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2004 video game
The Sims 2
Developer(s)Maxis Redwood Shores
Sonic Team
Publisher(s)Electronic Arts
Director(s)Charles London
Producer(s)Jonathan Knight
Margaret Ng
Masahiro Kumono
Programmer(s)David Gregory
Matthew M. Brown
Artist(s)David Patch
Goopy Rossi
Leo Hourvitz
Akira Mikame
Composer(s)Jerry Martin
Josh Mancell
Mark Mothersbaugh
Hideaki Kobayashi
Tomoya Ohtani
Mariko Nanba
Taihei Sato
Takahito Eguchi
SeriesThe Sims
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X, Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2, Xbox, PlayStation Portable, Java ME
ReleaseMicrosoft Windows
  • NA: September 14, 2004
  • EU: September 16, 2004
Mac OS X
  • NA: June 17, 2005
  • EU: August 13, 2005
Game Boy Advance, GameCube, Nintendo DS, PlayStation 2 & Xbox
  • NA: October 24, 2005
  • EU: November 4, 2005
PlayStation Portable
  • NA: December 7, 2005
  • EU: January 13, 2006
Genre(s)Social simulation, Platform, action-adventure
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

The Sims 2 is a 2004 strategic life simulation video game developed by Maxis and published by Electronic Arts. It is the second major title in The Sims series, and is the sequel to The Sims. The game was released for Microsoft Windows on September 14, 2004, and a port for MacOS was released on June 17, 2005. Eight expansion packs and nine "stuff packs" were subsequently released between 2005 and 2008. In addition, versions of The Sims 2 were released on various consoles and mobile platforms, including the Nokia Ovi Store. A sequel, The Sims 3, was released in June 2009.

Like its predecessor, The Sims 2 allows the player to create and dress characters called "Sims", design neighborhoods, and build and furnish houses. Players manage their Sims from birth to death, forming relationships in a manner similar to real life. Sims have life goals, wants, and fears, the fulfillment of which can produce good or bad outcomes. The Sims 2 was the first game in the series to incorporate a 3D graphics engine, which allowed the player to get 360º views of the game as opposed to the fixed 2D isometric view of The Sims. Genetics are also a new game mechanic, as previously children in The Sims did not always look like their parents. Although gameplay is not linear, storylines and scripted events exist in the game's pre-built neighborhoods.

The Sims 2 was critically acclaimed, gaining a 90% score from aggregators Metacritic and GameRankings. It has been cited as one of the greatest video games ever made. It was also a commercial success, selling one million copies in its first ten days, a record at the time. In April 2008, The Sims 2's official website announced that 100 million copies of The Sims series had been sold. By March 2012, the game had sold 13 million copies over all platforms with over six million PC copies, making it one of the best-selling PC games of all-time. The Sims 2 was the final game in the series that creator Will Wright worked on.

Gameplay

From the neighborhood view, the player selects one lot to play, as in The Sims. There are both residential and community lots, but Sims can only live in residential lots. Sims can travel to community lots in order to purchase things like clothing and magazines, and to interact with NPCs and townies.

The player can choose between playing a pre-made inhabited lot, moving a household into an unoccupied pre-built lot, or constructing a building on an empty lot. One novelty from The Sims is foundations.

The player switches among the "live" mode (default) to control Sims, the "buy" mode to add, move or delete furniture, or the "build" mode to rebuild the house and make structural changes. Buy and build mode cannot be accessed when on a community lot, but the lots can be built on by using the neighborhood view. It is also possible to import neighborhood terrains from SimCity 4.

The game contains some time-bound social challenges that provide a reward if successful. Sims can throw parties to gain aspiration points or invite the headmaster over for dinner in order to enroll their children in private school. Some expansion packs have new mini-games, like running a Greek house in University or dating in Nightlife. In Nightlife, each date is a challenge to keep both Sims as happy as possible while accumulating aspiration points. Various other expansion packs introduce supernatural characters which Sims can be turned into, such as Zombies, Vampires, Werewolves, PlantSims, and Witches.

Sims

Sims socializing, including an alien sim

The main part of the game is to lead a Sim from the start of life to death. A Sim will be born when a female Sim and a male Sim try for a baby several times. The mother will spend 3 Sim days (each day lasts 24 minutes though time can be sped-up) pregnant before giving birth to a baby. During Pregnancy, the belly does not expand gradually. Instead, every day, it "pops" to a bigger size. Players can name the new Sim upon birth. The baby's appearance and personality will be based on the genetics of its parents (though the baby's appearance is hidden until it becomes a toddler). Babies can also be adopted by calling adoption service on the phone, even by single parents, old age sims or same-gender couples. The baby will change into a toddler in 3 days, and 4 more days for the toddler to change into a child. After 8 days, the child grows into a teenager, and will live 15 days before changing into an adult. After 29 days, the Sim will become an elder. An elder will eventually die; the length of this final stage depends on the aspiration bar when they become an elder.

Babies, toddlers, children, teens, and adults can be advanced to their next life stage at any time during the 24 Sim hours before they will grow up automatically. For babies, this requires using the birthday cake. Toddlers, children, teens, and adults can use the "Grow Up" self-interaction. If the university expansion pack is installed, teens have the option to go to college, where they will be young adults for approximately 24 days. Aging can be disabled via cheats.

Players will need to build up talent badges, skills and relationships with other people, so that they can be successful in their career. A player will also need to make sure a Sim is happy and well by fulfilling wants (including lifetime wants, avoiding fears, and fulfilling motives).

Pregnancy, toddlers, teens, and elders are new stages of life. Young adult is a unique age added with the University expansion. Teen Sims will become young adults once they are moved to a university, and will be adults once they leave campus, regardless of the reason.

Create-a-Sim

Create-a-Sim

In The Sims 2, Create a Family is entered by clicking the "Families" button in the lower left-hand corner of the neighborhood view, then clicking the large "Create New Family" button. Clicking the button labeled "Create A Sim" will expand a tab which has the "Create a Sim" and "Make a Child" icons. "Make a Child" will be grayed out unless the family contains an adult male and adult female. Clicking the "Create a Sim" icon will generate a random adult Sim, who may be male or female which can be edited by the player.

As opposed to The Sims, any age besides baby or young adult (which must be made in the University Create a Student) may be created. Instead of having to choose from already finished faces which include hair, it is now possible to alter the facial structure (e.g. widening the nose, thinning the lips, elongating the chin, etc.) and choose any hairstyle to go with it. Different eye colors and an additional skin tone is available for the Sims as well. If Sims are older than a child, their aspiration and turn-ons/offs (Nightlife or later) may be determined. There are ten personality traits which are: sloppy, neat, shy, outgoing, lazy, active, serious, playful, grouchy, and nice but only 25 personality points which can be assigned to those traits. However, in The Sims 2, all personality points must be assigned. Additionally, there are twelve pre-set personalities, one for each zodiac sign. A zodiac sign will be set which matches the personality the player has selected for the Sim. A sim also has one of six Aspirations which is a lifetime goal that strongly influences their Wants and Fears which are: Grow Up, Romance, Family, Knowledge, Popularity, and Fortune.

