The Sims Bustin' Out

In the console version, Malcolm Landgraab is going around his neighborhood, stealing items in return for unpaid rent. The player's objective is to complete each career track, unlock and buy back everyone's many possessions, and become rich enough to evict Malcolm from his mansion and move their own Sim in. Furnishing items are unlocked through the completion of different objectives. Aside from the objectives, gameplay is similar to previous Sims titles.

The Game Boy Advance and N-Gage version puts the player's Sim in "SimValley" for a summer holiday. Like the console version, GBA/N-Gage version gameplay is objective-based – every time the player completes a series of tasks, the game progresses. In this game, there are no furnishing objects to unlock. Instead, the player must complete all tasks to unlock new houses. Deviating from the "point-and-click" selection process used in every previous Sims title, this version allows the user to control their Sim directly, using the GBA's directional pad. In these versions, new mini-games (jobs for the Sims) are unlocked progressively when certain tasks are done. The GBA and N-Gage versions are largely the same, but the N-Gage version has an exclusive feature that allows Sims to collect three cartridges from various locations and play classic games such as Snake on the Sims' mobile phone.

In both versions, there are various locations that Sims may visit throughout the course of the game. As Sims advance through the game, new areas become accessible.

Exclusive to the PlayStation 2 version was a free online play called "Online Weekend" which was very similar to The Sims Online. This mode allowed players to participate in both freeplay and storymode with each other and chat using the USB keyboard on the PlayStation 2. The server for the game shut down on August 1, 2008, the same day The Sims Online was shut down, rendering the game impossible to play online.

The game received "favorable" reviews on all platforms according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[1][2][3][4][5] In Japan, where the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation 2 versions were ported for release under the game The Sims (ザ・シムズ, Za Shimuzu) on January 22, 2004, Famitsu gave it a score of one seven, one nine, and two eights for the latter;[10] and one seven, one six, and two sevens for the former.[9] The Sims Bustin' Out tied with EyeToy: Play for winning "Console Family Game of the Year" at the AIAS' 7th Annual Interactive Achievement Awards.[42]

The Times gave the N-Gage version all five stars, saying, "The graphics are sublime, though this scaled-down version does have its limitations: there are, for example, no 'Simspeak' exchanges since the conversations are all text-based. Still, Bustin' Out should help to broaden the appeal of the nGage."[41] The Village Voice gave the PlayStation 2 version a score of nine out of ten, saying, "The devil's in the details [...] mundane or fun, everything recedes into a heartbeat of flushing, snoring, and Simlish."[43] The Cincinnati Enquirer gave the Game Boy Advance version a similar score of four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying, "There are more than 20 different locations in the game to unlock and visit."[40]

The PlayStation 2 version received a "Platinum" sales award from the Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA),[44] indicating sales of at least 300,000 units in the UK.[45]

• The Sims Bustin' Out (console version) at MobyGames
• The Sims Bustin' Out (handheld version) at MobyGames