I miss all those spin offs so much! They were amazing because they made something special with what they had-- Which is what I am pretty sure is the problem. They could not do a traditional Sims game on the limited console hardware, so to make them appealing and worth the money they made something special based around the console.
Since 3 they have had close to the capability to make it the same game and tried. With 4, they could do a true port rather than a completely different game. I think this was the goal from the beginning, but I personally find it disappointing. I miss my spin offs and wacky console games.