The Sims 2 also comes with The Sims 2 Body Shop, which enables users to create custom genetics, make-up, clothes, and Sims, with the help of third-party tools, such as Microsoft Paint, Paint.NET, Adobe Photoshop, GIMP, and SimPE.

Social interactions

There are several new social interactions introduced in The Sims 2. These new social interactions can create memories and can be related to certain age groups. Social interactions can come up in the Wants and Fears panel and can be dependent on the Sim's personality and aspiration. Sims with certain personalities may not want to complete certain social interactions.

Influence
Influencing social interactions are introduced in the University expansion pack. A Sim is able to influence another Sim to complete a social interaction or a chore. Sims gain influence points by completing Wants and can lose influence points by completing Fears. The size of the influence bar depends on the number of friends the Sim has. It also can grow in size with business perks from the Open for Business expansion pack. Influence was also in the Nightlife expansion but added nothing.
Chemistry
The Nightlife expansion pack introduced a new feature, Turn-Ons and Turn-Offs. Teenagers and older are able to choose their turn-ons and turn-offs. These and other factors such as aspiration and personality, determine the chemistry that one Sim has with another in the form of lightning bolts. Sims can have up to 3 lightning bolts with another Sim. The higher the chemistry is that a Sim has with another Sim, the greater the chance for social interactions to be accepted. New turn-ons and turn-offs are introduced with the Bon Voyage expansion pack.
Fury
Fury is introduced in the Nightlife expansion pack and occurs when one Sim gets angry at another. During this time relationships with the Sim who is furious are harder to build. Also, the Sim who is furious may pick a fight or vandalize the home lot of the Sim they are furious with. Fury can be caused by another Sim burgling the Sim's house, getting fined after calling emergency services when there was no emergency, fighting, cheating on (the cheater or the Sim that was cheated with, often both), and more.
Reputation
Reputation, which is found in the previous Sims game The Urbz: Sims in the City is reintroduced in the Apartment Life expansion pack. A Sim gains reputation by interacting with other Sims on community lots. Sims with higher reputations are more likely to gain perks such as free objects and job promotions.

Careers

There are 25 careers (counting all expansion packs) that come with the game that require skills and a certain number of friends in order for promotion. Each career track has ten levels. Success in these careers unlocks career rewards and higher salaries plus bonuses. Sims also receive chance cards. Correct answers to these chance cards creates rewards for Sims while incorrect answers could cause a Sim to lose its job. Nightlife and Apartment Life allow Sims to gain promotions through social interactions with other Sims.

Neighborhoods

Neighbourhoods may be customized with decorative objects, as shown here with Strangetown.

The Sims 2 ships with three pre-made worlds, known as neighborhoods for the player to explore, all with a specific theme and storylines. These worlds are Pleasantview, a continuation of the playable neighborhood from The Sims, featuring many of the same families, such as the Goths and the Pleasants – Strangetown, a small desert town themed around the supernatural, with aliens, mad scientists and haunted graveyards. The final neighborhood, Veronaville, is a European-themed town based on the works of William Shakespeare, with its central plot being a loose, modern retelling of Romeo and Juliet. Aside from these pre-made neighborhoods, players can create and populate towns of their own, using built-in presets, or create their own entirely using SimCity 4, since SimCity 4 maps are compatible with The Sims 2.

Expansion packs also add several new neighborhoods, such as University towns, a shopping district, a Downtown area and several vacation destinations. Seasons adds a fully-fledged neighborhood, a rural small town called Riverblossom Hills, Free Time adds a hobby-themed town named Desiderata Valley, while Apartment Life adds Belladonna Cove, a bigger, more metropolitan area featuring apartments and high-rises.

Comparison to The Sims

Graphically, The Sims 2 is more detailed than The Sims and lets players view its world in full 3D. This is a change from earlier Sim games, such as SimCity 2000, which used dimetric projection and fixed resolutions, as the camera was in The Sims. In The Sims, Sims are 3D meshes, but The Sims 2 introduces far more detail in mesh quality, texture quality, and animation capability. A Sim's facial features are customizable and unique, and Sims can smile, frown, and blink. The player can adjust a Sim's features in the in-game Create-a-Sim tool; for example, noses can be made to be very large or very small. Texturing is achieved through use of raster images, though it appears more lifelike.

The Sims 2 characters pass through seven life stages — babies, toddlers, children, teenagers, young adults (only with University), adults, and elders — with eventual death of old age, while babies in The Sims only become children before ceasing to age further. The aspiration system (described above) is also new to The Sims 2. Sims can become pregnant and produce babies that take on genetic characteristics of their parents, such as eye color, hair color, facial structure, and personality traits as opposed to The Sims, in which the baby would take on random appearance and personality. Genetics play a major role in the game, and as such, dominant and recessive genes play a larger role than they did in the original game. A player can also aspire to have a Sim abducted by aliens. Males then have the chance to become impregnated and produce after three Sim days a half-alien child.

Some of the other additions to gameplay are career rewards, a week cycle, the cleaning skill (which was a hidden skill in The Sims), a variety of meals (depending on time of day), exercise clothing, body shape affected by diet and exercise, and houses built on foundations. Cutscenes were another new feature in The Sims 2. There are cutscenes featuring first kiss, woohoo, child birth, alien abductions, also going to college and graduating in The Sims 2: University.

Development

Preliminary development on The Sims 2 began in late 2000 following the release of The Sims. EA Games announced on May 5, 2003, that the Maxis studio had begun development on The Sims 2. A teaser trailer was provided on The Sims: Makin' Magic CD, released October 2003, which was later uploaded to websites all over the Internet. The game was first shown at E3 in Los Angeles, California on May 13, 2003.

The development team decided that the core qualities that drew people to The Sims were that it was easily relatable to most people, gave players the freedom to be creative, had an irrerevent sense of humor, and featured open-ended gameplay, and set out to build upon these aspects in the sequel. The move to 3D graphics was considered essential in getting players of the first game to upgrade. The dev team considered adding "thirst" and "stress" needs, but reconsidered after feedback from players showed that they were growing tired of maintaining their Sims' basic needs. Instead, the team focused on using the existing needs to differentiate the different life stages; for example, teenage Sims have a higher need for social interaction. Custom content was also considered an essential part of The Sims' popularity; to incentivize its creation, the team ensured that installing and managing user-made content was as smooth as possible. Will Wright stated that the reception to the expansion packs for the first game helped the team to decide which features to include in the base game, citing community lots as an example.

