SimAnimals is a life simulation video game published by Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts

Electronic Arts, Inc. is a major American developer, marketer, publisher and distributor of video games. Founded and incorporated on May 28, 1982 by Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer games industry and was notable for promoting the designers and programmers...

 for the Nintendo DS

Nintendo DS

The is a portable game console produced by Nintendo, first released on November 21, 2004. A distinctive feature of the system is the presence of two separate LCD screens, the lower of which is a touchscreen, encompassed within a clamshell design, similar to the Game Boy Advance SP...

 and Wii

Wii

The Wii is a home video game console released by Nintendo on November 19, 2006. As a seventh-generation console, the Wii primarily competes with Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation 3. Nintendo states that its console targets a broader demographic than that of the two others...

 console systems

Video game console

A video game console is an interactive entertainment computer or customized computer system that produces a video display signal which can be used with a display device to display a video game...

. It was released on January 21, 2009 in North America.  It was released on January 29, 2009 in Australia and January 30, 2009 in Europe.

Game Role

It has said to be made for players to experience what it would be like living in the woods, taking care of the plants and animals that live there, and to help the player feel unafraid of going out, and letting them get close to an animal the player may not see on a regular basis. The player can get close to very shy or dangerous creatures, such as bears, deer, badgers, foxes, and more.

Animals on Simanimals Wii

There is a variety of different animals you can interact with on the Wii. There are birds and mammals.

Mammals

• Bear (brown (most/very common); black (a few seen); spectacled (rarest))
• Fox (red fox)
• Badger (American badger or European badger))
• Hedgehog (European Hedgehog)
• Porcupine
• Mouse (house mouse)
• Rat (Norway Rat)
• Deer (white-tailed deer)
• Cat (calico longhair)
• Dog (Shi-Tzu-like, with a bow)
• Beaver (American beaver)
• Wolf (gray wolf; colors vary: black; light gray; light gray with a black head; light gray with a black bottom)
• Squirrel (eastern gray)
• Raccoon (common raccoon)
• Weasel (possibly stoat)
• Rabbit (cottontail)
• Boar (iron age pig)
• Skunk (striped, Silverback, and spotted)
• Opossum (Virginia opossum)

Birds

• Owl (great horned owl)
• Robin (American robin)
• Cardinal (northern cardinal)
• Chickadee (black-capped chickadee)
• Blue Jay
• Crow
• Nightingale
• Dove (mourning dove)
• Blackbird (redwinged)
• Cuckoo
• Duck (vary in color: multi-colored head with brown body; brown body with blackish head)
• Widgeon (american)
• Goose (Canada goose)
• Swan (mute, trumpeter, maybe tundra)
• Coot
• Heron (great blue heron)

Code animals

These animals are only available with the Verasmenagerie code.

• Tasmanian Devil
• Red Squirrel
• Snowy Owl
• Arctic Fox
• Black Hare

You can also unlock these animals:

• Panda (code: Panda)
• Ferret (code: Ferret)
• Red Panda (code: Red Panda)

Predators

This game is all realistic like in the real world. However, the bear and wolf are at the top of the food chain, eating all other animals. However every predator on this list eats at least one type of plant.

• Bear (all other simanimals mammals, including wolves; sometimes birds)
• Wolf (all other simanimals mammals, except bears; sometimes birds)
• Crow (mice and rats)
• Skunk (birds, mice, and rats)
• Cat (rats, mice, squirrels, and birds)
• Weasel (squirrels, rabbits, mice, and rats)
• Owl (weasels, squirrels, mice, rats, skunks, and rabbits)
• Fox (squirrels, rabbits, mice, rats, skunks, and cats)
• Heron (skunks, rats, mice, squirrels, rabbits, and opossums)
• Badger (rats, mice, squirrels, and rabbits)
• Raccoon (rats, mice, and squirrels)
• Dog (rats, mice, and squirrels)
• Opossum (rats and mice)

Boars sometimes eat animals (squirrels, birds, and rabbits), but none of them are their favorite foods, and they eat other animals extremely rarely.

Plants on Simanimals Wii

Plants on the game all require a certain kind of care. They all need the right soil. There are six soils: dry; muddy; grassy; fresh water; polluted water; polluted muddy. No plant wants to live in polluted water, but some like fairly moss or water lilies are able to survive and grow in polluted water, although only healthy ones are in fresh water. Sometimes if the polluted water is bad enough, it makes the muddy soil next to it polluted as well, making it unhealthy for all plants needing muddy soil. In the game there are also mushrooms, which are fungi, but considered plants in the game. There are also some peculiar non-existing plants, that make ordinary animals extroadinary. Overall, there are flowers, trees, bushes, vegetables, mushrooms, weeds, water plants, those crazy plants (only found on Simanimals), and some other plants. Some plants are useful, too. Some can change the soil, like oak trees can turn soil into dry soil, and maple trees can turn soil into grassy soil. The oak tree is different from other plants, because it needs grassy soil when a sprout, and then dry soil when a sapling or mature tree. There are three stages of life for a tree in the game. First a sprout, then a sapling, and then a mature. Usually the longest living plants last a few weeks, and it takes about 15 or 20 minutes for a plant to grow mature, but that depends on the plant. Water plants usually take longer. Flowers, especially Baby's Breath, sprouts very very quickly. A tree has to be at least a sapling age to be able to knock down and turn into a log and a stump.

