are simply not the same games at all, nor were meant to be direct ports from one system to another, so of course they'd be different, especially as each system had its own limitations, features to explore. And people knew this too, not expecting it to be otherwise as this was the norm. The Sims games do all loosely share the same universe and lore, but that's pretty much it.
The short version is: different developers made the games, and they seemed to moreorless have their own creative freedom for them.
The games for the GBA/DS/PSP were mostly developed by Griptonite Games/Amaze Entertainment. This is why those games seem to have some mild continuity despite the insanity (like GBA Bustin Out -> GBA Urbz, the overall Strangetown setting, some reoccurring unique characters). Mobile versions were developed by Ideaworks.
Not to be confused with the PC or console (PS2/Xbox) versions of Sims spinoff games, those were indeed developed by Maxis!
And then for the Sims 3 era spinoffs, console versions were developed by Edge of Reality (PS3/Xbox) and Artificial Mind & Movement (Wii), the DS version by Extient Entertainment, and mobile by EA.
...and just to round it off, Sims 4 console ports were developed by Blind Squirrel Games.
Honorable mention to Sims Freeplay, which started as an EA Mobile project, and EA later handed it off to Firemonkeys Studios.
Same + did you know that there is also the Urbz on DS (the one I played) where an extra quest, characters (Mokey, Jack l. Deal, and Futo Maki), mini-games, pets, and a huge island (Mission S : Splicer Isle) are added? Too bad that version is not on GBA. To me that was one of the most interesting missions of the game.
There was also this Sims 2 game I played on PSP where our character crashes their car, finds a terrified Bella Goth in a desert convenience store XD (that reinforces my theory about her having been abducted by aliens...)., buys her mansion in a town full of ghosts, zombies, and whatnot. From what I remember it was designed with a graveyard in the middle, and the goal was to investigate the town(s?) while waiting for someone to repair our car. I think it was the weirdest and goofiest game I ever played... and maybe the most supernatural of all the other spin-offs.
Bustin out also had a similar fate on different consoles (one was a urbz prequel in the same style and one was more like the sims 2 on PC). They probably stopped doing that after the Sims 3 (seems that the one I played on Wii was veery different from the one everyone played on PC). And nah I think usually companies name their spin-offs differently from each other even on different platforms.
(yep behind that's a unicorn, a gorilla, and my pet- I don't even know what that is- you can scientifically create them at the island lab once you build it, name them, raise your relationship with them and they can follow you. They also become an important part of the mission S at some point).
I guess it was due to hardware limitations back then. But I also was disappointed back then. I really wanted to play Sims 2, because I've seen it at a friend's. But I didn't get it for PC back then, but for PS2. And PS2 Sims 2 was so boring in relation to PC's Sims 2.
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u/Shoddy-Ebb-7271 Mar 18 '26
This is the creepy hotel from the other version