Sonic the Hedgehog (commonly referred to as Sonic '06) is a 2006 platform game developed by Sonic Team and published by Sega. It was produced in commemoration of the Sonic series' 15th anniversary, and intended as a reboot for the seventh-generation video game consoles. Players control Sonic, Shadow, and the new character Silver, who battle Solaris, an ancient evil pursued by Doctor Eggman. Each playable character has his own campaign and abilities, and must complete levels, explore hub worlds and fight bosses to advance the story. In multiplayer modes, players can work cooperatively to collect Chaos Emeralds or race to the end of a level.

Development began in 2004, led by Sonic co-creator Yuji Naka. Sonic Team sought to create an appealing game in the vein of superhero films such as Batman Begins, hoping it would advance the series with a realistic tone and multiple gameplay styles. Problems developed after Naka resigned to form his own company, Prope, and the team split to work on the Wii game Sonic and the Secret Rings (2007). As a result, Sonic the Hedgehog was rushed for release in time for the December holiday season. It was released for Xbox 360 in November 2006 and for PlayStation 3 the following month. Versions for Wii and Windows were canceled. Downloadable content featuring new single-player modes was released in 2007.

Sonic the Hedgehog received praise in prerelease showings, as journalists believed it could return the series to its roots after years of mixed reviews. However, it was a critical failure. Reviewers criticized its loading times, camera system, story, voice acting, glitches, and controls. It is widely considered the worst Sonic game and led to the series' direction being rethought; subsequent games ignored its tone and most characters. In 2010, Sega delisted Sonic the Hedgehog from retailers, following its decision to remove all Sonic games with below-average Metacritic scores to increase the value of the franchise.

Gameplay

Screenshot of Wave Ocean, the first level of Sonic's campaign in Sonic the Hedgehog; this particular screen shows Sonic running at full speed while dodging obstacles. The text on the left-hand side of the screen shows the timer, the number of lives the player has, and the player's score. The meter on the right side shows how much power the player has in order to perform special abilities.
Gameplay screenshot of Sonic running across a beach in the first level

Sonic the Hedgehog is a 3D platformer with action-adventure and role-playing elements. Like Sonic Adventure, the single player navigates through open-ended hub worlds where they can converse with townspeople and perform missions to advance the story. The main gameplay takes place in linear levels that become accessible as the game progresses. The main playable characters are three hedgehogs: Sonic, Shadow, and Silver, who feature in separate campaigns titled "episodes". A bonus "Last Episode", which involves all three hedgehogs and concludes the storyline, is unlocked upon completing the first three.

Sonic's story focuses on the speed-based platforming seen in previous Sonic games, with some sections having him run at full speed while dodging obstacles or riding a snowboard. Another character, Princess Elise, must be escorted in some stages, and she can use a special barrier to guard Sonic. Shadow's sections are similarly speedy, albeit more combat-oriented, with some segments having him ride vehicles. In contrast, Silver's levels are slower and revolve around his use of telekinesis to defeat enemies and solve puzzles. In certain areas, control is switched to one of several friend characters, with their own abilities.

Although each character traverses the same levels, their unique abilities allow the player to access different areas of each stage and prevent them from accessing certain items. Scattered through each level are golden rings, which serve as a form of health. The rings can protect a character from a single hit by an enemy or obstacle, at which point they will be scattered and blink before disappearing. The game begins with Sonic, Shadow, and Silver each assigned a limited number of lives. These lives are successively lost whenever, with no rings in their possession, the characters are hit by an enemy or obstacle or encounter other fatal hazards. The game ends when the player exhausts the characters' lives. Every few levels, players will encounter a boss stage; to proceed, they must defeat the boss by depleting its health meter.

Upon completion of a level or mission, players are given a grade depending on their performance, with an "S" rank being the best and a "D" rank being the worst. Players are given money for completing missions; more money is given to higher ranks. This money can be used to buy upgrades for the player character. Certain upgrades are required to complete the game. The game also features two multiplayer modes: "Tag", a cooperative mode where two players must work together to clear levels and collect Chaos Emeralds, and "Battle", a player versus player mode where two players race against each other.

Plot

Further information: List of Sonic the Hedgehog characters

Doctor Eggman kidnaps Princess Elise of Soleanna in the hopes of harnessing the Flames of Disaster, a destructive power sealed within her. Aided by his friends Tails and Knuckles, Sonic works to protect Elise from Eggman. Meanwhile, Shadow, his fellow agent Rouge, and Eggman accidentally release an evil spirit, Mephiles. The spirit transports the agent duo to a post-apocalyptic future ravaged by a demonic monster, Iblis. When Mephiles meets survivors Silver and Blaze, he fools them into thinking Sonic is the cause of the destruction and sends them to the present to kill him.

Throughout the story, Sonic and friends travel between the past, present, and future in their efforts to stop Mephiles and Iblis and protect Elise from Doctor Eggman. Though at first Silver stalks Sonic and impedes his attempts to save Elise, Shadow reveals to him that Sonic is not the cause of his world's suffering but rather Mephiles, who is trying to change the past for his own evil purposes. They travel 10 years in the past and learn that Mephiles seeks to bond with Iblis, who was sealed within Elise as a child, as they are the two halves of Soleanna's omnipotent god, Solaris. Mephiles eventually succeeds after killing Sonic to make Elise cry over his death, releasing her seal on Iblis and merging with him with the use of Chaos Emeralds to become Solaris, who then attempts to consume time itself. The heroes collect and use the power of the Chaos Emeralds to revive Sonic, and he, Shadow, and Silver transform into their super forms to defeat Solaris. Sonic and Elise are brought to the past and extinguish Solaris's flame, removing the god from existence and preventing the events from ever occurring. Despite this, Sonic and Elise show faint signs of recalling their encounter afterwards.

Development

After finishing Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg (2003), Sonic Team began to plan its next project. Among the ideas the team was considering was a game with a realistic tone and an advanced physics engine. When Sega reassigned the team to start working on a new game in the bestselling Sonic series, they decided to retain the realistic approach. Sonic the Hedgehog was conceived for sixth-generation consoles, but Sonic Team realized its release would coincide with the series' 15th anniversary and decided to develop it for seventh-generation consoles such as the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Series co-creator and team lead Yuji Naka wanted the first Sonic game for seventh-generation systems to reach a wide audience. Naka noted the success of superhero films such as Spider-Man 2 (2004) and Batman Begins (2005): "When Marvel or DC Comics turn their characters into films, they are thinking of them as blockbusters, huge hits, and that's what we were trying to emulate with Sonic." Thus, development of Sonic the Hedgehog began in late 2004. Sonic Team used the same title as the original 1991 Sonic the Hedgehog to indicate that it would be a major advance from the previous games and a reboot that returned to the series' roots.