Flowers

• Daisy
• Purple Foxglove
• Sundial Lupine
• Sunflower
• English Marigold
• Periwinkle
• Buttercup
• Marshmellow
• Baby's Breath
• Summer Pheasant's Eye
• Cornflower
• Forking Larkspur
• Poppy
• Daffodil
• Crocus
• Sweet William's

Trees

• Maple
• Beech
• Ash
• Spruce
• Noble Fir
• Cherry
• Apple
• Chestnut
• Sycamore
• Birch
• Oak
• Walnut
• Willow

Bushes

Bushes are very useful. They give food, and when full grown, or turned into a pile of sticks, it provides a great home for small animals and rodents.

• Blackberry Bush (produces blackberries)
• Juniper Bush (produces juniper berries)
• Rose Bush (produces rose flowers)(Bears eat these flowers!)
• Azalea Bush (produces azalea flowers) (Bears eat these flowers!)
• Hunnysuckle Bush (produces hunnysuckle flowers)
• Rhodendron Bush (produces rhondendron flowers)

Other Plants and Vegetables

• Lettuce
• Carrot
• Radish
• Pumpkin
• Ground Elder
• Pachysandra
• Bulrush Reed (like a cat-tail)
• Marshgrass
• Glasswort
• Aloe
• Saguaro Cactus
• Clover
• Mint

Mushrooms

• Porcini
• Pinecone Amanita
• Velvet Foot
• Chanterelle
• Purple Fairy Club
• Panther Cap
• Scalia Pholiota
• Fly Agaric

Extroadinary Plants

These plants make animals that eat them extroadinary, whether in behavior or color. This list will show you the name and what they do to animals. Any missing, please fill in, and tell the animal change next.

• Crazycap Mushroom (turns female animals into males, or turns male animals into females)
• Lady of the Lake (turns animals purple)
• Rieder's Shader (turns animals green)
• Pestorn Cactus (turns a grassy area into a desert [turns all soil to dry])
• Josh-O-Lantern (turns animals orange)
• Sweet Cecile (turns animals yellow)
• Giant Orpilla (turns animals giant)
• Lacey Animata (animates animals to a faster speed for a short time)
• Prickly Heather (turns animals to their infant form)
• Special Snowflake (gives animal an icy blue tint)

Areas

There are many different areas that you unlock, as you travel deeper and deeper into the forest. In each area there are different animals you unlock, and different plants you unlock, but of course, you can have any plants or animals in an area.

These are the areas in order you unlock them. In other words, first you unlock the first listed item, and them go in order to all the rest of the areas.

• Snobby Manor
• Grassy Glen
• Foggy Creek
• Castle Hill
• Dry Gulch

• River Ridge
• Big Rock
• Misty Bog
• Old Orchard
• Junkyard
• Danger Woods

Here are descriptions on each area: Snobby Manor (water, grassy soil, dry soil, muddy soil; huge lake, house, vegetable garden, paths); Grassy Glen (grassy soil, muddy soil, water; little pond, a big hill, or mountain, all grass all over except a spot, autumn trees and canyons on background); Foggy Creek (dry soil, grassy soil, water, muddy soil; little stream, foggy and misty in the air); Castle Hill (dry soil, grassy soil, water, muddy soil; has a place where beavers can build dams, which can make its river into a huge lake, there's a huge castle-like structure); Dry Gulch (dry soil, grassy soil [can be muddy soil and water]; a desert, with a tiny little grass spot); River Ridge (grassy soil, dry soil, muddy soil, water; place where beavers can build dams, which leads to a lake instead of a river, and gives Dry Gulch water and muddy soil, there's a little waterfall); Big Rock (grassy soil, dry soil, muddy soil, water; place where beavers can make dames, where its river turns into a lake, there's a huge walk-on rock); Misty Bog (grassy soil, muddy soil, water [muddy soil and water is polluted at first]; lots of little islands in a huge river-lake, there's a place where beavers can build dams, which blocks out all water, fireflies and misty fog at night); Old Orchard (grassy soil, muddy soil, water, dry soil [muddy soil and water is polluted at first]; a little river, a wooden walk-on bridge); Junkyard (dry soil, grassy soil, muddy soil, water [muddy soil and water is polluted at first]; huge garbage piles, with cars, cardboard, and shavings, little river, little waterfall, walk-through lined up old cardboard); Danger Woods (grassy soil, dry soil, muddy soil, water [muddy soil and water is polluted at first]; has huge mountains [This place ends the story. There is a place where beavers can build dams, which leads to getting rid of all polluted water of the whole forest. There is also a huge train track and train tunnel, where a train part fell down, full of poisonous liquid, and fell into a little pond behind the dam place, which started all the pollution]).

