So I popped in The Sims 3: World Adventures over the weekend. It's totally an expansion pack along the lines of Vacation and Bon Voyage. More stuff to buy, wacky travel itinerary, etc. That's all lovely, but one of the best little features of the expansion packs is the inclusion of real-life songs translated into Simlish. If you've ever wondered what a song sounds like in Simlish, here's an example.
As a supporter of all things Matt and Kim, I figuratively fell off my chair when I heard this track blast out of my boombox placed on the living room floor of my under-furnished home. It was one of my favorite songs of last year in an unknown language. I'm no stranger to music not sung in my spoken language... Sigur Ros and Malajube come to mind immediately in my head. Daylight (pronounced dilaw) is the musical equivalent of a ray of sunshine and it represents what World Adventures is about. It's about living your own life, seeing the world in a positive light, and just finding happiness. At least that's what I get out of it when I go all karaoke and sing out loud while driving in my car. And the video is pretty good, not as good as their official video, but there's no option to crawl in your fridge and play your keyboard in the game. In fact, no keyboard in the game at all.
Sims fans might be wondering where I've been because this is not a new revelation. The Sims 2: University first did it several years ago and some of the biggest pop stars and rock bands have contributed to The Sims 2 expansions in some way. Katy Perry, Nelly Furtado, The Pussycat Dolls, and bands I actually like such as The Flaming Lips all added their own songs in Simlish.
It's hard to believe that I've been listening to Simlish for 10 years and never bothered to learn the language, but now that I dove back into the virtual world of Will Wright's biggest contribution to man, I might need to start taking Simlish classes at my local community college or maybe I'll just buy Rosetta Stone: Simlish edition. Anyway, I'm really interested in what The Sims Studio has in mind for the future of Simlish music. They've managed to gather some pretty notable artists in the past so the future looks pretty optimistic... no surprise since this is The Sims, EA's equivalent of the Wii in that it prints money.
Aww, fuck it! I'll leave you with one more song for the hell of it.
So are you a fan of the Simlish soundtracks or is it just too distracting? I can't see myself actually listening to it outside of the games, but I find it appropriately awesome in-game.
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