The Sims Pet Stories

The Sims Pet Stories

American cover art
Developer(s) EA Games[1][2] / Aspyr[3]
Publisher(s) EA Games (PC)
Aspyr (Mac)
Series The Sims
Engine Custom
Platform(s) Windows, Mac OS X[4]
Release date(s)
Genre(s) Life simulation game
God game
Mode(s) Single player

The Sims Pet Stories is the second game released in The Sims Stories series. Following The Sims Life Stories, The Sims Pets Stories was released on June 19, 2007.

On December 17, 2015, Aspyr released another port of The Sims Pet Stories for OS X to the Mac App Store for OS X Mavericks or later.[6]

Features

The Sims Pet Stories challenges Sims to care for and train pets, similar to The Sims 2: Pets. Much like its predecessor, this game is optimized for laptops and features both story and free play modes. Players can also raise and train pets in the game like The Sims 2.

In this game, two new stories are introduced, Best in Show and Midnight Masquerade. The first story features Alice, a woman who faces financial problems and is about to lose her home. So she enters her pet Dalmatian into a local dog show to try to earn enough money to save her house. The second story is about a successful executive chef named Stephen, whose world is turned upside down when an obnoxious cat comes to live with him.

There is a neutral town titled Arbor Falls, where you can play in Free Mode, and you do not have to follow a story line. In Free Mode, you can play as you can in regular sims. You can raise a family, buy pets, go out, and date.

As with the other titles in the Sims Stories series, Pet Stories is designed around the bare bones of the base Sims 2 game engine, making it more optimized for Laptops and low end computers. By default, the title plays in Windowed mode, but can be changed to play in regular full screen. It also features a battery bar to show how much battery you have left, if playing on a laptop.

Characters in Best in Show

Best in Show is set in the neighborhood of Garden Heights. The entire town are avid fans of dogs and almost every resident owns one. Garden Heights features many pet based locations predominantly owned by local land baron, Diana DeBore.

The main character in Best in Show who lives in Garden Heights. She owns a Dalmatian named Sam and is facing eviction in two weeks if she fails to pay her debt of §120,000 to her landowner Diana DeBore. Therefore, she enters Sam in the local dog show in order to win the cash prize and pay off her debt.

Alice's pet Dalmatian and loyal lover. Despite his behavioral problems, he has the heart of a champion in him. Towards the end of the story, Sam wins the Garden Heights Dog Show and he and Lucy Jones have puppies together.

A greedy person and philanthropist who is determined to evict Alice and tear down her house. She also happens to be the owner of the reigning champion of the dog show, Precious. During the story, she kidnaps Alice's pet Dalmatian, possibly a reference to the Walt Disney Company film 101 Dalmatians. Throughout the story, she takes pleasure in taunting Alice about the foreclosure. However, at the championship, Precious falls from an obstacle and is disqualified. Instead, Alice and Sam win the competition, and Diana is arrested for several convictions.

Diana's pet poodle who is the reigning champion of the Garden Heights Dog Show. At the end of the story, Precious fails a particular obstacle and is immediately disqualified allowing Alice and Sam to take the victory.

Alice's best friend. She provides moral support and advice to Alice throughout the story.

Amaya's pet dog.

A mysterious man who is rumored to be a remarkable pet trainer. He is the master of "The Way of the Paw".

Otis' pet dog. He begins an unusual relationship with Sam when Alice learns "The Way of the Paw". Before the release of the game, he was called Milo.

A friend of Alice. They steadily develop a relationship throughout the story.

Thomas' pet dog. She and Sam Whitt get along well and have puppies at the end of the story.

One of Diana DeBore's henchmen. He is very loyal and is later defeated in a fight by Thomas Jones.

One of Diana DeBore's henchmen. Brock is not as loyal as Reece and secretly helps Alice register for the dog show. After Sam is kidnapped, he helps Alice find him and provides her with an obstacle needed to train Sam for the dog show finals.

Brock's pet cat.

Max is the most popular idol pet in every town

Competitors in the Garden Heights Dog Show

Meat Grinder
Simon Beniz
Bruno Carter

Characters in Midnight Masquerade

Midnight Masquerade takes place in the desert neighborhood of Mesa Flats. The town annually hosts the Mesa Flats Midnight Masquerade, for which Stephen is tasked to prepare for during the story while looking after his cousin's pet cat.

