The mystery man
When you first get Makin' Magic, everything seems normal. Surly not the quality of a game that contains magic? Harry Potter was a normal boy till he found he had magic so where all the fun? The truth is it will come. Maybe the first day you play the game but if not it will the following morning.

The mystery man comes with a package. It can be deleted if you want but this package holds a wand, magicoins, a Spellbound wand charger and 3 ingredients for your very first spell and a hole.

Your first spell
Although this seems like a suicide pack the first spell is one for the mischievous of Sims. When you add the 3 ingredients to the wand charger you receive toadification. As you might have guessed a spell that turns your lover, child, friend or foe into a toad. As well as this fun spell The Sims Makin' Magic has a whole host of weird and wonderful spells and charms. How would you like to make friends with someone instantly even if you only shook their hand? Would it be cool if money rained down from the heavens with one quick spell? All this is possible with Makin' Magic and more!

Anything else new?
Maxis for the most part always has a new area to go to. With the arrival of Makin' Magic comes the arrival of carnies. They settle on Magic Town and leave one of the best host of new stuff including: roller coasters (fun or fearful?), dueling (body or logic?), performing (hit or miss?) along with more objects that could easily be the best you've ever played with makes the expansion pack worth getting.

Charms and spells
Once you researched the spell or charm you get either a new picture in your inventry or an object shaped like the 'active sim' symbol. A spell is activated by clicking on the sim who has the spell and casting it on another object or sim, a charm has other aspects. They can make your mood full, they can give you more food than you can eat! They can even turn you into an ugly monster!

What are these Magicoins?
Come carnies, come a new currency. Magicoins are the most valuable thing you'll hold for a few simple reasons, number 1 is that you can buy a house if you've earned enough on a Magic Town lot secondly you'll need the money to buy ingredients for spells and charms and you will be grateful for every penny. You cant cheat to get them and the amount your giving is based on your logic skills (dueling and performing), creativity (charming a snake) and so forth. There is no way to cheat.

Dueling and performances
To earn magicoins you can either duel or perform. It's all based on the skills left over by superstar. Cooking, Mechanical and Logic. You'll need as many Cooking and Mechanical points as you can scrounge to do well in a performance and logic is necessary for duels. When you duel you cast potentially devastating spells on your enemy. Be it surrounding him or her in a whirlwind or blasting them with ice. It all comes as standard. Performing is a little less harsh. Entertainment is a fun job, the crowd cheers for you (or boos of course) but when you play The Sims it's a lot more interesting even you can be entertained by you sim. Do you want to see Someone's Mummy come out of a tomb or perhaps you'd like to see water jump into the air and dance around? It is all possible in The Sims Makin' Magic.

Home sweet home
On The Sims Makin' Magic you can now live in a completely different neighborhood with numerous advantages. It's a lot more fun. Makin' Magic is the only expansion pack to take you to a new neighbourhood away from that river and to overlook a cliff with a endless cloud streaming by.

TSX rating: 9/10