Medals and Unlocking

There are many medals you earn during the game, that goes along with the environment your in. The medals you earn unlocks new plants and animals. There is also a good way to unlock animals and plants. Here is a list of medals and how you earn them, and where you earn them.

Medal	Area earned in	How to earn it
Way of the Squirrel	Snobby Manor	gain full trust for your first squirrel
Way of the Robin	Snobby Manor	gain full trust with your first robin, then put it into your backpack
Way of Snobby Manor	Snobby Manor	make Snobby Manor a happy environment
Way of the Rabbit	Grassy Glen	plant a carrot garden, gain full trust for two rabbits
Way of the Mouse	Grassy Glen	collect 10 pinecones in your backpack, gain full trust for two mice
Way of the Crow	Grassy Glen	gain full trust for two crows, feed carrots to a crow
Way of Grassy Glen	Grassy Glen	make Grassy Glen a happy environment
Way of the Deer	Foggy Creek	help a female and male deer have a fawn, get a fawn to play with a squirrel
Way of the Raccoon	Foggy Creek	plant a radish garden, attract two raccoons
Way of the Weasel	Foggy Creek	gain full trust for your first weasel, plant a buttercup garden, get a weasel to be best friends with a mouse
Way of Foggy Creek	Foggy Creek	make Foggy Creek a happy environment
Way of the Beaver	Castle Hill	gain full trust for two beavers, plant several chestnut trees
Way of the Hedgehog	Castle Hill	gain full trust for your first hedgehog, and get it to be best friends with a beaver and a dog
Way of the Chickadee	Castle Hill	plant several maple trees
Way of the Duck	Castle Hill	get three ducks to visit the area at the same time, plant several water lilies
Way of Castle Hill	Castle Hill	make Castle Hill a happy environment
Way of the Boar	Dry Gulch	get a female and male boar who hate each other love each other again, and have them have a baby boar
Way of the Rat	Dry Gulch	plant several blackberry bushes, plant a lettuce garden
Way of the Dove	Dry Gulch	plant a mature maple tree, attract two doves
Way of Dry Gulch	Dry Gulch	make Dry Gulch a happy environment
Way of the Bear	River Ridge	plant several blackberry bushes, get a beaver to build a dam and make a bear pull sticks out of it, play fetch with a bear
Way of the Skunk	River Ridge	have a skunk spray you, get two skunks in your backpack, get a skunk to spray a bear
Way of the Blue Jay	River Ridge	plant several walnut trees
Way of the Swan	River Ridge	plant several yellow nymphoids, get two swams to play roughouse with each other
Way of River Ridge	River Ridge	make River Ridge a happy environment
Way of the Porcupine	Big Rock	get rid of all ground elder in the area, make several noble fir trees healthy, get a porcupine to use its quills against a bear
Way of the Cardinal	Big Rock	plant several noble fir trees
Way of the Widgeon	Big Rock	gain trust for a widgeon
Way of Big Rock	Big Rock	make Big Rock a happy environment
Way of the Opossum	Misty Bog	gain trust for two opossums, and have them have a baby opossum, get an opossum to play dead to a heron
Way of the Heron	Misty Bog	gain trust for two herons, get a beaver to dam off the polluted water
Way of the Nightingale	Misty Bog	plant several healthy mature willow trees
Way of Misty Bog	Misty Bog	make Misty Bog a happy environment
Way of the Fox	Old Orchard	attract several rabbits, get a fox to sneak up on a sleeping deer
Way of the Owl	Old Orchard	plant a mature chestnut tree
Way of the Goose	Old Orchard	plant several fairy moss
Way of Old Orchard	Old Orchard	make Old Orchard a happy environment
Way of the Badger	Junkyard	gain trust for two badgers, and have them have a baby badger, plant several apple trees, make a badger befriend a rat
Way of the Cuckoo	Junkyard	remove all badgers from the area
Way of Junkyard	Junkyard	make Junkyard a happy environment
Way of the Wolf	Danger Woods	gain trust for four wolves to create a wolf pack, get a baby wolf to play with a baby rabbit
Way of the Coot	Danger Woods	plant several water hycaniths, gain trust for two coots
Way of Danger Woods	Danger Woods	make Danger Woods a happy environment
Dam off the Polluted Pond	Danger Woods	get a beaver to dam up the polluted pond and save the forest
Way of the Forest	Danger Woods	have all areas become a happy environment, to create a happy forest, and make it glow with life

The Happy Bar

The Happy Bar on the Wii is shown at the top of the screen. It determines whether your environment is happy, or not. When you first unlock an area, and travel to it, you will have this "face" in the middle of the bar. This "face" will give you the feeling of the area. For example if the environment is very happy, it will smile. If the environment is unhappy, it will turn on an angry face, or a frown. It will also change color. When happy, its green. When unhappy, its red. When in the middle, its yellow. When you come to an area, your job is to fill the happy bar, to make the environment happier. You can do that by simply doing what makes a happy environment, like having the animals get all their needs, and having the plants in their correct soil, and solving challenges. When you have a reward given, or have a predator eat another animal, that will give you lots of "smilies", and you will be able to fill up the happy bar to happy level. But, the way you get an unhappy environment, is to do something or have something horrible. This would include a starving animal, a plant in the wrong soil, or an unhappy animal. This way you'll get "frownies", and it will eventually level down the happy bar to unhappy. There is also a specific kind of music that goes along to happy, and one to unhappy. There will be sad music if leveled all the way down, and beautiful friendly music when leveled all the way up.

