Well, its certainly not Sims 4! :p - Though it has some pretty good things like the parenting system, multi tasking, and the building mode, everything else is either worse or comparable to even Sims 2. Customisation was cut down horrendously because it would cut into DLC revenue for EA, the overworlds are severely lacking not to mention you can't just go from lot to lot anymore without cutting to a loading screen, no cars even with expansions, the most lacking stuff packs to date sold at full price, not to mention most expansions that came for the game are stuff packs (I think its 16 SPs now?)...
Basegame wise: Sims 3. Came prepackaged with open world, create a style, story progression, cars, and a lot more customisable options in create a sim, edit town, and build mode. I also like the traits system better than the old personality point system, as well as the lifetime wishes system over the aspiration system.
Overall: Sims 3. All those things listed above, CAW, more to do & more places to go, playable careers, boating, highly customisable plumbots, better magic gameplay, most lifestates (vampire, mermaid, ghost, etc and so on), celebrity system, the adventure gameplay, horses, and of course the custom content. There's a lot more to Sims 3 than that but that's what I could list from the top of my head.... :D
I liked Sims 2 in its time, and I feel like the only thing Sims 2 did better than Sims 3 at was the business pack. Everything else Sims 3 has but better. Sims 1 was revolutionary in its time but its very dated. Then again, that was the point to Sims, with each installment they would add more ways to play and more customisable options; I say "was" because with Sims 4 they totally backpedaled and its seems like EA treats Sims with an attitude of "How little can we sell them at full price?" In other words, maximum profit. Ripoff. Haven't bought Sims 4, and with only like a year left in its development cycle I don't see it magically getting better from here. I played The Urbz one, many years ago. I think it was around the time I had Sims 2 with only 2 expansion packs and even then I felt like Sims 2 was superior.
Sims 3
Sims 2
The Sims
...
The Urbz
Sims 4
Also, any Sims game on console is a joke. Js :p