The Havok physics engine, previously used in their PlayStation 2 game Astro Boy (2004), allowed Sonic Team to create expansive levels previously impossible on earlier sixth-generation consoles and experiment with multiple play-styles. In addition, the engine also enabled Sonic Team to experiment with aspects such as global illumination, a night-and-day system, and giving Sonic new abilities like using ropes to leap into the air. Director Shun Nakamura demonstrated the engine during their stage shows at the Tokyo Game Show (TGS) in 2005. As the hardware of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 was more powerful compared to the prior generation's consoles, the design team was able to create a more realistic setting than those of previous Sonic games. Sonic and Doctor Eggman were redesigned to better suit this updated environment: Sonic was made taller, with longer quills, and Eggman was made slimmer and given a more realistic appearance. Nakamura and producer Masahiro Kumono reasoned this was because the characters would be interacting with more humans, and felt it would make the game more appealing to older players. At one point, Sonic Team considered giving Sonic realistic fur and rubber textures.

While Sonic Team had a major focus on the visuals, they considered their primary challenge creating a game that was as appealing as the original Sega Genesis Sonic games. They felt Sonic Heroes (2003) and Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) had veered into different directions and wanted to return the series to its speed-based roots in new ways. For example, they wanted to include multiple paths in levels, like the Genesis games had, a goal the realistic environments helped achieve. Sonic Team sought to "aggressively" address problems with the virtual camera system from earlier Sonic games, about which they had received many complaints.

Concept art for the character who would eventually become Silver the Hedgehog. More that fifty designs were made for the character before settling on his final appearance.
Early concept art of Silver the Hedgehog

Silver the Hedgehog's gameplay style was born out of Sonic Team's desire to take advantage of Havok's realistic physics capabilities. The first design concept for Silver's character was an orange mink; he attained his final hedgehog look after over 50 design iterations. In designing Shadow's gameplay, the developers abandoned the concept of firearms previously used in Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) in favor of combat elements to differentiate him from the other characters. Shadow's gameplay was further fleshed out with the addition of vehicles; each vehicle uses its own physical engine. The game also features several CGI cutscenes produced by Blur Studio. Animation supervisor Leo Santos said Blur faced challenges animating the opening scene due to the placement of Sonic's mouth.

As development progressed, Sonic Team faced serious problems. In March 2006, Naka resigned as head of Sonic Team to form his own company, Prope. Naka has said he resigned because he did not want to continue making Sonic games and instead wished to focus on original properties. With his departure, "the heart and soul of Sonic" was gone, according to former Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske. Sonic the Hedgehog was originally intended for release on all major seventh-generation consoles as well as Windows, but Sega was presented with development kits for Nintendo's less powerful Wii console. Sega believed porting the game to Wii would take too long, and so conceived a Sonic game that would use the motion detection function of its controller.

Therefore, the team was split in two: Nakamura led one team to finish Sonic the Hedgehog for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 while producer Yojiro Ogawa led the other to begin work on Sonic and the Secret Rings for the Wii. The split left an unusually small team to work on Sonic the Hedgehog. Sega pressured the team to finish the game in time for the 2006 holiday shopping season, so with the deadline quickly approaching, Sonic Team rushed the final stages of development, ignoring bug reports from Sega's quality assurance department and control problems. In retrospect, Ogawa noted that the final period proved to be a large challenge for the team. Not only was the Xbox 360 release imminent, but the PlayStation 3 launch was scheduled not long afterwards. This put tremendous pressure on the team to develop for both systems. Producer Takashi Iizuka similarly recalled, "we didn't have any time to polish and we were just churning out content as quick as we could."

Audio

The English cast of the Sonic X anime series reprised their voice roles for Sonic the Hedgehog, and actress Lacey Chabert supplied the voice of series newcomer and damsel in distress Princess Elise. The score for the game was primarily composed by Tomoya Ohtani along with Hideaki Kobayashi, Mariko Nanba, Taihei Sato, and Takahito Eguchi. It was the first Sonic game that Ohtani, who had previously contributed to Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog, worked on as sound director. The main theme for the game, the fantasy-rap song "His World", was performed by Ali Tabatabaee and Matty Lewis of the band Zebrahead. Crush 40 performed Shadow's theme, "All Hail Shadow", while vocalist Bentley Jones (previously known as Lee Brotherton) sang Silver's theme, "Dreams of an Absolution". R&B artist Akon performed a remix of the Dreams Come True song "Sweet Sweet Sweet", a song previously used as the ending theme to Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (1992). Donna De Lory sang Elise's theme, "My Destiny".

Because Sonic the Hedgehog was the first Sonic game for seventh-generation consoles, Ohtani "aimed to emphasise that it was an epic next-generation title". Two soundtrack albums were released on January 10, 2007, under Sega's Wave Master label: Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Traxx: Several Wills and Sonic the Hedgehog Original Soundtrack. Vocal Traxx: Several Wills contains seven songs; four are from the game, while the remaining three are remixes, including a version of "His World" performed by Crush 40. Original Soundtrack includes all 93 tracks featured in Sonic the Hedgehog, spanning three discs.

Release

Sonic the Hedgehog was announced in a closed-doors presentation at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in May 2005. Later that year, at TGS in September, Naka revealed the game's title and said its release would correspond with the series' 15th anniversary. A demo version of the game was playable at E3 2006. A second demo, featuring a short section of Sonic's gameplay, was released via Xbox Live in September 2006. Sega released several packages of desktop wallpaper featuring characters from the game, and American publisher Prima Games published an official strategy guide, written by Fletcher Black. Sega also made a deal with Microsoft to run advertisements for the game in Windows Live Messenger.

The Xbox 360 version of Sonic the Hedgehog was released in North America on November 14, 2006, followed by a European release on November 24. Both versions were released in Japan on December 21. The PlayStation 3 version was released in North America on January 30, 2007, and in Europe on March 23. The game is often referred to by critics and fans with colloquial terms that reference its year of release, such as Sonic 2006 or Sonic '06.

In 2007, Sega released several packages of downloadable content that added features to single-player gameplay. These include a more difficult single-player mode and a continuous battle mode with all of the game's bosses back-to-back. One downloadable addition, "Team Attack Amigo" mode, sends players through a multitude of levels, changing to a different character every two or three levels and culminating in a boss fight. The PlayStation 3 version was delayed to allow more time to incorporate the downloadable content, and thus launched alongside it.

The game was digitally rereleased via the Xbox Live Marketplace on April 15, 2010. The following October, various Sonic games with average or below average scores on the review aggregator website Metacritic, including Sonic the Hedgehog, were delisted from retailers. Sega reasoned this was to avoid confusing customers and increase the value of the brand, following positive prerelease responses to Sonic the Hedgehog 4: Episode I and Sonic Colors (both 2010). Sonic the Hedgehog was relisted on the Xbox 360 Marketplace in May 2022.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate score
AggregatorScore
Metacritic46/100 (X360)
43/100 (PS3)
Review scores
PublicationScore
1Up.comC (X360)
Eurogamer2/10 (X360)
Famitsu30/40 (X360)
29/40 (PS3)
Game Informer6.75/10 (X360)
GameSpot4.4/10 (X360)
4.2/10 (PS3)
GameSpy (X360)
GamesRadar+
GameZone4.5/10 (X360)
IGN4.8/10 (X360)
4.2/10 (PS3)
Official Xbox Magazine (UK)6/10 (X360)
Play5.5/10 (PS3)
8.5/10 (X360)
PSM34.7/10 (PS3)
TeamXbox6/10 (X360)
The A.V. ClubD−

Sonic the Hedgehog was well-received during prerelease showings. Reception to prior games Sonic Heroes and Shadow the Hedgehog had been mixed; after a number of well-received showings and demos, some felt Sonic the Hedgehog could be a return to the series' roots. GameSpot said the game "showed a considerable amount of promise" after playing a demo at E3 2006, and GameSpy praised its graphics and environments. In 2008 GamesRadar said that it had looked "amazing" before its release.

