MY CHILDHOOD TRAUMA FROM THE SIMS 2 DS

It was Christmas 2008, and nine-year-old me had received one of the best handheld systems of all time: the Nintendo DS Lite I had the usual games you could expect a nine-yearold to have. From Bratz to Pokémon and Nintendogs, I was having a blast with my new system.

One day, whilst browsing for games, I came across The Sims 2 DS.

Like many people, The Sims was my childhood. I spent a ridiculous amount of hours on the family PC, playing the game.

As I bought the game home and loaded it up, I didn’t think much of it. This wasn’t my first rodeo, I knew how to play the game.

But nothing could prepare me for what was in store…

When you first start the game, you are met with a cutscene It depicts a car swerving out of control, as you finally crash into Strangetown (a wellknown neighbourhood in The Sims universe).

I thought it was slightly weird, but my doubts were quickly lost as the next screen popped up, the character creator.

Sure, it was a lot less customisable than the PC version, but it was back to normality as I created my sim. Now, this is where the game starts, and you find out it was actually you who crashed the car.

You’re told by the mechanic that it’s going to take a long time to fix, so you might as well check into the local hotel

As you enter the hotel, within the space of five minutes, everyone has decided that you are the new manager (don’t question it.)

It was by then that I realised, this isn’t a usual Sims game. It’s a hotel simulator, your goal being the upkeep and management of the hotel and its guests.

As I kept on playing, I actually began to enjoy the game. It wasn’t what I was expecting, but it was nonsensical fun. It was only when I got into the main chunk of the story that it went from weird to horrifying.

But what could be so scary about a DS game with an age rating of 7+? To tell the tale, here are three cases of the terror I had to endure...