Is The Sims Board Game Easy to Learn? Our First Attempt Says… Not Exactly

My family absolutely loves playing board games, and we have been looking for a new one recently. I knew there was a Sims board game, but it didn’t occur to me until we were shopping at Target one day.  Our family takes board games very seriously and is probably considered a little too competitive.  And this is even if we are playing for just bragging rights.

Finding a game we all enjoy, or that holds everyone’s interest, is also sometimes a challenge, as we have two teenagers and one preteen. Each with VERY different interests. However, they all know about The Sims and have played it in some capacity, so we decided to try it.

Instructions

To learn the game, we started with a small group: my partner, my son, and me. The game comes with a step-by-step instruction booklet, and the three of us reviewed it. Honestly, it seemed like a bit much and a lot of stipulations and things to do per turn, so we were immediately skeptical. I do recall something about adding points up and completing an aspiration and collection. Iconic Sims are two of the ways to do so, or at least that is what I interpreted. I was under the impression we could play through it to figure it out, but I was wrong. But regardless, we began setting up to play.

Setting the Game Up

The step-by-step instructions were fine, but there were quite a few steps.  The easy part was picking out the board piece, followed by the needs meter and turn order cards. Then you need to put locations on the board where there are squares and set up the other cards: Iconic Sims and Action Cards. After that, we picked our aspirations and homes. Picking a home reminded me of life, and there are lots to choose from. My teenage son did enjoy the home selections and really wanted to live in the tent or plane.

Conclusions

We made it 1 round around the board after figuring out the setup, before we all decided we couldn’t just wing it and figure it out as we went. We did find a few YouTube channels explaining how to play the game, so that is our plan for this week. The game says on the box that it’s suitable for ages 12, which makes sense since it is complicated. The box also says it can be played with 2-5 players, which, for five players just starting out, might be a bit complicated, but I think once we get the hang of it, it should be fine.

So our intention was for my partner and me to play this weekend together alongside a YouTube video. However, with life and homecoming dress shopping for one of the other teens in the house, it has not happened yet. But don’t worry, I will definitely share our progress, and hopefully we don’t give up on this next try!