Tails by the Foxfire

The Sims Legacy Collection Review & Bug Testing at Tails by the Foxfire

Time is an illusion, and it’s somehow been almost 2 years since The Sims Legacy Collection dropped on January 31st, 2025 and since I first reviewed it shortly after. When The Sims Legacy Collection first released, you may remember that it was met with a lot of excitement, but was infested with bugs: I mentioned issues where trying to save caused it to crash to desktop (frustrating taking any progress with it), transitioning between public lots and the house caused crashing, you couldn’t zoom in for a closer look at what’s going on, and a big black border made it almost impossible for players to make out smaller details on the world map and during character creation.

Inspired by a comment on my original YouTube review of The Sims Legacy Collection asking if these issues had been fixed yet, I booted it back up again for the first time since release and was pleasantly surprised by how smoothly it runs now. None of the bugs I had identified were still an issue for me, to the point I had to go back and check my original review to remember what they were! If you’ve been holding off on buying The Sims Legacy Collection for the day when EA fixes it, I’m happy to report that your moment is now, if you’re in the market for a dose of nostalgia. However, despite sinking much of my childhood into the original The Sims game, I did find that I feel spoiled by the extended customizability options and features of The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, so bear in mind that The Sims still has its rough aspects baked right into the classic experience that aren’t the fault of the port. If you want a gentler, more realistic (at least until the billionaires get us where they want us) experience with luxuries like weekends and days off so your Sims can have a bit of free time, you might want to reach for The Sims 2 Legacy Collection instead. I’ll be reviewing that at some point in the near future to see if the bugs have been ironed out of that one also. In the meantime, check out my review scores below and we’ll get into the details!

TL;DR: The Sims Legacy Collection Foxfire Review Score: 3/5

Price Point: $29.99 CAD (or $69.98 CAD as part of the The Sims: 25th Birthday Bundle with The Sims 2 Legacy Collection, which is the option offering better value for money in my opinion) 4/5
Fun Factor: 3/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Story, Characters & Worldbuilding: The Sims isn’t a story-driven game, but when I consider story here, I’m looking to the NPCs like the Goths, the Newbies, and the Strays and how their backstories ground you in the world. 3/5
Maps & Environment: 2/5
Music: 3/5
Recommended: Maybe. I recommend it if you want to revisit The Sims, warts and all. It’s an improved experience with all the expansion packs rolled in and a sharper-looking interface. However, the slow pace of gameplay and lack of options for character creation, jobs, skills, and activities may quickly feel restrictive to gamers accustomed to the scope and freedom in contemporary titles.

How Playable is The Sims Legacy Collection in 2026?

From the perspective of quality (aka, bugs and glitches), The Sims Legacy Collection is very playable, and looks better than ever with sharper, brighter graphics that pop on large monitors and showcase those smaller details. Edges feel smooth, and so do transitions between households and public lots. I didn’t experience any of the slowdown or lag I remembered from my previous attempts to play, and the game didn’t crash to desktop or freeze even once. Success!

In terms of gameplay, The Sims Legacy Collection suffers from its authenticity, but I don’t know that I’d change that, as sometimes those jankily nostalgic qualities of a game are exactly what draw you to it instead of its shiny modern counterparts or other new releases. Specifically, some frustrations I had in returning to The Sims as I knew it as a kid are things like the lack of character creation options, the restrictive sizes of the neighbourhoods, the lack of weekends and days off from work to develop my Sim’s skills, and the very slow pace of progress, right down to the speed of the walk cycle. I mean, it takes at least a half hour for my Sim to drag herself from the dining table to the carpool in the morning, which is crushingly realistic, but not exactly fantastic when you’re trying to get them to work on time while fully rested, showered, and happy enough to mask through the workday ahead. Pretty slow and tame for how wild and edgy and sexy the 2000s promotional material made The Sims seem back in the day, but for the time, the game’s chaos, dramatic social encounters, and edgy streak (like throwing no consequence ragers and the vibrating heart bed!!) were so thrilling to our tiny minds, and we had no idea how much better quality of life for the rest of the game could potentially get.

Which Expansion Packs Are Included with The Sims Legacy Collection?

As a kid, I remember owning a few of The Sims expansion packs, with The Sims Superstar being my runaway favourite for bringing my Sims down with a chronic case of delulu, and The Sims Unleashed in close second for introducing pets and business ownership into the game. Attention, animals, and working for myself. It’s like 3 of my aspirations, so it’s no wonder I gravitated towards these packs.

• The Sims
• The Sims Livin’ Large
• The Sims House Party
• The Sims Hot Date
• The Sims Vacation
• The Sims Unleashed
• The Sims Superstar
• The Sims Makin’ Magic

This is actually more expansion packs than I managed to get my hands on as a kid, and I spent significantly less getting them all today than I did buying only some of them back then. Because The Sims and its expansion packs are all rolled into one, you also get access to public lots like Studio Town & Magic Town, pets, exclusive outfits and decorations, spellcasting, celebrity ranks, and more right from the jump, allowing you to play The Sims game you dreamed about as a kid without a bunch of additional separate pack purchases to tack them on later. I do like the freedom in this, as I can decide if I’m playing vanilla, going for a celebrity run, dating, getting a pet, or focusing on learning magic while I’m creating my character and get straight to it once I’ve got my family moved in.