At the time of release, the game received widespread negative reviews. Metacritic classified both versions' reception as "generally unfavorable". Sega reported that the game sold strongly, with 870,000 units sold in the United States and Europe within four months. The Xbox 360 version was branded under the Platinum Hits budget line.

Critics were divided on the game's presentation. IGN called its graphics and audio "decent" and felt its interface and menu system worked well but lacked polish, but GameSpot said the graphics, while colorful, were bland and only a small improvement over sixth-generation games, a sentiment echoed by 1UP.com. Game Informer and Eurogamer noted several graphical glitches. Eurogamer also criticized the decision to continue the Sonic Adventure style of gameplay, believing that Sonic Team had learned nothing from the criticisms of past games.

Reviewers singled out the game's camera system, loading times, controls, level designs, and glitches. GameSpot said the level design was worsened by the frustrating camera system, and Game Informer criticized the game's high difficulty, citing the camera as causing most deaths. Some reviewers were unhappy that the majority of the game was not spent playing as Sonic; playing as Tails, GameSpot wrote, made a level boring. Similar criticism was offered by Eurogamer, finding that the supporting cast annoyed rather than fleshing the game out; they considered the camera system to be the worst they had ever seen in a video game. On the positive side, 1UP felt that despite the control and level design problems, the game still played like a Sonic game.

The plot was criticized as confusing and inappropriately dark. GamesRadar considered it overwrought and "conceptually challenged", and Eurogamer found its voice acting painful and its cutscenes cringeworthy. Some reviewers unfavorably compared the story to that of an anime or Final Fantasy. The romance between Sonic and the human Princess Elise was especially criticized; for GamesTM, it marked the point "the series had veered off into absolute nonsense."

"This ... is a mess from top to bottom", wrote GameSpot, that "only the most blindly reverent Sonic the Hedgehog fan could possibly squeeze any enjoyment out of". IGN said that the game had some redeeming qualities, with brief segments of gameplay that demonstrated how a next-generation Sonic game could work, but found it "rips them away as soon as it shows them" and concluded that the game failed to reinvent the series. Eurogamer believed that Sonic the Hedgehog's mistakes would have been noticed even if the game had been released in 1996.

Despite the mostly negative reception, Game Informer and Dave Halverson of Play Magazine defended the game. Game Informer described it as ambitious and praised the graphics, story, amount of content, and replay value, but believed only Sonic fans would enjoy the game. Halverson initially gave the Xbox 360 version a 9.5/10, praising each character's controls and abilities and calling it the best 3D Sonic game yet. In the following issue, Halverson reassessed it as 8.5/10, writing that he had been told that the load times and glitches in his review copy would not be in the final version of the game. In a later review of the PlayStation 3 version, Halverson was frustrated that the problems had still not been corrected and that the performance was worse despite the extra development time; Halverson gave this version a 5.5/10. The A.V. Club said in 2016 that despite the game's poor quality, the soundtrack has some "genuine rippers".

Legacy

GameTrailers and GamesRadar considered Sonic the Hedgehog one of the most disappointing games of 2006. GamesTM singled out the game when it ranked the Sonic franchise at the top of their list of "Video Game Franchises That Lost Their Way". The A.V. Club, Kotaku, Game Informer, and USgamer called the game the worst in the Sonic series, and the staff of GamesRadar named it among the worst video games of all time. The game remains popular for "Let's Play" walkthroughs, with players showing off its glitches. In 2019, a video gained popularity in which a group of voice actors dub over the game's cutscenes in a single take, creating a nonsensical, improvisational storyline about video game culture. The official Sonic Twitter account also mocks the game. The failure of Sonic the Hedgehog led to the direction of the series being rethought. The next main Sonic game, 2008's Unleashed, ignored the gritty and realistic tone of its predecessor. With Unleashed's sequel Sonic Colors, The A.V. Club wrote that "the series rediscovered its strength for whimsical tales with light tones."

Sonic the Hedgehog introduced Silver the Hedgehog, Princess Elise, Mephiles, and Iblis to the franchise; most have made few appearances since. Silver is a playable character in Sonic Rivals (2006) and its sequel, in Sonic Riders: Zero Gravity (2008), and in Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games and its sequels, and is a minor character in the Nintendo DS version of Sonic Colors (2010) and Sonic Forces (2017). He also appeared in the Sonic the Hedgehog comic book series published by Archie Comics. The main theme of Sonic the Hedgehog and the theme of Sonic, "His World", was sampled in Drake's 2017 song "KMT".

To celebrate the Sonic franchise's 20th anniversary in 2011, Sega released Sonic Generations, which remade aspects of past Sonic games. The PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Windows versions feature a remake of Sonic the Hedgehog's "Crisis City" level, and every version, including the Nintendo 3DS version, includes a reimagined version of the boss battle with Silver. The decision to include Sonic the Hedgehog stages and bosses in Sonic Generations was criticized by critics and fans of the series; Jim Sterling of Destructoid referred to the Silver boss fight as the "catch" of the otherwise high-quality game.

In 2015, a fan group, Gistix, began developing a remake for Windows using the Unity engine. A demo was released in January 2017, and was positively received by journalists. A second demo was released in late 2017, which Eurogamer called ambitious. A second team of fans, led by ChaosX, began developing a separate PC remake in Unity, Sonic P-06, releasing multiple demos from 2019 onward.

On December 15, 2012, Electronic Arts announced that the official website would be shut down on January 14, 2013. It is now no longer possible to download content from the official site, create exchanges, or participate in the official forum communities.

On July 16, 2014, Electronic Arts announced the end of support for The Sims 2. As a response The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection was released at the same time as a limited time offer. The game became available for free download from Origin exclusively following an announcement by EA that they would no longer be supporting the game. This offer ended at 10:00 PDT July 31, 2014.

On August 7, 2014, Aspyr Media released The Sims 2: Super Collection as digital download exclusively available at the Mac App Store; the game was updated for OS X Mavericks, 4K and Retina. This compilation only includes the first six expansion packs and the first three stuff packs. Aspyr stated they were unable to include the remaining packs for the game due to licensing conflicts with EA. Like the Ultimate Collection, no new updates on when the remaining packs will be released separately or as a single add-on to the Super Collection have emerged.

