The Sims Pet Stories is a take on the Sims 2: Pets expansion. Like the other Sims stories games, the Sims Pet Stories comes with two stories that you can play through. For those of you who have never played the Sims, or a Sims stories game: the Sims is a doll house like computer game where you manage people’s lives and help them achieve their goals (or destroy them and make them cry if you are feeling sadistic). The Sims Stories takes that open world concept of the Sims and gives a little plot line that is generally easy and cheesy to follow. Once the stories have been played, the Sims Stories has a free play option that gives a laptop friendly version of the Sims, with pets included.

The first story in the Sims Pet Stories game is called Best in Show. The main character, Alice, is in the situation of many Americans today – she is about to have her house foreclosed upon. Desperate to save her home she drags her Dalmatian Sam to a dog show in an attempt to win the cash prize. The problem you the player face is getting over both Sam’s behavioral problems and the snobby competition – Precious DeBore, the champion poodle and her greedy owner, Diane, who wants to evict Alice and tear her house down.

The second story in Sims Pet Stories is called Midnight Masquerade. The main character, Stephen is an executive chief who has to take care of his cousin’s cat while she is on her honeymoon, mainly because he missed her wedding. Stephen has to juggle the cat, doing the catering and centerpiece for the annual Midnight Masquerade, and dating two different women who a rival keeps trying to steal away.Like all Sims Stories, it is a cute and cheesy one, but contains a hint of romance that may not be appropriate or understood by very young children.

If the two stories bore you, there is always the free play option which lets the consumer play a dumbed down version of the Sims. Though not as good as the actual game it is a decent stand in for Sim starved people. It is also a good choice for users who are lacking in computer power or who cant seem to step away from the laptop and get themselves a decent desktop. Pets are available in the free play version which makes it a doll house game as well as a Catz or Dogz esk computer game.

The Sims Pet Stories would make a great gift for a child, young adult, or kid at heart, because of the cute stories and simplified version of the game. A true Sims fan might enjoy the stories but would not be satisfied with the heavy limitations on the game that are necessary to make it laptop friendly.