Middle school was a good time in my life for gaming. Sure, I had Pokemon and Smash Bros. in elementary, but in middle school, I was beginning to broaden my horizons with new games, including The Legend of Zelda. While that ultimately became my leading love for all game series, three others made an impression on me like no others: Fire Emblem, Pikmin, and The Sims.
While I was (and still am) rather obsessive about both Fire Emblem and Pikmin, there’s undoubtedly an addictive element to The Sims that made me pass my childhood curfew on multiple occasions, staying up until one in the morning to watch my toddler Sims age up or stop the fire that my Sims created burning a salad. I’d also get in very deep trouble when I was caught: Kids, don’t follow my example.
About 10 years later I found myself with a copy of The Sims 4 and my love for this game re-emerged tenfold. I play a lot differently than I did back then, but it doesn’t mean I didn’t have some good memories of my old save files. There was the household of Sir Kibblekabob and his oddly named family, my sick game of survival between Naruto, Orlando Bloom, and an assortment of other various characters, and, of course, my Zelda Sims.
Middle school was also a time where my creativity started to awkwardly blossom. It was the era of the Kirby Show and my huge crush on Link, which resulted in a lot of poorly written fan fiction. However, The Sims 2 allowed me to explore my favorite characters, stories, and, of course, ships.
When I first bought The Sims 2 I did try and recreate certain Nintendo characters with the provided clothing as I vividly remember making Kirby and Meta Knight in human form (and then Kirby being taken away by social service because I didn’t know how to care for toddlers — or adults for that matter, as Meta Knight later died of starvation — but I digress). I don’t quite remember how I stumbled into the customization process, but I learned how to sneak into my Sims 2 files and create custom outfits and insert my own music into the game.
I loaded the game with costumes from The Legend of Zelda first. Link and Zelda were the first two I created, but I didn’t stop there. I added Saria, Midna in her Twili form, Ilia, Ruto, and Malon. I later created Impa seeing as I needed an adult for a family of teens and I was getting tired of making a random adult Sim just to move them out and delete them from existence. I tried to stick to characters with more basic designs that my budding artistic skills could keep up with. Midna was definitely the most time consuming to create, but I loved the results — although if I could see it now I would probably cringe in terror.
I loved making these Zelda characters do silly Sim things, like jump on the couch and sing in the shower, but my favorite thing of all was having them do the wacky dances to their own game music. It was really out of sync with the music and all over the place which just made it all the more hilarious to watch. Well, this was my favorite along with one other thing.
Many of you probably know by now that ZeLink was my original OTP (and still is my favorite to this day), so of course, I had to have a romance go on between the two. I remember specifically making other female teen’s “turn off” be blonde hair so that they would all lay off Link and search for love elsewhere. I loved watching the two act in such a loving way towards each other and I couldn’t wait to have them grow up so they could get married. But they never did.
I quickly discovered that having a house with eight Sims was its own challenge and I moved on to a different family. It was too much work to keep track of everyone’s wants and needs all at once, so I stared up a Fire Emblem family with just three characters and stuck with them. They were actually the family I stuck the longest with, having the teens grow up, get married, and start a family of their own. Now I would go and visit my Zelda peeps every now and again, hoping to age up Link and Zelda at least so they could catch up with the Fire-Emblingtons, but I don’t recall if I ever did. I know I eventually discovered mods made from people who could alter the clothing completely, perfectly recreating Princess Zelda’s dress from Twilight Princess, and I played with them for a while longer, but my time with my old computer was coming to an end and I would soon switch over to the Sims 3 along with it.
In Sims 3 I tried something a little different. In high school, I had been starting to expand my creative thinking and started coming up with some original characters. I started playing with them, doing the same things I have done with my Zelda Sims, but I grew tired of this gameplay quickly. I’d rather be writing their story, having full control over what happens next in their lives instead of having it dictated by computer programs. I stopped playing Sims for a long time after that, like a seven-years long time.
As stated before I now own The Sims 4 and I am finding new and more challenging ways to play. I’ve taken a few of the fan-made challenges as well as come up with some new ones on my own, and this is the perfect playstyle for me. I like creating new and wacky Sims for these challenges, though Sir Kibblekabob and his family will be returning once I start the Legacy Challenge. Though I play the game differently now and enjoy it for different reasons, I still credit it and The Legend of Zelda for helping me explore the kinds of things I want from both video games and type of creative person I want to be.
