review of the first: https://www.backloggd.com/u/MelosHanTani/review/1572193/

What do game sequels do? That's always a fun question to explore. There's a lot of directions they can take, so... what did this series of kids' games based on a popular animal dollhouse toy series do?

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Sylvanian Families 2 (SF2) takes a standard approach - more of everything. Bigger world, seasons, slower level progression.

They added school events - in the Spring it's stargazing, and in the Summer, it's camping - complete with a 'folk dance' minigame where you must pick a boy to dance with (for you are a girl). (Of course, the boys set up the tents, the girls make the curry) .

Some characters are still weirdly insistent you always return home by 6 PM - probably because it's a fairly strict rule where you lose progress for hitting 6 PM without returning home.

The game is tutorialized better - shop NPCs now cite a fictional 'guidebook' that suggests one ought to 'do minigames at the school to level up before trying to walk further'. Instead of the furniture store being... in your dreams... it's at a furniture store.

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I think I prefer SF1 over SF2 because it's shorter - rather than a big experience with More Everything! SF1 feels more like, well, a toy, that kinda sits off in your closet somewhere, to be enjoyed for a few minutes every now and then.

Not that SF2 is that much worse than SF1, but mainly I want to move on to the 3rd and 2-3 hours each with these games feels like enough to get the gist.

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On another note, this game makes me think: there's something a little misguided in the idea of marketing a game at kids - and then making it about things the kids are already doing (going to school, doing events) - isn't it? A kid already has to be home at 6 PM. What's the point of making a game where the kid has to do the same thing?

Did these games sell well, or was it just an attempt at branching out by the parent company Epoch? Was the main playerbase kids, or actually adults who collect the toys? (Maybe.) Was the gameplay simple 'for kids' or for adults who may not play games often? Life has no answers to such questions...

But if we take this to be a 'kids' game', it's worth thinking about how complex 'kids games' have gotten in the past 15 years with Minecraft/Roblox - or arguably, how complex they've always been - Neopets and HTML scripting, etc.

I don't know what the 'meta' is for making games for kids nowadays (if that's even viable at all,) but whenever I look at something aimed 'at kids' that's also seemingly a little too straightforward it makes me wonder if it's infantilizing to simplify something past a certain point, when kids can make up their own rules playing stuff like Minecraft. If I think back to being a kid, being 4 - maybe 3 - years old was old enough to Judge And Remember Adults. I feel like anyone trying to engage with kids should remember this. Kids' Media can probably do more... or, at the least, scare the kids with glitches. https://twitter.com/han_tani2/status/1786933397849591857/photo/1