You can also zoom and zoom out the happy bar. You click on the bar, and it will turn into a little circle, which is that face that determines happiness or sadness. However, it will still collect "smilies" or "frownies", so if your environment is getting weak, the only way to stop it is to do good deeds to the animals and plants.

Forming bonds

The animals are your main ticket to a happy environment. Forming bonds with them, however, takes time and patience. In order to form a bond with an animal, you need to be friendly to the animal. The best way to have an animal love you, and have full trust for you, is to take some steps. First, you shall start feeding the animal one of its favorite foods. Then, you can have the animal eat from your hand (hold the food in front of the animal, have it sniff it, and it will grab it from you), and then, when earned by enough trust, you can play with the animal, or pet the animal by waving your hand over it. Eventually, you will have full trust for the animal, and you can put it in your backpack. And of course, there is a way for the animal to hate you. The first step is to feed it something it does not like, constantly, then pick it up and throw it. Then if it still does not hate you, then you can probably try to rescue an animal it was trying to prey on, if it was a predator. If a herbivore, keep feeding it unpleasant foods and keep throwing it. Eventually, it will hate you, and a symbol of a broken heart will pop up on the screen. At that point, the animal will keep running away from you, and be thrightened by your presence. If you scare it enough, it will attack you. For example, little herbivores will bounce on you and hit you. Rabbits will kick you with their big hind feet. Skunks will spray you. Porcupines will poke you. Opossums might play dead to you. Hedgehogs might roll up in a ball at you. And the wolves and bears will chew you up and throw you in the air. This will make the animal angry. If the animal is angry enough, or treated to badly, it will move out. Moving in is when the animal loves you, or is just born. That means the animal will love to live in the area, but if you or itself brings it to another area, it might instead move there, rather than the previous loved place. There are several symbols which show you how much the animal likes you. Broken heart for hate, question mark for it does not know you, but does not hate you, one heart means trusts a little, two hearts mean it trusts you, and three hearts mean it loves you for life. However, you can have an animal that hates you love you again, or have an animal that loves you, and have it eventually hate you. The animal will struggle and make ugly noise when picked up if it does not know you, hate you, or has only one heart trust. Once you get to two hearts trust, it will trust you enough so it will be calm when you hold it, and will enjoy being thrown, as if it were a ride of somesort. Also, waterfowl, herons, beavers, and wolves seem to love having you to drop water on them, and you can gain their trust like that, even if it does not know you. Continuing to do that gain trust. However, other animals do not like water.

Animal behavior

Animals are able to breed in the game, at least some of them are, to give birth to one young. The animals that cannot give birth to young, or cannot mate, are all birds, cats, dogs, and mice. All other animals are able to. The ones that mate the most are deer, rabbits, and rats. However, raccoons are usually very hard to breed, often being picky about who to mate with. To have an animal mate, the first step is the have at least one heart trust for both the male and the female. Next, you need to introduce them, by picking one of them up, and then take it over to the other animal, where when the other animal highlights, then drop the other animal. Then they will sniff at each other. Then do it again, and they will play together. Keep doing it until full trust. When at full trust, wait until they both feel like they want to mate, and then put them next to each other, and they will mate. Some beautiful music will form, while the two animals are sniffing and nudging each other with their noses. And then a few seconds later, a cloud opens on the underpart of the female, and outcomes a little cute baby. When first born, they will be frightened, and may fight with their parents, but then they will be calm, and the mother or father will lick them and nuzzle them. Beware, when they are born, they move in, but do not trust you. If you try to pick up a newborn and carry it away, the mother and father will follow and chase after you. If they catch up, they will force you to drop the baby, and the parents will fight with you, and might lose trust with you. If you have multiple players, while one is being attacked, another player can pick up the one hurting the other player. Then it will lose trust with that one other player.
The animals in the game also go into different homes. However, deer, boars and wolves are mainly the two mammals that do not go into any shelter. A wolf pack, boar family, or deer herd will just sleep together. Burrows, logs, stumps, tree holes, mature trees, pile-o-sticks, mature bushes, and dams are all forms of homes or shelters. Burrows are home to badgers, foxes, rabbits, skunks, mice, and rats. Mice and skunks often fight other animals for burrows. Logs and stumps are home to raccoons, porcupines, and bears. Sometimes cats and dogs go in their for safety, but sometimes sleep outside on the ground. Tree holes are home to weasels, squirrels, and sometimes rats, if the rats want better protection to their families. Dams are only home to beavers, even though sometimes if dams are not available, beavers will live in logs. Pile-o-sticks (dead bushes) are homes for small rats and mice, and sometimes weasels. Mature bushes are used by mice and rats for safety. Mature trees are obviously a place where birds sleep and play, but they never build nests in the game. Animals in the game can make their own burrows or dams. If they build it, its their home. An animal can also move in a shelter to use it as a home, or take up residence in another animal's home, by sniffing it. Then it becomes its home. Also, sometimes, an animal will just go in there for safety, without the shelter being its home. But often when it is some other animal's or animals' home, an animal that just goes in their, without making it its home will just pop out, and run away, especially when a herbivore goes in a predator's home! Beavers create their dams by using sticks. You can give a building beaver a stick, by getting one from other wood, or a beaver would get them on their own, by knocking down a tree, and using the stump and the log and chew sticks out of it, unless it finds a fallen log or stump. It will also use bushes, as well. If a beaver wants to build a dam, a Simanimals symbol of stick, will appear above the animal's head, and that means it needs a stick. A beaver will only build a dam if it is moved in, and loves you. And, there are certain places that a beaver is able to build a dam in. These places are found in River Ridge, Castle Hill, Danger Woods, and Misty Bog. If an animal builds a home, or takes up residence of a home, and then mates, the mate and baby will then have the same home.

