Not content with the money-printing series The Sims 2, last year EA released an even more casual, kid-friendly game called MySims, but specifically for the Wii and DS. It differed from the regular Sims games in that you didn’t have to worry about micromanaging your Sim’s life and daily habits. Instead, it was Animal Crossing-like in that the storyline presented a problem that you had to solve by helping out others and rebuilding a town. This fall EA will release its sequel, MySims Kingdom and based on the brief amount of time I had to preview the game, it seems that it’s offering more of the same, but with a fresh face.

You start off as a boy or girl and come to the aid of King Roland. The kingdom is not faring well, and he needs your help to restore it to its former glory. You’ll be appointed “Wandolier”, in which you use a wand to construct and repair various structures around the kingdom. Naturally, you’ll need a little aid from some of the townsfolk. Since turnabout is only fair play, you’ll often have to help them with their problems first before moving on to yours.

The land is divided up in a set of islands, which you reach by boat (naturally). Although the quests aren’t linear and can skip around islands, they are grouped in difficulty. More islands with more difficult quests become available to you as you level.

In the demo the EA rep showed me, an elf named Petal was concerned that the animals were missing on the Forest of the Elves Island. A bit of detective work revealed that a special temple for the animals was dismantled by a clueless elf who wanted to use the materials to build a spa for himself. Using her avatar’s trusty wand, the EA rep rebuilt the temple, working from its blueprint. Once completed, the animals returned to the island, and all was good.

As seen in the demo, construction plays a heavy role—as it did in the first game. You first need scrolls, which are like recipes that indicate which essences you need for construction. Scrolls can be obtained in various ways, such as quest rewards or appearing in chests. When you receive a scroll, you then need to collect the right essences, which can be found using a metal detector-like device aptly named the “essence detector”. Essences are also found in a variety of places. In the demo, some essences were found in trees. These essences unlock the ability to build certain building elements needed for construction, such as walls, columns, and even odd accoutrements like mushrooms.