YMMV / The Urbz

• Accidental Aesop: While the game probably never intended to teach any sort of message/lesson, its primary goal to appeal to the various members of the subculture to climb the social ladder can be interpreted as two unconventional aesops:
  • The more reasonable of the two, and an inversion of Be Yourself, is that one must adjust their behaviors with their environment in order to be accepted by those within it. This is represented in-game as wearing the appropriate clothing for each area, in which the Urb will act accordingly. As cynical as this aesop may be put so bluntly, it's actually something average people demonstrate without thinking: one wouldn't walk into an important business meeting in cosplay, and designer dresses have no place in a biker club.
  • The more ridiculous aesop is that, in order to be popular, one must please everyone all the time. There's a reason for demographics: certain traits appeal to certain groups of people, and it's easier to be wildly popular within a group rather than within the entire population, and it may not even be in one's best interests to appeal to outside groups. To understand how ridiculous this logic is, imagine Paris Hilton holding a panel at an anime convention, complete with pandering attire.
• Awesome Music:
  • High NRG, the main BGM from Neon East, is considered one of the best soundtracks in the game due to its very upbeat and catchy tune that's really fun and energizing to listen to. It's the most viewed of all the Urbz soundtracks, and many commenters cite this song as a reason why they like the Neon East district so much.
  • Central Station's main theme, Melinka, is also very popular (probably the second most popular song after High NRG) due to its epic, Gothic rock style that is as intimidating as it is beautiful.
  • The DS and GameBoy version's soundtrack by Ian Stocker is nothing to scoff at either, particularly the track that plays in Urbania at day. Even better, Stocker has published the entire soundtrack on YouTube himself, in a slightly remastered format (using the same samples as before, but in higher quality than the DS could handle).
• Cult Classic: It's turned off many due to it deviating from the Sims formula, but it has cultivated a small but dedicated fanbase because of how much it deviated.
• Game-Breaker:
  • The player knows what's going to happen to the Urb they're controlling by a series of messages on their game screen. This lets you see who wants to socialize with the Urb, what he/she is doing at the moment, typical Sim mechanic. The game lets you just cancel any of these things, including bad events involving the bosses of the game. As long as they don't initiate it right next to you, they'll never lay a finger on that Urb.
  • In the handheld version, Heidi Shadows is available every day if you have the right locations unlocked (which can be as early as unlocking the Sims Quarter if you link GBAs) unlike in The Sims: Bustin' Out, where she is only available once a week in two areas, one of which is difficult to access in time for the one hour she's available, and only available on specific days of the week — though the game doesn't ever tell you which day of the week you're playing on. As such, it's pretty easy to max out your skill levels and get all promotions by the time you unlock Glasstown.
  • The "Pet Show" minigame in the DS version gives you plenty of cash even if you lose, and unlike every other minigame, it has no set timeframe and no limit to how many times a day you can play it.
• Hollywood Pudgy: You can choose between four sizes but none are particularly fat. However, like previous Sims games, one is presumably meant to count as overweight.
• Narm Charm: The game is almost unapologetic in how hard it tries to make "urban" or "hip and edgy" with dated dialogue and the fact that it's an Unintentional Period Piece makes it a little charming.
• Obvious Beta:
  • The DS version has a major glitch that locks you out of the Artsies mission's completion if you sold any of the basic Garbage Piles for recycling before starting the mission. The game doesn't record any prior recycling until the mission actually starts. This is a pain due to this port placing a finite amount of Garbage Piles unlike the GBA version which had them respawn periodically. Other variants of Garbage still spawn normally, though. Also, the key to the Richies' clubhouse somehow stops working after some time. However, you can sell it and regain another one later when this happens.
  • After you obtain the Paradise Island map, another will appear in its place. Pick up a second one and you can't get rid of it.
  • Mr. King has no programmed location and therefore can only be talked to if you invite him over.
  • Choosing the "ask for errand" option when talking to a tenant will evict them as if you had selected the "GET OUT!" option.
  • Trying to talk to an NPCs who are teleporting (namely Lloyd and Gordie) will freeze the game. The game also freezes if you have a pet following you when trying to use the Time Machine. Pressing R to attempt to ride the hoverboard while controlling your pet in the last part of the Splicer Island chapter has the same result.
  • The dragon and carnivorous dinosaur pets only use their correct voices during the Petshow game. Otherwise they use the herbivorous dino's voice.
• Padding: You need to get your popularity up fairly often in the handheld version, which amounts to friendship grinding. There's skills as well, but those are much easier and can be cheated if you're impatient.
• Squick: One sidequest has you set up Misty Waters (who was noted as being a college student in The Sims: Bustin' Out and is presumably a graduate here) with Luther Bigbucks, who, according to his dialogue options, is sixteen. As he appears older and much of his dialogue instead points to him being in his twenties, most just age him up and pretend that didn't happen.
• That One Level: "Yar Hey! Bombard!" in the GBA game. It's extremely difficult to handle your bumper boat, especially as the levels wear on, and getting a promotion (by being the last bumper boat standing) is sometimes just sheer luck. The DS version replaces it with the much easier "Sushi Sensei".
• Unintentional Period Piece: A snapshot of "urban" culture at a time when gentrification was just starting to take off and many hip neighborhoods, while out of their Vice City days, still had an aura of edge to them. The result is a distinctly Totally Radical take on 2000s pop culture, from Hip-Hop to anime to punks to club culture.

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