Foxes in this game are michievous, and will sneak up and wake up any sleeping animals. Hedgehogs will roll into a ball when frightened. Porcupines will use its quills against predators. Bears will swat and growl at the porcupined after being poked. Skunks will spray if threatened. Bears will hold their paws over their noses. Wolves will do the same thing, only in a sitting position, and whining like a puppy. Skunks' spray looks pinkish and forms into like a ball of colored air in the air. Opossums will play dramatically dead when threatened by herons or other predators. Wolves will howl. Foxes will bark. Widgeons squeak. Ducks quack. Swans and geese honk. Mice and rats will squeak. Squirrels make very silly sounds. Herons make an angry noise. Skunks make high pitched and low pitched sounds. Beavers make sounds as if they were like "okay already", after dropping them. When dropping a weasel, it will sound like "thump, thump". Cats have different meows. Dogs bark. Dogs, bears, and wolves will play fetch with you, as long as it has full trust for you. A dog with wag and chase its tail, and a bear or wolf would stick out its tongue and wiggle its butt or tail, while arching down its back, with the head touching the forepaws. They will do this in front of a stick. Then you pick up the stick, and throw it. To start a game of fetch, drop the stick on a highlighted dog, wolf, or bear. Bears will pull sticks out of a beaver dam, which drives beavers crazy!

Also, sometimes animals can form bonds with each other. You can introduce them together, so they will gain their trust together. If a family member it will have full trust already, however, for a relative. If the animals fight with each other, or one of them is mean to the other, they will lose trust with each other, and may start to hate each other. If a predator attacks a prey, and you save the prey, they will lose trust with each other as well.

Cheat Codes

The entire game has a total of 7 different cheat codes, all of which displayed here.

• Verasmenagerie: Unlocks all animals.
• Rodslittlforest: Unlocks all areas.
• Georgesbotanics: Unlocks all plants, including extraordinary plants.

The following animals are unlocked by cheat code when you sumply enter their name in the box.

• Panda*
• Red Panda*
• Ferret*
• Arctic Fox*

Player abilities

During the game, you are able to do a variety of different things. You use your hand, and can pick up just about everything. Food, plants, animals, and even water. For example, if a plant is in the wrong soil, and is getting sick, or dying, you can pick it up, even if it is a huge tree, and place it into the correct soil. You can also pick up even animal's homes. If you pick up a burrow, tree (or with a tree hole), stump, log, pile-o-sticks, or bush, the animal or animals in it will come out, but then you can set it back down, and the animal or animals can still go back in it, and have it be their home. If you place an animal in your backpack, and take it back out, the animal's home will not be its home anymore, unless it makes it its home again. Also, as soon as you unlock Big Rock, you will be able to cast a lightning bolt. On the Happy Bar, if the face is above the lightning bolt, you will be able to cast one. You will not have it on the Happy Bar until you reach the power to cast lightning. A lightning bolt can be formed by picking up water and holding it over water. The players holds the water over the water until a lightning spark appears (orange in color). Then the player moves it to a spot on the ground where the player wants a lightning bolt to hit, and releases it. Then a huge and tall white bolt will form, with it hitting the ground, making dust fly, and having it make very loud thunder. A lightning bolt will kill any plant under it, and will also scare any animals near it, and the animal or animals will lose trust with the player. When you unlock Castle Hill, which is the sprawn of beavers and their making of dams, the you will be able to knock down trees. You wave your hand over it, and then keep shaking it until it is uprooted and falls. When fallen, it will turn into a log and a stump. To get a stick, you wave your hand over a pile-o-sticks, a log, or a stump, and then you will be able to get several sticks, until the log, stump, or pile-o-sticks is gone. You can uproot and kill a plant by casting a lightning bolt, or waving your hand over it until. To collect food off of trees or bushes, you gently wave your hand over it, and then the food pops off all of it. You can also, if you wish, you can save an animal's life from being eaten. When you see a dustball with swirlies, that means an animal is being attacked to a hungry predator. If you wish to save it, quickly grab water from the area's river or lake, or take water from your backpack, and drop it over the dustball. Then both predator and prey will pop up, and either run away, or pick up the prey and put it in your backpack, or take it to another part of the area. It may not like it if you spray water on it, but that depends on the animal. Water birds, wolves, and beavers, however, seem to like it. You are also able to change soil, except water and dry soil, by watering the ground.

