I made Mimi's House in The Sims 4

Remember how I recommended The Sims: Bustin' Out on the 15 Essential Games for GameCube page? It was one of my favourites when I was a teenager. Well, I often played story mode on the Counterculture or Fashion career track, so I spent a lot of time at Mimi's House. Since I had to play Bustin' Out on Dolphin in order to get that screenshot, I decided to take an overview shot of Mimi's at the same time so I could build it in other games.

Obviously, it's going to fit here better than in any other game, because it was being designed alongside all the other stuff in the game. It had tech documents written about it, concept art made of it. It showed up in flowcharts, prototype versions; got shown to EA shareholders, all that stuff. As things were progressing on the art side of the game, this house got continually updated until it reached the final version. It was part of the game, so it'll fit in here better. That having been said...

...just for yuks, I built Mimi's House in The Sims Classic, just so I could see if it could be done. Actually... it's a little bit of an improvement in my opinion. Obviously, some of the Bustin' Out-specific objects needed substitutions, but Mimi's fits right in with the design of TS1. How is it improved? Well, I'd say the brighter green wallpaper from Livin' It Up fits better in the kitchen than the variation on it that was made for Bustin' Out. Also, I prefer the eggchairs from TS1 to the weird fleshy tonguechair from Bustin' Out. I like it so much, I even moved a variation of Mimi into the house so I could play the game as her. You can see her standing next to the bathtub in this shot. So, it worked! It'll work in The Sims 4, then, right? Because The Sims 4 is supposed to be better, right?

No. No, no, no, no, no. Look at this. LOOK at this! Where's the colour?! Where's the light?! Where's the appeal?! Understand, I own all of the TS4 DLC, including a vast amount of stuff I downloaded from MTS and ATS. As soon as I started looking for wall coverings and flooring, it became evident that this wasn't going to work; but I carried on, like a soldier bravely marching to an inevitable defeat. The new design team for TS4 either does not remember TS1, doesn't care, or were held to a strict design aesthetic that they could not waver from without shareholder approval; the latter being the most likely. Out of all of these, even if I were to build Mimi's House in all the other games—and I will—I just can't see it getting any worse than this.

By default, I'm sure I'll have trouble with building Mimi's House in The Sims 2, but I've made so much custom stuff for that game, I'll be able to work something out. The Sims 3, though, with its 15-bit colour palette in Create-a-Style mode, shouldn't pose a problem. Should I bother with the console Sims 2? I mean, I know from just trying to build the Newbie House from TS1 so I could stage my screenshot on the 15 Essentials page that I'll probably hit another snag there. I think there are a few things that make Mimi's House; namely the eggchairs, the double-tile stove (or a way to reasonably mimic one), and the retro airbrush paintings on the walls. Obviously, as I've been ranting, the colours play a very important part, as well; so that's another thing against the console game. Well, anyway, this post has gone nowhere and I hope you haven't read this far. I'm going to go eat something now and pretend like I never made this entry.

--4 October 2023--

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