For fans of MySims, the second installment is a great followup. Mindlessly entertaining, with a much funnier cast.
MySims Kingdom is the second installment in the MySims world. The overall world is governed by a nice old king who loves cupcakes. You start on Capital Island as a humble pig farmer. Apparently humble pig farmers are still well known to the King (although, since the whole island is inhabited by five people, it's probably hard not to know everyone). You have to "audition" for the role of Royal Wandolier, which is basically a fancy way of giving you a tutorial.
So, no suprise, you are named the wandolier, and you, along with your best friends Lindsay and Buddy (the hotel guy from MySims, reimagined as a royal messenger) get to travel across the islands looking for essences to unlock scrolls, and help the citizens of the kingdom build their lands.
I won't go into detail about the gameplay, because if you played the first game, it is virtually identical, if not just a little smoother. Traversing between islands is a lot less time consuming than travelling between the different areas of MySims. Instead of building complicated furniture to use up essences, you must use the essences you collect to unlock scrolls, which give you different furniture-making abilities. You'll still have the ability to free-build with miscellaneous blocks once you unlock the scroll, but you can easily get through most of the game without having to use anything but the pre-created furniture, which can still be custom painted to match the likes of whatever Sim you are trying to please.
The islands themselves are diverse and entertaining, with everything from an elfin forest, to a dude ranch, the cutest castle ever, and a spooky island inhabited by Goth Boy, a zombie, a lunatic, an evil old man, and the world's most famous cookie-making Grandma.
Overall, totally fun. My favorite island so far was "Royal Academy Island", one of the last to be unlocked, which holds a school, and I swear I have not interacted with so much high-school boy-girl drama since I was IN high school. It was hilarious (and a little sad, all at the same time).
The dialogue between characters is much more dynamic and amusing than before, with characters falling in love, or learning valuable lessons, or just in general trying to drive each other nuts. It's fun to watch too, my roommate found herself staring at the TV for half an hour as I helped build a Nature Preserve for a couple bears, a pig, and an extremely spoiled kitty.
Except for a tedious sequence involving chasing a terrible actor in a dragon costume, the game is totally fun. Mindless, stupid, childish, and completely without any sort of technical or visual merit, but still. Fun.