Music

Mark Mothersbaugh composed the build mode, buy mode, Create a Sim, neighborhood music, and main theme of The Sims 2. The game also features original "Simlish"-language songs on the radio, provided by Jerry Martin, The Humble Brothers, Kirk Casey, and others.

External videos
video icon Lily Allen – Smile (in Simlish) – using Sims 2 Seasons, uploaded to the official Electronic Arts YouTube channel (April 6, 2007)

In later expansion and stuffpacks, well-known recording artists provided "Simlish" versions of their songs for the in-game radio stations, including Depeche Mode, Kajagoogoo, Lily Allen, Datarock, Plain White T's, and Katy Perry, among others. "Pressure" by Paramore, "Don't Cha" by The Pussycat Dolls, "Good Day" by Tally Hall, and "Like Light to the Flies" by Trivium were among the songs re-recorded by their original artists in Simlish for the console version of The Sims 2.

Reception and legacy

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings91%
Metacritic90
Review scores
PublicationScore
1Up.comA
Eurogamer8/10
GamePro
GameRevolutionB+
GameSpot8.9/10
GameSpy
GamesRadar+9/10
GameZone9.4/10
IGN9.4/10
PC Gamer (US)85%
Awards
PublicationAward
Blimp Award (UK Kids' Choice Awards)Best Video Game
Apple Design Award (Apple Design Awards)Best Mac OS X Game

PC/Mac OS X versions

The Sims 2 received widespread critical acclaim. On Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, The Sims 2 has an average score of 90 based on 61 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim". The game also received the Editor's Choice Award from IGN and GameSpy upon final review of the finished product. The Sims 2 had a successful E3. From 71 online reviews, the average score was 90 out of 100. Seven of those sources awarded the game a 100-out-of-100 score. X-Play gave the game a 4/5. Computer Gaming World awarded the game as their 2004 "Strategy Game of the Year (General)", beating out RollerCoaster Tycoon 3, The Political Machine, and Silent Storm.

The Sims' creator, Will Wright, was recognized by being nominated at the Billboard Digital Entertainment Awards for Visionary and Game Developer. The game was also nominated for two international awards in 2005. The Mac version of the game won an Apple Design Award in 2006. Computer Games Magazine named The Sims 2 the sixth-best computer game of 2004. The editors wrote that it is "more of a game and less of a dollhouse , but it remains a celebration of the beauty of the mundane." It also won the magazine's "Best Voice Acting" award.

The Sims 2 was an instant commercial success, selling a then-record one million copies in its first ten days. The game sold 4.5 million units within its first year, and 7 million by October 2006. It received a "Double Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA), indicating sales of at least 600,000 copies in the United Kingdom. It received a "Double Platinum" award from the Asociación Española de Distribuidores y Editores de Software de Entretenimiento (aDeSe), for more than 160,000 sales in Spain during its first 12 months.

As of March 2012, The Sims 2 had sold 13 million units across all platforms with at least six million units on PC, making it one of the best-selling PC games of all-time. The 2016 World Video Game Hall of Fame Inductees announced that 200 million copies of The Sims series had been sold, becoming one of the top best-selling video game franchises of all time.

Even after subsequent Sims installments, The Sims 2 still has an active fanbase. To this day, the game has a large modding community, with new user-created content being continually uploaded to fansites such as Mod The Sims and Sim-themed blogs hosted on Tumblr (nicknamed "Simblrs.")

Other versions

This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (July 2022)

The Game Boy Advance version of the game has a score of 58 out of 100 on Metacritic.

Controversy

See also: Video game controversies

The Sims 2's malleable content and open-ended customization have led to controversy on the subject of pay sites. Custom content is distributed through independent websites, some of which charge for downloading materials. Charging money for custom content is considered a violation of the game's EULA, which prohibits the commercial use of Electronic Arts' intellectual property.

On July 22, 2005, Florida attorney Jack Thompson alleged that Electronic Arts and The Sims 2 promoted nudity through the use of a mod or a cheat code. The claim was made that pubic hair, labia and other genital details were visible once the "blur" (the pixelation that occurs when a Sim is using the toilet or is naked in the game) was removed. Electronic Arts executive Jeff Brown said in an interview with GameSpot:

This is nonsense. We've reviewed 100 percent of the content. There is no content inappropriate for a teen audience. Players never see a nude Sim. If someone with an extreme amount of expertise and time were to remove the pixels, they would see that the sims have no genitals. They appear like Ken and Barbie.

Prior to Thompson's statement, there was an enterable code which allowed to modify the size (including to zero) of pixelation accessible from the console menu. Shortly after the statement, subsequent patches and expansion packs removed the "intProp censorGridSize" code; this code had been left over from the beta testing stage of the original game and had not been intended for a public audience.

Editions, compilations, and add-ons

Many Sims games have been ported to Mac OS X by Aspyr. The Sims 2 has been ported to video game consoles including the PlayStation 2, Xbox, Nintendo DS, and GameCube.

Mac OS X

Mac OS X ports of the base game, the first six expansion packs, and the first three Stuff Packs have been released by Aspyr Media. The port for the base game was announced on October 19, 2004. The Sims 2 had reached beta status on March 1, 2005, and was released on June 17 the same year. It was, at release, compatible with Mac OS X Panther and above on PowerPC Macintosh systems. The Sims 2 Body Shop was also available for Mac OS X. Aspyr Media released The Sims 2 with all ported expansions and stuff packs as The Sims™2: Super Collection for Intel Macs in 2014. The game is available for purchase on the Mac App Store for OS X 10.9 Mavericks and above.

Consoles

The console versions of The Sims 2 featured local splitscreen multiplayer, a story mode and an option to control game characters directly, as opposed to queuing options as is traditional Sims gameplay. In this videogame, you cannot have children nor age, but you are only adults (excluding elders), even though you can get married. You must earn aspiration points to unlock rewards by filling up your "goals" which will also be needed to complete story mode. Story mode is a sequence of multiple levels along with developed storylines which each character asks you to fulfill wants that pertain to their story. There is also a sandbox mode where you can live in a preset family or build your own.

Handhelds

The three handheld versions of the game are completely different among themselves, unlike the home console versions of the game which are virtually identical to each other. All three handheld versions take on more of a linear storyline.

Game Boy Advance

The Game Boy Advance version of The Sims 2 takes place in Strangetown, and shares a similar GUI to its predecessors (The Sims Bustin' Out and The Urbz). Players are guided through a goal-oriented game based on the reality television concept in which partitions of the game are divided into "episodes". Characters from the previous handheld sims games also appeared.