The main character in Midnight Masquerade, who lives in Mesa Flats. He's an executive chef who promises to look after his cousin Celeste's pet cat, Diva, to make up for missing her wedding. Meanwhile, he must prepare the catering and centerpiece for the annual Midnight Masquerade. During the course of the story, Stephen meets Rachel and Erin and dates both of them several times. Gordon Fetching, a mysterious newcomer to town is trying to steal both women and is constantly wrecking Stephen's dates and making his life a misery. At the end of the story, Gordon is arrested and Stephen is declared "King of the Midnight Masquerade". The player is then left with the option of which woman will be his Queen.

The cat who moves in with Stephen. Diva causes mischief by scratching Stephens furniture and eating food off the counter, but ultimately turns out to be lovable.

Gordon is introduced as the best man of Damien, he is also the main antagonist of the story. He has a natural ability to attract women and is constantly ruining Stephen's dates. At the end of the story, he is revealed to be a con man from Arbor Falls and his last name is revealed to be "Schickel". After being declared "King of the Midnight Masquerade" Gordon and his henchman are arrested and Stephen is declared the new masquerade King.

Gordon's henchman. He first appears during one of Stephen's dates and attacks (and is defeated by) James Briggs. At the Midnight Masquerade he sits on the rooftop and Stephen disguises himself as Gordon to beguile information from him.

The owner of Diva and Stephen's cousin. Celeste requests Stephen to look after her cat during her honeymoon after he misses her wedding at the beginning of the story. She does not appear again after the first chapter, but she does send cat toys for Diva to Stephen and after completion of the story she sends an email saying that she and her husband are going on a cruise and that Stephen may keep the cat.

Celeste's new husband. His best man is Gordon Fetching.

Julianne Charlot is Stephen's employer. She entrusts him to make Salad, Lobster Thermidor and an Ice Sculpture (a role usually reserved for herself) for the Mesa Flats Midnight Masquerade. She appears to collect these things and is also the host of the Midnight Masquerade.

James Briggs is Stephen's best friend. He is also a police officer who tries to track down a con man lurking in Mesa Flats.

Kadisha Briggs is James' wife.

Sal Zugovich is Stephen's friend and owner of the local art gallery and restaurant.

Greta Zugovich is Sal's wife.

A potential love interest for Stephen. She attended Celeste's wedding and met Stephen. She loves dancing and she dances whenever there's an opportunity to do so.

Potential love interest for Stephen. She is introduced as Celeste's friend and arrives to deliver Diva to Stephen. She is an artist and has vast knowledge about domesticated animals.

Erin's pet dog. He chases Diva causing a meeting between Stephen and Erin.

Tracy Kosmokos is Celeste's bridesmaid.

Reception

As with the other two titles in the series, Pet Stories received mixed to positive reception.

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic67%[7]
Review scores
PublicationScore
GamesRadar[8]
DarkZero4/10[9]
GameslikeFinder7.0/10[10]
NZ Gamer6.5/10[11]

References

  1. ↑ IGN: The Sims: Pet Stories IGN. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
  2. ↑ The Sims Life Stories for PC GameSpot. Retrieved April 6, 2008.
  3. ↑ "The Sims™ Life Stories". Aspyr. Archived from the original on March 16, 2008. Retrieved December 24, 2008.
  4. ↑ "The Sims Pet Stories coming to Mac". Aspyr. Archived from the original on August 11, 2007. Retrieved July 27, 2007.
  5. 1 2 3 The Sims Pet Stories Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  6. ↑ https://www.gameagent.com/games/the-sims-2-pet-stories
  7. ↑ "The Sims Pet Stories". Metacritic. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  8. ↑ Rachel Weber (August 16, 2007). "The Sims Pet Stories review". GamesRadar. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  9. ↑ Sean Bell (November 2, 2007). "The Sims: Pet Stories PC Review". DarkZero. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  10. ↑ "The Sims Pet Stories". GamesFinder. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
  11. ↑ Jess Nickelsen (August 14, 2007). "The Sims Pet Stories". NZ Gamer. Retrieved July 11, 2016.
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