The Urbz: Sims in the City (GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox)

The Urbz: Sims in the City
Also known as: Los Urbz: Sims en la ciudad (ES), The Urbz: Sims og Singelliv (NO), The Urbz: Simowie w Mieście (PL) Developer: Maxis Publisher: EA Games Platforms: GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox Released in JP: January 13, 2005 Released in US: November 12, 2004 Released in EU: November 9, 2004 Released in KR: December 7, 2004 (PS2/Xbox) This game has unused objects. This game has unused graphics. This game has unused models. This game has unused items. This game has unused music. This game has unused text. This game has debugging material. This game has regional differences. This game has a prototype article This game has a prerelease article

This article is a work in progress. ...Well, all the articles here are, in a way. But this one moreso, and the article may contain incomplete information and editor's notes.

The Urbz: Sims in the City changes up the usual suburban lifestyle of The Sims and puts all the action into a city with workable jobs, unlockable (and crazy!) social interactions, an infectious soundtrack, and stereotypical caricatures. Also, The Black Eyed Peas make an appearance.

This game was planned to start a sub-franchise for the series, which explains all the product placement in the game. Despite the game not meeting EA's expectations, it managed to set the stone for future Sims titles, most notably in The Sims 2: Nightlife with the city setting and The Sims 3: Late Night with the reworked reputation system, bars, and bouncers.

To do: Unused graphics. Unused or console-exclusive accessories. Scrapped online features? Scrapped Woohoo functions? Bustin' Out leftovers.

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Developer Options

Bustin' Out Leftovers They really worked so hard to make it completely different.

Prototype Info

Prerelease Info

Unused Music and Sounds

Elevator Load Loops

Those were likely intended to be used when the player accesses a district with an elevator, such as Diamond Heights considering the used sound effects sound similar in style, but the regular loading screen theme plays instead. Interestingly, they're left unused in The Sims 2 console up to Castaway.

Early XAM Sounds

cellphone_dial1-3 contain earlier sounds for interacting with the XAM before they were replaced with more realistic cellphone sounds.

Early XAM Ringtone

Some earlier XAM Ringtones are present, with cellphone_ringtone2 sounding like the Cozmo Street ringtone from The Urbz along with the same hidden morse code message. and cellphone_ringtone3 sounding like a generic ringtone.

Team Photo

A secret graphic of developers that worked on the game can be found by pressing Up, Down, X, Up, Down at the credits screen.

Regional Differences

Default Create-An-Urb Preset

The Japanese version has a different Urb given to you as the default when starting a new game.

International	Japanese

Platform Differences

Language Select

The European PS2 and Xbox versions have a language select menu and Xbox happens to have fewer languages available. It's missing Polish, Danish, Norwegian, and Finnish.

PlayStation 2	Xbox

Create-An-Urb

The Create-An-Urb for the GameCube version has a much brighter background than in the PlayStation 2 and Xbox versions.

PlayStation 2 & Xbox	GameCube

Xbox Loading Screens

The Xbox version has unique loading screen backgrounds that can be seen. These textures also exist in the PS2 and GameCube versions, however they are 8×8 in size, and even if it's shown in-game there, there's no way it can be seen at that small of a size.

PS2 & GCN	Xbox	PS2 & GCN	Xbox
house_load0		house_load1
house_load2		house_load3
house_load4		house_load5
house_load6		house_load7
house_load8		house_load9

house_load10

Oddities

Unused Title Screen Logo Function

There are two different types of files containing the logo for the title screen, told by ui_logo256_(Language)_light and ui_logo256_(Language)_dark. The dark variations are used in the final game, but the "light" logos contain leftovers of The Sims: Bustin Out title screen logo. There's also a ui_logobrick, which suggests that the logo may have been placed on a brick wall at a neon sign.

Unplugged Controller Screen Background

When the controller screen is unplugged, a light-blue gradient background with text on it reminds the player to plug it back in. It's actually reused from Bustin' Out, with the only difference being the font. It would later remain in the rest of the Sims console games, with the respective menu font being used.