Nintendo DS

The Nintendo DS version of The Sims 2 begins with the player's car breaking down in Strangetown. Upon arriving, an anonymous donor grants the player the deed to a hotel which can be operated and customized at the player's discretion. The player's job is to bring life back into Strangetown by encouraging people to come to the hotel, which players can do by upgrading it and making the guests happy. There are several ways in which a player can make Strangetown a nicer place, but is up to the player to find them. Unlike most games in the Sim series, this one takes place in real-time.

PlayStation Portable

The PlayStation Portable version of the game is played in third person, much like the Nintendo DS version. The game contains elements of role-playing games and has more of a solid storyline the player is required to navigate through in order to unlock most of the things available in the other versions. The option to build your own home is replaced by a pre-built home where you can customize the furniture and decor. Conversations and jobs are carried out via a mini-game function. The player's character does not age, nor are they able to marry or have children, but they can have a significant other and "WooHoo". Relationships are mainly used for the point of solving goals, though a close friend may move in with the player after progressing in the game. When the player completes a goal their sanity meter, represented as a Plumbob, will fill up slightly and if the player actively doesn't complete their goals the sanity meter will rapidly deplete until the player is hospitalised or abducted by aliens. The player can also earn "Sanity Points" by completing goals which they can use to unlock special perks. Another feature unique to this, and the Nintendo DS, version are "Secrets" which the player can find scattered around Strangetown or by socialising with characters.

The game begins with the player's character driving through the Strangetown desert, presumably the "Road to Nowhere" in their car, when suddenly a flying green diamond (Also known as the Plumbob, the marker and logo of the Sims games) flies past the player and causes them to lose control of, and damage, their car. Fortunately, the player finds a gas station. The player takes their car into the garage. At that point the player takes control. The player is introduced to a vehicle mechanic named Oscar who, after a brief tutorial in teaching the player how to talk to NPC Sims, informs the player their car will only take a short while to fix.

The player is then free to roam around the gas station, and after being introduced to some more NPCs, including Bella Goth, who claims to be abducted by aliens, completing tasks and being taught the basic objective of the game which is "Secret Hunting" for the store clerk. The player then exits the shop only to find the garage around the back has completely disappeared along with Oscar and their car, with only the foundation of the garage remaining. The only thing left from the disappearance is a cell phone, which the player answers and a man named Doctor Dominic Newlow offers the player a job, requiring him or her to get a ride into town and find a place to stay.

The player informs Police Deputy Duncan about the situation who replies that he can do nothing about it and suggests the player find a place to stay. After having bought Bella's house for pocket change and getting donuts for Deputy Duncan (which happen to have been found in the trash), the player finally gets a lift into Strangetown's Paradise Place, only to find more tasks and mysteries.

Expansion packs

Main article: Expansion packs for The Sims 2

The Sims 2 expansion packs provide additional game features and items. Eight expansion packs were released throughout the game's lifecycle. The Sims 2: Apartment Life is the final expansion pack for The Sims 2.

Name Release date Major Additions Neighborhood(s) New NPCs New lifestate/creature New career(s)
University Windows:
  • NA: March 1, 2005
  • EU: March 2, 2005
Mac OS X:
December 12, 2005
Announcement: November 23, 2004
Universities, young adult age group, influence system
Campus:
Académie Le Tour, La Fiesta Tech, Sim State University
Barista, bartender, cafeteria worker, cheerleader, coach, evil mascot, mascot, professors, streaker Zombie (also in FreeTime and Apartment Life) Artist, natural scientist, paranormal, show business
Nightlife Windows:
  • NA: September 13, 2005
  • EU: September 13, 2005
Mac OS X:
March 27, 2006
Announcement: April 5, 2005
Dates, groups system, outings, Pleasure and Grilled Cheese aspiration, new relationship states, ownable cars, attraction system
Downtown:
Downtown
Chef, DJ, Gypsy matchmaker, Mrs. Crumplebottom, vampire (count and countess), waiter Vampire None
Open for Business Windows:
  • NA: March 2, 2006
  • EU: March 2, 2006
Mac OS X:
September 4, 2006
Announcement: January 4, 2006
Businesses, talent badges
Shopping district:
Bluewater Village
Barber, reporters Servo (robot) Shop employee
Pets Windows:
  • NA: October 17, 2006
  • EU: October 20, 2006
Mac OS X:
November 6, 2006
Announcement: July 27, 2006
Ownable pets
None Animal control officer, obedience trainer, skunk, wolf Werewolf Pet careers:
Security, service, showbiz
Seasons Windows:
  • NA: March 1, 2007
  • EU: March 2, 2007
Mac OS X:
June 11, 2007
Announcement: December 12, 2006
Weather system, seasons, fishing, new talent badges, gardening
Main:
Riverblossom Hills
Garden club member, penguin PlantSim Adventurer, education, gamer, journalism, law, music
Bon Voyage Windows:
  • NA: September 4, 2007
  • EU: September 7, 2007
Mac OS X:
December 17, 2007
Announcement: July 26, 2007
Vacations in different cultural areas
Vacation:
Takemizu Village, Three Lakes, Twikkii Island
Bellboy, fire dancer, hotel maid, masseur, ninja, pirate, tour guide, Unsavory Charlatan, Wise Old Man, Witch Doctor Bigfoot None
FreeTime Windows:
  • NA: February 26, 2008
  • EU: February 22, 2008
Announcement: January 17, 2008
Hobby system, lifetime aspiration system, new talent badges.
Main:
Desiderata Valley
Secret:
Hobbies
Food judge, genie, Hobby instructor, Rod Humble Genie Architecture, dance, entertainment, intelligence, oceanography
Apartment Life Windows:
  • NA: August 27, 2008
  • EU: August 29, 2008
Announcement: June 5, 2008
Rentable apartments, reputation system, witchcraft system
Main:
Belladonna Cove
Secret:
Magic
Break dancer, butler, human statue, landlord, social class townie, spectral assistant, witch Witch None

Stuff packs

Stuff packs are add-ons that intend to add only new items (usually in the amount of 60) to the base game. However, some releases include certain gameplay elements introduced in previous expansion packs. There are ten total stuff packs. However, The Sims 2: Holiday Party Pack served as the pilot release for this line of products, which were called "booster packs". After the success of the pilot release, EA named the releases "stuff packs" and launched the line with The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff. The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff is the final stuff pack for The Sims 2.

