There are times when games get a ton of hype and fall short of expectation. There are other times when games that don’t make large blips on your radar jump up to surprise you. MySims Kingdom falls in the latter category. During my recent trip to EA, I got some hands on time with the sequel to the last year’s MySims.

Let’s be honest, the first MySims wasn’t all that terrific last year when it came out for the Wii and DS. Being the first Sims game on the Nintendo platforms, there was a distinct lack of polish. The gameplay was repetitive with recruiting various Sims to live in your town and there was a distinct lack of a story. Loading times were also very prevalent when entering and exiting buildings. These two big issues were addressed by the development team at EA with MySims Kingdom.

Headed up by Tim LeTourneau, the game’s Executive Producer, Kingdom is more a story driven game that provides a whole heap of fun. Yup, a whole heap. For starters, there is much more of a story involved with the game which is told through completing various quests for other Sims on multiple islands. When you start the game, you get to customize your own character in multiple ways. Be aware, once you pick whether you’re male or female, that choice cannot be reversed. Throughout the game, you’ll be able to customize your clothes, voice, and accessories with new items you pick up during gameplay. You start out as a pig herder, one of the coolest professions around. Ok, maybe not, but you can only go up, right? King Rowland starts you off by holding a Wandaleer contest, where you win (obviously) and gain a wand which lets you build various things throughout the game world. This is your first step in completing your quest as there is a lot of puzzle solving involved.

There is a strong RPG feel to MySims Kingdom, which really drew me into the game. Non Playable Characters (NPC’s) have yellow exclamation points over their head if there is a quest they can give, very similar to some MMO titles on the market. By completing various tasks, you’ll be rewarded with King Points which allow you to level up. There are also many loot drops in the form of Essences (which will automatically come to your character now instead of you running around to pick them all up). Because of this questing, the game has a very non-linear feel, even though there’s only one way to go through the story.

One of the goals of the development team at EA was to create many types of locations in one place, similar to the multiple themes at DisneyLand. This is accomplished through the game’s various islands, each of which has a different style. One island is a cowboy land, one is a Elf forest, and another is a Italian style island with gardens for Gino the Pizza Maker. Because you can go from island to island completing quests in the order that you choose, Kingdom never ends up feeling repetitive.

The biggest change, in my eyes, from the first MySims game is how Kingdom performs. When you enter or a exit a building, the action happens instantaneously; no more waiting around for load screens whenever you want to go in or out of your house. You can also build anywhere now from a menu choice on screen instead of trekking your way across the villages to find the workshop. A very nice touch that speeds up the gameplay and makes it a more streamlined experience. The Master Builder Mode makes a return, where you’re free to construct anything you want in a much more powerful environment than the first MySims game.

After seeing a demo from the developer, I was very intrigued. The first MySims game bored me after a short amount of time, but Kingdom looks to fix all the issues I had with the initial foray onto the Wii. A bit of hands on time confirmed my thoughts: MySims Kingdom provides a good deal of fun. This game should make its way onto your radar for its release on October 28th. Even if the cute art style isn’t your cup of tea, the gameplay is very solid and will keep you coming back for more. While I got a chance to play both the Wii and DS versions of the game, I strongly preferred the Wii. For whatever reason, the DS version just didn’t click as much as its Wii big brother.

Come late October, you’ll definitely be able to find me playing MySims Kingdom on the Wii. Stay tuned for some more previews from other Sims franchises that were shown at EA’s Media Day. Next up, Sim Animals.