You have to ask yourself. Why didn't the other popular PC expansion packs come to the Gamecube? Nightlife on a console - University on your TV screen, Open for Business open to mainstream gamers. I think it's because those expansions add a level of complexity to the game, whereas The Sims 2: Pets is so simple that it would be criminal not to port it onto the home consoles for some extra Christmas cash. Wouldn't it EA? Wouldn't it?

EA is the defendant, standing against Judge Dexter, the same judge that has seen countless Sims games through many decent reviews. But I, Judge Dexter, find the defendant guilty on this occasion - and my accusation is not false when I say that the The Sims 2: Pets feels like The Sims 2, with, well, pets. Let's say you already own the Cube version of The Sims 2. Effectively you're paying again for the not-so-nifty inclusion of cats and dogs. Alright, you have a few new clothing garments, mainly shirts with paw prints on or silhouettes of animals, but come on, who wants to wear this unsightly attire anyway? Then you have new items for your pets as well, such as kennels and bowls, pet toys and chews, which you'll buy by earning Pet Points to spend downtown. There are a few new music tracks and new sounds to go with the animals, maybe some glitches are fixed too, and the graphics may have improved ever so slightly, but beyond that don't expect any revolutionary new Sim features.

You only get one neighbourhood too and the view is hideous - you get a horrible little 2D render of this neighbourhood, with little cartoon house icons scattered around the map. Clicking on an unoccupied house icon prompts you to make a family, so you can then add people and pets. The character builder remains untouched, obviously the new clothing items are here for you to take advantage of, but all of the aspirations (which is your Sim's ultimate goals that you should strive to complete on a daily basis) and personality trait system remain the same. Houseless on an empty plot of land, you then access the build menu and proceed to build your house from scratch, which is very difficult using a controller. Always has been, always will be. Shame you cannot select from a pallet of pre-made houses, for ease of use. After the walls are erected and your house is taking shape, you add your finishing touches, windows, doors, carpets, furniture and dog bowls - it's time to see to your needs, as well as and the needs of your pets.

The Sims in your house need looking after. That means running to the toilet, eating, sleeping, watching TV - you still have to please the residents. But now, it feels, to add complication to complication, you have these pets that you have to look after too - and your pets are a handful to say the least. While your cats might look after themselves for the most part, I caught my dog digging up the garden, chewing the newspaper and unleashing havoc in my house, digging his teeth into the brand new couch! Then my pets would fight with each other and, after a while, it just felt as if I was running around, telling my pets off every ten minutes and not having the time or the energy to actually play with them. And scolding your pets is crucial to their development too; if you don't scold them for doing bad things then they'll continue to make your life a misery, because they think it's okay to pee all over that new, expensive lamp you had to work all week for!

When I did get around to it, playing with my pets was quite rewarding for a little while. I taught my menace of a dog to play dead (unfortunately he got back up again!) and it didn't take long before he responded to many of my other commands. The animations, especially for the dogs, are incredibly realistic, and to recreate your real life pet is easy enough with the superb pet maker - there are loads and loads of dog and cat breeds, with thousands of possibilities for look combinations. You can have up to three layers of markings with different colours, dress your pet up in the latest four-legged fashion, alter fur type, morph faces, change tails - you name it, you've got it.

As I've mentioned, the graphics do look slightly improved; maybe that's because of the realistic pet animations, but it really is nice to see your dog beg, or you cat curled up in a ball asleep on the porch. Of course, the game looks like any Sim game would, but that 2D neighbourhood render is so hideous that I just don't want to talk about it anymore! It's nice to be able to build a house and then whiz around it in 3D, and all of the other wow-factors that The Sims 2 is famous for appear this time around too - so the graphical department is mostly fantastic. The sound is just as good too, although the minor additions to the sound catalogue, again, just feel like a nicely placed bolt on. Most of the sound has been heard before in the original Sims 2; only when you get into the heat of pet play will you appreciate all the little animal noises and how your Sims react to your new pets. Awww.

The Sims 2 Pets isn't bad. It's ideal if you never owned The Sims 2 on before, as it gives you pretty much all of that prior play that you missed out on with some pets thrown in, but for those who already own The Sims 2, for the small amount of extra content you get, a full price release is a little steep. I'm disappointed at the lack of defining complexities that grace every Sim game that appears on the PC platform. It's almost insulting - console users aren't dumb, we can handle some dimension! The console version of The Sims 2: Pets could have incorporated some features from some of the PC expansions that haven't turned into console versions - we could have nabbed the attraction system from Nightlife and the ability to buy and use robots from Open for Business for example. Still, if you're a hardcore Sims 2 console nut and you cannot get this on the PC instead, then it might be worth a place under the tree this Christmas, alongside this brown, sticky package that isn't very nicely wrapped and smells a little bit like… Damn you Milo! I told you to go outside!

Reviewed by Dexter Pearson for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).