The Sims have stepped away from they gibbering human series and into the animal kingdom. In SimAminals you play an omniscient forest ranger of sorts who needs to make the animals happy so that you have a nicely populated forest. You’ve got over 17 species of animals that will come and try to make a home in your forest. You need to build a home for them, feed them, pet them and even play with them. It’s basically like having a forest full of virtual pets who are needy and create a lot of work for you.

When you make the residents of this particular area completely happy it unlocks another zone that you can then move into and start placating the animals there and do it over and over again.

Now you’ve not only got animals that you need to keep happy but you’ve also got plants. Trees, fruit bushes, flowers and more. And you really need the plants to be happy so that you have everything you need to make the animals happy. It’s definitely a challenge. However, like all omniscient forest rangers you have a backpack that you can keep things in. Things like rain clouds, acorns, plants and even animals. It’s a nifty backpack and if I were a forest ranger I’d definitely want one of those.

There are some other interesting tools that you’ve got at your disposal including wind and thunderstorms. You can’t exactly speak to the animals but you can touch them with the stylus to find out what it is they’re craving which helps you meet the objectives on each level.