Your backpack

Your backpack is found on the lower left bottom of the screen, and it carries several things. It can carry those crazy plants, food, water, polluted water, and animals. You can fit up to five animals in the backpack. The backpack is very useful and important. For example, you can carry animal food in it, so if you see a hungry or starving animal or animals, you can look in your backpack, and can give the animal or animals food, which will add up the Happy Bar. You can also carry bears and wolves in your backpack, to protect herbivores, or you can save herbivores by putting them in your backpack to keep it safe, and to bring it to a safer environment. It also saves the life of an animal, or a baby, if being eaten. If there is no water in the area, take water from your backpack, and spray it over the dustball. The water is also useful if you are in the desert, and there is a sprout that needs a certain soil, and that soil is not available, you can water the plant, and change the soil.

Gameplay on Nintendo DS version

It is somewhat similar to the Wii version, but has been slightly modified. Unlike the Wii, the DS has seasons, and likewise, certain vegetables you grow will sprout up in between spring and summer. Some gameplay might cause fires in the DS version. You can play with or feed the animals by using your stylus and rubbing the screen over the animal.

Other Information

The game has the player in the same role as in The Sims

The Sims

The Sims is a strategic life-simulation computer game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. Its development was led by game designer Will Wright, also known for developing SimCity...

controlling a disembodied hand in which the player manipulates over 30 types of animals, and creates their habitat around them. The animals evolve personalities depending on how the user treats (or mistreats) them.The players can use the animals to solve challenges and achieve goals by discovering secrets, unlocking forest areas and uncovering one-of-a-kind objects and wild animals, some with special abilities, by having the animals successfully complete tasks. After a certain number of achievement points are earned in the DS version, the player can blow into the DS microphone, creating wind for the pickup of berries.The players can pick up anything in the forest including trees, flowers, other plants, animals, water, logs, and rocks.The game contains at 35 species of animals from the Northern Hemisphere. Electronics retailer Best Buy

Best Buy

Best Buy Co., Inc. is an American specialty retailer of consumer electronics in the United States, accounting for 19% of the market. It also operates in Mexico, Canada & China. The company's subsidiaries include Geek Squad, CinemaNow, Magnolia Audio Video, Pacific Sales, and, in Canada operates...

 offered an exclusive in-game animal (panda

Giant Panda

The giant panda, or panda is a bear native to central-western and south western China. It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the panda's diet is 99% bamboo...

, red panda

Red Panda

The red panda , is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs...

, and ferret

Black-footed Ferret

The Black-footed Ferret , also known as the American polecat or Prairie Dog Hunter, is a species of Mustelid native to central North America. It is listed as endangered by the IUCN, because of its very small and restricted populations...

 for Wii, electric squirrel

Squirrel

Squirrels belong to a large family of small or medium-sized rodents called the Sciuridae. The family includes tree squirrels, ground squirrels, chipmunks, marmots , flying squirrels, and prairie dogs. Squirrels are indigenous to the Americas, Eurasia, and Africa and have been introduced to Australia...

 for DS) with purchase during the initial US release of the game.

Animals

BearFoxArctic FoxBoarCrowRaccoonOwl Snowy OwlDeerSquirrelRed SquirrelWeaselWidgeonRobin*Virginia Opossum

Virginia Opossum

The Virginia opossum , commonly known as the North American opossum or tlacuache in Mexico, is the only marsupial found in North America north of Mexico. A solitary and nocturnal animal about the size of a domestic cat, and thus the largest opossum, it is a successful opportunist...

*Great Blue Heron

Great Blue Heron

The Great Blue Heron is a large wading bird in the heron family Ardeidae, common near the shores of open water and in wetlands over most of North and Central America as well as the West Indies and the Galápagos Islands. It is a rare vagrant to Europe, with records from Spain, the Azores and England...

*Cat

Tortoiseshell cat

Tortoiseshell describes a coat coloring found mostly in female cats. Cats of this color are mottled, with patches of orange or cream and chocolate, black or blue. They are sometimes called torties...

*Dog*House Mouse

House mouse

The house mouse is a small rodent, a mouse, one of the most numerous species of the genus Mus.As a wild animal the house mouse mainly lives associated with humans, causing damage to crops and stored food....

