The Urbz : Sims in the City

The Urbz: Sims in the City for Game Boy Advance is a 2004 story-driven life-simulation adventure developed by Griptonite Games and published by EA Games. Although it shares a title and urban style with the GameCube, PlayStation 2, and Xbox releases, this portable version is a distinct follow-up to the Game Boy Advance edition of The Sims Bustin' Out. It puts the player in control of an Urb who has arrived in the sprawling city of Miniopolis, where social standing, odd jobs, and a looming corporate scheme shape the adventure.

The campaign begins badly for the newly arrived character: a job as a King Tower window washer ends when the building changes hands. The new owner is the powerful Daddy BigBucks, and the player's attempts to get by soon lead to arrest, probation, and a reason to investigate what is happening across the city. From that premise, The Urbz turns everyday Sims-style concerns into a chain of missions. Completing requests for residents opens routes, earns items and money, and gradually reveals BigBucks' attempt to control Miniopolis.

Rather than using the indirect household management of the original PC Sims games, the GBA game lets players guide their Urb directly around its locations. The directional controls move the character through streets, interiors, and outdoor areas, while menus keep track of goals, relationships, possessions, and other activities. Conversations and favors matter because the people encountered around town can provide access, information, or the next assignment. Players choose how to spend a day between advancing a mission, working, visiting people, shopping, and maintaining their character.

Basic needs remain central to the experience. Hunger, hygiene, energy, social, comfort, bladder, fun, and room must be watched and restored with the appropriate food, facilities, rest, company, or surroundings. Neglecting those motives can make it harder to pursue larger objectives, so domestic routines are part of the challenge rather than mere decoration. The game also uses a reputation system and special Xizzle abilities, while jobs are presented through minigames. Progress in these activities supports the wider effort to build a life in Miniopolis.

Miniopolis is divided into contrasting areas, including the built-up Urbania district, the New Orleans-inspired SimQuarter, the polished Glasstown area, and the Bayou. These changing neighborhoods give the handheld adventure a more directed sense of travel than the console game's district-based social climb. The plot brings recurring figures such as Grandma Hattie, Lily Gates, and Daddy BigBucks into the player's path, then expands from city politics to an attempt to alter the past. Vehicles including scooters, graviboards, and a fanboat add to the city's unusual means of getting around.

The Urbz: Sims in the City on GBA is also a social game in the technical sense: up to four Game Boy Advance systems can be linked for head-to-head minigames. Its single-player campaign remains the main attraction, balancing needs, relationships, jobs, collecting, and quest progression in one portable package. The Nintendo DS version is closely related but contains additional content, so it should not be treated as an identical edition. For Game Boy Advance players, The Urbz stands as the handheld branch of the series: a Sims game recast as a character-led urban adventure with its own locations, plot, and cast.