How to play SimAnimals on Mac

PlatformsPortable console

Game summary

Serving to launch a new series of videogames in the Sims franchise, SimAnimals features many elements of the classic Sims experience, adapted to the Wii motion controls and featuring forest animals instead of human beings. Over 30 species of animals are available in such settings as swamps, forests, junkyards, orchards and rivers. As in previous Sims games, the goal is to keep the locals happy. By meeting the needs of the animals and achieving a predetermined ‘happiness’ level, new areas of the world are unlocked. The game provides the player with quests that either improve the general living conditions or meet the happiness needs of particular animals. Multiplayer comes in the form of up to four-player simultaneous interaction via four Wii remotes, with the potential for either cooperative play with positive outcomes or conflicting goals and unpredictable results.
First released: Jan 2009

Play SimAnimals on Mac with Parallels (virtualized)

The easiest way to play SimAnimals on a Mac is through Parallels, which allows you to virtualize a Windows machine on Macs. The setup is very easy and it works for Apple Silicon Macs as well as for older Intel-based Macs.

Parallels supports the latest version of DirectX and OpenGL, allowing you to play the latest PC games on any Mac. The latest version of DirectX is up to 20% faster.

Our favorite feature of Parallels Desktop is that when you turn off your virtual machine, all the unused disk space gets returned to your main OS, thus minimizing resource waste (which used to be a problem with virtualization).

SimAnimals installation steps for Mac

Step 1
Go to Parallels.com and download the latest version of the software.
Step 2
Follow the installation process and make sure you allow Parallels in your Mac’s security preferences (it will prompt you to do so).
Step 3
When prompted, download and install Windows 10. The download is around 5.7GB. Make sure you give it all the permissions that it asks for.
Step 4
Once Windows is done installing, you are ready to go. All that’s left to do is install SimAnimals like you would on any PC.
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