*American Beaver

American Beaver

The North American Beaver is the only species of beaver in the Americas, native to North America and introduced to South America. In the United States and Canada, where no other species of beaver occurs, it is usually simply referred to as "beaver"...

*Canada Goose

Canada Goose

The Canada Goose is a wild goose belonging to the genus Branta, which is native to arctic and temperate regions of North America, having a black head and neck, white patches on the face, and a brownish-gray body....

*Gray Wolf

Gray Wolf

The gray wolf , also known as the wolf, is the largest extant wild member of the Canidae family...

*Red-Winged Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird

The Red-winged Blackbird is a passerine bird of the family Icteridae found in most of North and much of Central America. It breeds from Alaska and Newfoundland south to Florida, the Gulf of Mexico, Mexico, and Guatemala, with isolated populations in western El Salvador, northwestern Honduras, and...

*Striped Skunk

Striped Skunk

The striped skunk, Mephitis mephitis, is an omnivorous mammal of the skunk family Mephitidae. Found over most of the North American continent north of Mexico, it is one of the best-known mammals in Canada and the United States.-Description:...

 and Spotted Skunk

Spotted Skunk

The Eastern Spotted Skunk is smaller and more weasel-like than the striped skunk. The spotted skunks are faster and more agile than the striped skunks and they have better pelts. For the last 100 years, the Eastern Spotted Skunk was bred for its fine silky fur...

*American Badger

American Badger

The American badger is a North American badger, somewhat similar in appearance to the European badger. It is found in the western and central United States, northern Mexico and central Canada, as well as in certain areas of southwestern British Columbia.Their habitat is typified by open...

*Wood Duck

Wood Duck

The Wood Duck or Carolina Duck is a species of duck found in North America. It is one of the most colourful of North American waterfowl.-Description:...

*Mute Swan

Mute Swan

The Mute Swan is a species of swan, and thus a member of the duck, goose and swan family Anatidae. It is native to much of Europe and Asia, and the far north of Africa. It is also an introduced species in North America, Australasia and southern Africa. The name 'mute' derives from it being less...

*Eastern Cottontail Rabbit*Giant Panda

Giant Panda

The giant panda, or panda is a bear native to central-western and south western China. It is easily recognized by its large, distinctive black patches around the eyes, over the ears, and across its round body. Though it belongs to the order Carnivora, the panda's diet is 99% bamboo...

*Black-Footed Ferret

Black-footed Ferret

The Black-footed Ferret , also known as the American polecat or Prairie Dog Hunter, is a species of Mustelid native to central North America. It is listed as endangered by the IUCN, because of its very small and restricted populations...

*Red Panda

Red Panda

The red panda , is a small arboreal mammal native to the eastern Himalayas and southwestern China. It is the only species of the genus Ailurus. Slightly larger than a domestic cat, it has reddish-brown fur, a long, shaggy tail, and a waddling gait due to its shorter front legs...

*Hedgehog

Hedgehog

A hedgehog is any of the spiny mammals of the subfamily Erinaceinae and the order Erinaceomorpha. There are 17 species of hedgehog in five genera, found through parts of Europe, Asia, Africa, and New Zealand . There are no hedgehogs native to Australia, and no living species native to the Americas...

 *Porcupine

Porcupine

Porcupines are rodents with a coat of sharp spines, or quills, that defend or camouflage them from predators. They are indigenous to the Americas, southern Asia, and Africa. Porcupines are the third largest of the rodents, behind the capybara and the beaver. Most porcupines are about long, with...

*Grizzly Bear

Grizzly Bear

The grizzly bear , also known as the silvertip bear, the grizzly, or the North American brown bear, is a subspecies of brown bear that generally lives in the uplands of western North America...

, Kodiak Bear

Kodiak Bear

The Kodiak bear , also known as the Kodiak brown bear or the Alaskan grizzly bear or American brown bear, occupies the islands of the Kodiak Archipelago in South-Western Alaska. Its name in the Alutiiq language is Taquka-aq. It is the largest subspecies of brown bear.- Taxonomy :Taxonomist C.H...

, Eurasian Brown Bear

Eurasian Brown Bear

The Eurasian brown bear is a subspecies of brown bear, found across northern Eurasia. The Eurasian brown bear is also known as the common brown bear, European brown bear and colloquially by many other names....

, American Black Bear

American black bear

The American black bear is a medium-sized bear native to North America. It is the continent's smallest and most common bear species. Black bears are omnivores, with their diets varying greatly depending on season and location. They typically live in largely forested areas, but do leave forests in...

, Spectacled Bear

Spectacled Bear

The spectacled bear , also known as the Andean bear and locally as ukuko, jukumari or ucumari, is the last remaining short-faced bear and the closest living relative to the Florida spectacled bear and short-faced bears of the Middle Pleistocene to Late Pleistocene age.The spectacled bear is a...

*Razorback

Razorback

Razorback is an Americanism, loosely applied to any type of feral pig or wild boar in North America. The term has also appeared in Australia, to describe said animals in that country.-Introduction to the Americas:...