What Specs Do You Need to Run The Sims Legacy Collection?

At minimum, The Sims Legacy Collection calls for Windows 10 and an i3 3220/Ryzen 3 1200/AMD FX6300 processor. You’ll need 4 GB of RAM, 17 GB of available space, and a NVIDIA GTX 600/AMD Radeon HD 7000/Intel HD Graphics 620 graphics card.

For peripherals, you’ll mostly be clicking, so choose a reliable mouse that won’t fatigue your hand. Panning the camera, however, is best with the arrow keys (moving the mouse at the edge of the screen feels sluggish), so you’ll want a keyboard that keeps them accessible.

Check out the slider below to see what peripherals I’m rocking, and click the images to use my affiliate link if you’re in the market for something to upgrade your battlestation! Every purchase made using my link helps support the Foxfire and helps me fund the upkeep costs to continue bringing you written & video content!

Verdict: Is The Sims Legacy Collection Worth Playing?

I was delighted to find The Sims Legacy Collection had had its issues ironed out, as I know EA doesn’t have the greatest reputation for caring about the needs of gamers, but in this instance they delivered and The Sims Legacy Collection has proven to be a pitch perfect restoration of an old favourite.

Revisiting the very first The Sims game as a 35-year old though, I find it’s kind of like reuniting with an old friend I’ve grown apart from in some ways: where back then I thought The Sims spoiled me for options, today I miss the more granular dialogue options we see in later titles when talking or flirting. The Sims Legacy Collection feels tame compared to its newer iterations and, at times, punishingly grindy for quite little reward. Carving out a unique personality and reputation for your Sim is basically nonexistent aside from choosing their star sign: I miss moodlets, Sim psychologies, aging, and family trees. I miss weekends and days off to rebuild my status bars, make friends, and hit the books to prepare for my next promotion. All the same, I know these qualities all exist in The Sims 2 and The Sims 3, and The Sims would no longer be itself if they were tweaked to feel more accommodating. The Sims is known for its unforgiving difficulty scale and ‘anything can happen’ chaotic side, which requires an amount of forcing the player to relinquish order so they can see things like The Sad Clown, or that stakes will feel high enough that they might drink that potion despite the dangers and let the next wild thing happen. The Sims 2 and The Sims 3 often feel safe and orderly by comparison, with plenty of breathing room to get cozy in, whereas they almost feel sanitized compared to The Sims’ edgy humour, and lack its creepy phone calls with random simoleon drops or veiled threats like Monopoly chance cards, the same lack of chill I enjoyed in Something to Drink?, and unforeseen circumstances that keep you guessing once you get past the initial slow opening and find yourself inevitably falling behind on your Sims’ social and self-care obligations.

I like the sharper, tighter graphics in The Sims at times, even if the outfits like those one-piece PJs are utterly diabolical and we’re stuck with them. I like the small army of cats and dogs (that do not belong to you) that decide your house and the road in front of it is where the party is, to the chagrin of the carpool. I like the absolute drama of that alert sound that frightened a whole generation, especially when it’s for the local raccoon who decided he wanted to have a bit of a pirouette on your bins. I like visiting the 2000s era Avril or Christina or Bon Jovi in Studio Town and feeling about a pinky finger tall when they treat me like an obsessed fan. I like going on elaborate roller coasters in haunted carnivals, and having a sad clown or a Silent Hill-worthy bunny invite himself into my house because they thought my Sim seemed a bit sad. So, sure, The Sims has some limitations that show its age, like your Sims eating the exact same obscure pink blob with green spikes for every single meal, and your Sims will feel defiant when you ask them to paint but there’s like 9 sets of roaches measuring the diameter of your bathroom because one Sim used the toilet 6 seconds ago. I wouldn’t trade it, though. It’s a time capsule I like to visit from time to time, and if I want bigger areas to explore, expanding families, and gameplay that’s more accommodating, I’ll go and play one of the others. For moments when I want the mirror of my neurodivergence in video game form, The Sims Legacy Collection will be waiting to make me laugh or make me feel like a kid again. If you share my nostalgia or just want to see where the series began, you may feel the same way. If you don’t feel the same affection for these oddities and inconveniences, then The Sims Legacy Collection may not be for you.

Video Game Reviews, Guides, Essays, and Previews at Tails by the Foxfire

If you enjoyed this review, make sure you subscribe down below (for free!) to get alerted anytime we upload new video game reviews, indie spotlights, previews of upcoming titles, guides, or deep dives! You can also follow me on Bluesky and Twitter to see what I’m playing right now, and follow on Instagram, Tiktok, and Youtube for regular shorts and reels! I’m actually trying to get as many eyes on the YouTube channel as possible before partner requirements go up next year, so it’d be a great help if you could check out a few of the videos on there, like, share, and subscribe (also totally free)!

Are you a developer or PR agent with a game to share? Check out our press kit and get in touch via email, webform, or our official Tails by the Foxfire Steam Group where you can join the conversation and view our curated game lists!

More Nostalgic Games at Tails by the Foxfire:
Palworld, Pokémon, and the Feeling of Coming Home Again
6 Games That Feel Like the 90s & 2000’s for When You Need A Dose of Escapism
Why Final Fantasy X Still Matters 25 Years Later