Name Release date Includes
Holiday Party Pack Windows:
  • NA: November 17, 2005
Christmas, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and New Year themed stuff, plus new NPCs: Santa Claus, Father Time, and Baby New Year
Family Fun Stuff Windows:
  • NA: April 13, 2006
Mac OS X:
April 30, 2007
Family-oriented Fairy tale, outer space and nautical themed items mainly for children's bedrooms
Glamour Life Stuff Windows:
  • NA: August 31, 2006
Mac OS X:
June 1, 2007
Luxury, couture and glamour themed objects, floors and walls
Happy Holiday Stuff Windows:
  • NA: November 7, 2006
Mac OS X:
September 4, 2007
All items from Holiday Party Pack plus added Asian and European holiday themed stuff
Celebration! Stuff Windows:
  • NA: April 3, 2007
Wedding themed hairstyles, fashions and accessories, furniture, and other party enhancers
H&M Fashion Stuff Windows:
  • NA: June 5, 2007
Fashion collections from H&M and H&M branded build objects
Teen Style Stuff Windows:
  • NA: November 5, 2007
Goth, Thrasher and Socialite themed stuff for teenagers' bedrooms, teenage haircuts and new teenage clothes
Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff Windows:
  • NA: April 15, 2008
Kitchen and bathroom objects, floors, walls and clothing items
IKEA Home Stuff Windows:
  • NA: June 24, 2008
Fashionable furniture, floors and walls from the styles of IKEA
Mansion & Garden Stuff Windows:
  • NA: November 17, 2008
Items featuring three new decorative themes (Moroccan, Art Deco and Second Empire)

Core game editions

Name Release date Includes
The Sims 2 Windows:
  • NA: September 14, 2004
  • EU: September 16, 2004
Mac OS X:
June 13, 2005
The first release of the core game on four CDs.
The Sims 2 Special DVD Edition Windows:
  • NA: September 17, 2004
The core game on one DVD, plus a bonus DVD with exclusive content.
The Sims 2 Holiday Edition (2005) Windows:
  • NA: November 15, 2005
The core game and The Sims 2 Holiday Party Pack on four CDs (North American exclusive release).
The Sims 2 Holiday Edition (2006) (known as The Sims 2 Festive Edition in Europe) Windows:
  • NA: November 7, 2006
North America:
The Sims 2 Holiday Edition (2005 four-CD edition) and The Sims 2 Happy Holiday Stuff.
Europe:
The core game on one DVD and The Sims 2 Festive Holiday Stuff.
The Sims 2 Deluxe Windows:
  • NA: May 8, 2007
The core game, The Sims 2 Nightlife and a new bonus DVD that is different from the one included in the Special DVD Edition.
The Sims 2 Double Deluxe Windows:
  • NA: April 15, 2008
The Sims 2 Deluxe and The Sims 2 Celebration! Stuff.
The Sims 2 Ultimate Collection Windows:
  • WW: July 16–31, 2014
(exclusive to existing Origin customers that proved they owned the original Sims 2 game from July 16 until July 31, 2014, but was extended until October 11, 2018; retail release not confirmed)
The Sims 2 Double Deluxe, The Sims 2 University Life Collection, The Sims 2 Best of Business Collection, The Sims 2 Fun with Pets Collection, The Sims 2 Seasons, The Sims 2 Bon Voyage, The Sims 2 FreeTime, The Sims 2 Apartment Life, The Sims 2 Glamour Life Stuff and The Sims 2 Happy Holiday Stuff.
The Sims 2 Super Collection Mac OS X:
  • NA: August 7, 2014
The core game, The Sims 2 University, The Sims 2 Nightlife, The Sims 2 Open for Business, The Sims 2 Pets, The Sims 2 Seasons, The Sims 2 Bon Voyage, The Sims 2 Family Fun Stuff, The Sims 2 Glamour Life Stuff and The Sims 2 Happy Holiday Stuff (The Sims 2 FreeTime and The Sims 2 Apartment Life along with the remaining stuff packs have not been included due to their unavailability for Mac at the time of its release).

Expansion-only compilations

Compilations of expansion packs and stuff packs without the core game have also been released.

Name Release date Includes
University Life Collection Windows:
  • NA: August 24, 2009
The Sims 2: University, The Sims 2: IKEA Home Stuff and The Sims 2 Teen Style Stuff.
Best of Business Collection Windows:
  • NA: October 6, 2009
The Sims 2: Open for Business, The Sims 2: H&M Fashion Stuff and The Sims 2: Kitchen & Bath Interior Design Stuff.
Fun with Pets Collection Windows:
  • NA: January 12, 2010
The Sims 2: Pets, The Sims 2: Family Fun Stuff and The Sims 2: Mansion & Garden Stuff.

Downloadable content

Pre-order content

Most of expansion packs and stuff packs were released with pre-order items. This game content was redeemable at the official site using a code supplied by the retailer from which the player purchased, each retailer was often associated with an exclusive download. A total of 60 pre-order items were released.

The Sims 2 Store

The Sims 2 Store was an online store where players of The Sims 2 for PC could purchase and download content for their game online for additional fees. It offered objects, clothing, skins, and hairstyles that are both exclusive to the store and also come from earlier expansion and stuff packs.

It also had featured seven exclusive item collections that could only be found in the store. The store used a point system that players can purchase. It was opened from July 2008 to March 31, 2011, as a beta version limited to the United States and Canada. To download, players must install The Sims 2 Store Edition and the EA Download Manager. The exclusive collections were "Cubic", "Art Deco", "Spooky", "Castle", "Asian Fusion", "Art Nouveaulicious" and "Oh Baby", including a total of 471 items.

Since the closure of The Sims 2 Store on March 31, 2011, The Sims 2: Store Edition and the savegame cannot be used with The Sims 2: Ultimate Collection.

Third-party tools

SimPE is an open-source utility for The Sims 2 that allows editing of Sims' characteristics, relationships and careers. It also allows the creation of objects. As the tool is intended for use by experienced modders, the SimPE interface is not considered intuitive and users risk corrupting the game files. TS2 Enhancer, developed by Rick Halle, is a commercial utility for editing characters and neighborhoods, but has since fallen into disuse.

Notes

  1. Amaze Entertainment co-developed the handheld game console versions (PSP, DS, Mobile, GBA)
  2. Aspyr published the Mac OS X version
  3. Some expansion packs and stuff packs were not released for Mac.
  4. Japanese: ソニック・ザ・ヘッジホッグ, Hepburn: Sonikku za Hejjihoggu
  5. The friend characters include Tails or Knuckles the Echidna for Sonic, Rouge the Bat or E-123 Omega for Shadow, and Amy Rose or Blaze the Cat for Silver.
  6. ^ The Flames of Disaster is also known as Iblis.
  7. All Hail Shadow was first featured in Shadow the Hedgehog, instead performed by the band Magna-Fi.

References

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  7. "The Sims 2.com – 100 Million Sold". EA. April 15, 2008. Archived from the original on April 30, 2008.
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  13. Marchelletta, Courtney. ""The Sims 2 University" Influence System". About.com. The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on September 20, 2012. Retrieved September 24, 2013.
  14. ^ Marchelletta, Courtney. ""The Sims 2 Nightlife" Review". About.com. The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on October 7, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2012.
  15. Marchelletta, Courtney. ""The Sims 2 Apartment Life" Expansion (PC)". About.com. The New York Times Company. Archived from the original on June 3, 2012. Retrieved July 23, 2012.
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  18. Willmott, Andrew. "Shipping Sims 2" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on November 1, 2020. Retrieved July 6, 2019 – via game-tech.com.
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