, Iron Age Pig

Iron Age Pig

The Iron Age pig is a hybrid between a wild boar and a domestic pig meant to recreate the type of pig represented by prehistoric art works of the Iron Age. The project started in the early 1980s by crossing a male wild boar with a Tamworth sow to produce an animal that looks like the pig from long...

Animals in italics are unlocked with cheats.

Reception

 SimAnimals has a score of 60% on Metacritic

Metacritic

Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...

, which indicates mixed or average reviews, and 69% on Game Rankings

Game Rankings

GameRankings is a website that collects review scores from both offline and online sources to give an average rating. It indexes over 315,000 articles relating to more than 14,500 games.GameRankings is owned by CBS Interactive...

. IGN

IGN

IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...

 gave the game a 5.3, writing,

"The Sims franchise is insanely popular for a reason, and growing a community, whether it be man or animal, is rewarding. But no effort has been put into the presentation here. The game doesn't run smoothly, the forest is unattractive, and the controls aren't user-friendly."

However, far from all of the reviews have been negative. USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

 awarded SimAnimals 5 stars out of 5.  Reviewer Jinny Gudmundsen wrote,

"It (SimAnimals) is a fascinating experience that is hard to put down... There are many things that make this game compelling, including the outstanding graphics, music and artificial intelligence, but the most attractive feature is that the game lets you explore the delicate balances found in nature."

Soundtrack

The music for SimAnimals was composed by Winifred Phillips

Winifred Phillips

Winifred Phillips is an American music composer for video games and radio, a published fantasy author, and a radio producer and actress.-Video games:...

 and produced by Winnie Waldron

Winnie Waldron

Winnie Waldron is an American music producer for video games, a producer for radio, a radio script editor / adapter and a radio host.- Radio :...

.  The music from the game was released on January 13, 2009 as a digital download album by E.A.R.S. EA Recordings.  The SimAnimals soundtrack album was released to positive reviews and high scores, including a 9.5 out of 10 from Michael Pascua of The Celebrity Cafe, a 90 out of 100 from Jeremy Hill of Gamertell, and a 9 out of 10 from the music review site VGM Rush.

Sequel

SimAnimals Africa was released for Wii and Nintendo DS on October 27, 2009 with these known animals:

• African Bush Elephant
  African Bush Elephant
  The African Bush Elephant or African Savanna Elephant is the larger of the two species of African elephant. Both it and the African Forest Elephant have usually been classified as a single species, known simply as the African Elephant...
  
  
• Lowland Gorilla
• African Lion
• Nile Crocodile
  Nile crocodile
  The Nile crocodile or Common crocodile is an African crocodile which is common in Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Egypt, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Gabon, South Africa, Malawi, Sudan, Botswana, and Cameroon...
  
  
• Black Rhinoceros
  Black Rhinoceros
  The Black Rhinoceros or Hook-lipped Rhinoceros , is a species of rhinoceros, native to the eastern and central areas of Africa including Kenya, Tanzania, Cameroon, South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and Angola...
  
  
• Thomson's Gazelle
  Thomson's Gazelle
  The Thomson's gazelle is one of the best-known gazelles. It is named after explorer Joseph Thomson and, as a result, is sometimes referred to as a "tommie"...
  
  
• Masai Giraffe
  Masai Giraffe
  The Masai Giraffe or Maasai Giraffe, also known as the Kilimanjaro Giraffe is the largest subspecies of giraffe and the tallest land mammal. It is found in Kenya and Tanzania.-Description:...
  
  
• Plains Zebra
  Plains Zebra
  The plains zebra , also known as the common zebra or Burchell's zebra, is the most common and geographically widespread species of zebra. It ranges from the south of Ethiopia through East Africa to as far south as Angola and eastern South Africa...
  
  
• Nile Hippopotamus
  Hippopotamus
  The hippopotamus , or hippo, from the ancient Greek for "river horse" , is a large, mostly herbivorous mammal in sub-Saharan Africa, and one of only two extant species in the family Hippopotamidae After the elephant and rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the third largest land mammal and the heaviest...
  
  
• Aardvark
  Aardvark
  The aardvark is a medium-sized, burrowing, nocturnal mammal native to Africa...
  
   (Nintendo DS only)
• Cheetah
  Cheetah
  The cheetah is a large-sized feline inhabiting most of Africa and parts of the Middle East. The cheetah is the only extant member of the genus Acinonyx, most notable for modifications in the species' paws...
  
   (Nintendo DS only)
• Meerkat
  Meerkat
  The meerkat or suricate, Suricata suricatta, is a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan"...
  
   (Nintendo DS only)
• Fire-breathing Velociraptor
  Velociraptor
  Velociraptor is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaur that existed approximately 75 to 71 million years ago during the later part of the Cretaceous Period. Two species are currently recognized, although others have been assigned in the past. The type species is V. mongoliensis; fossils...
  
  (Nintendo DS only)