World of Wonder Carousel Collection Store Venue Review

Credit: Thank you to Weealbet for gifting me this venue! ^_^

Hey guys,

Welcome to the review of June 2014's newest set (or venue in this case): The World of Wonder Carousel Collection Venue. This venue is a carnival-themed venue that includes multiple new premium content, a Build/Buy mode only set, and some visually-impressive content released in The Sims 3 Store.

Collection File: http://www.mediafire.com/download/dccf7nfbhf30wbw/WorldOfWonder.package

Note: This is a collection file to put in your collections folder so you can easily find your items!

THIS IS NOT A PACKAGE FILE FOR YOU TO ILLEGALLY PIRATE. *rolls eyes*

Hope you guys enjoy!
AznSensei

Venue Information and Price Breakdown

This venue is sold for 1615/1900 Simpoints on sale until June 9th, 2014 (aka, end of June 8th, 2014).  Included are three new premium content objects, 23 build/buy mode objects, and a brand new lot that incorporates all of these objects together.

This venue is a continuing set of the Le Cirque Celebration! Set that was added in July 2012 (Good lord that's been pretty much 2 years now!) and includes content that helps you customize and create your own carnivals *cough*festival lots honestly*cough* and includes tons of new objects that can definitely be used outside of this venue. 

There are three brand new premium content objects included in this venue set:

• World of Wonder Carousel
• World of Wonder Popcorn Machine and Cotton Candy Maker
• Whack-A-Set!

Also included is a tent-building kit that includes 14 different parts that expands your own creative ideas of building tents, whether it be for a carnivale, a showtime venue, wedding venues, or even other types of venues you want to create yourself.

The price breakdown of this set is shown below:

Premium Content: 1400 Simpoints

World of Wonder Carousel: 500 Simpoints

World of Wonder Popcorn Machine and Cotton Candy Maker: 600 Simpoints

Whack-A-Set!: 300 Simpoints

Tent Pieces: 375 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Straight Peak: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Single Entrance: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Straight Roof: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Round Corner Roof: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Flat Top: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Corner Peak: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Left Side Entrance: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Right Side Entrance: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Wall Corner Entrance: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Straight Wall: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Round Corner Wall: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Rope and Stake: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Flag: 25 Simpoints

Big Time Big Top Post (3 heights): 50 Simpoints

Other Build/Buy Content: 650 Simpoints

Wishing Wonders Fountain: 75 Simpoints

Wild Wagon of Wonder: 75 Simpoints

Sands of Time Sandbox: 200 Simpoints

Box of Infinite Fidelity: 100 simpoints

Wonder Wall with Hedge: 50 Simpoints

The World of Wonder Welcome Gate: 25 Simpoints

Weird and Wild Wall Art: 25 Simpoints

Glowing Orb Streetlight: 50 Simpoints

The Finest Shrubbery in the Land: 50 Simpoints

Cost of Individual Items: 2425 Simpoints

Cost of Venue: 1615/1900 Simpoints

Savings: 810/525 Simpoints

While it may say there are 28 objects included (lot is not included in calculation), the Big Time Big Top Post is just three different heights (like a column) and is treated as one object, making it a total of 26 objects rather than 28.

Also, since the popcorn machine and cotton candy machine are in one single premium content collection, they are two separate objects, which makes it change to 27 objects.

To further change the quantity, Whack-A-Set includes three different arcade machine replicas of the "Whack-A-Mole" and each have their own special mesh, and instead of treating them at 200 Simpoints each, like most other arcade machines, they all combine together into a 300 Simpoint-cost Premium Content bundle.  The item count also increases to now 29 objects.

So, you get 29 objects and a lot that includes different types of decor and other objects that flesh out a lot into a carnival-themed venue for the price of 1615/1900 Simpoints.  The savings is quite tremendous honestly and there are some positives and negatives in this venue set.

Positives:

• The venue has three different premium content. One is a major premium content, another is a set of mini-premium content, and the third is a collection of different arcade machines.
• The "arcade" Whack-A-Mole replicas are sold into a single Whack-A-Set! premium content for 300 simpoints (when sold separately at a later date) rather than have individual items at 200 Simpoints a pop.
• The savings cost less than the usual 1700 early-bird discount and you are saving over 800 Simpoints when purchasing this venue on sale.

Negatives:

• The venue will not sell any items individually.
• Premium Content will not be sold separately until a lengthy period of time.
• The sale is a weird value of 1615 simpoints, not 1600, 1650, 1700, etc.
• Whack-A-Set! is considered premium content due to incomplete coding from Whack-A-Mole in Supernatural included in base game patches.
• The Big Time Big Top Post is listed three times....

Other than that, I find the price quite worth getting and I think it was created and designed appropriately with the thought of cost than most other venues.  

Honestly, I expected whoever was in charge of marketing this to create just three different "Whack-A-Mole" arcade machines, not able to sell them separately, and charge 400-500 Simpoints for the Popcorn Machine and Cotton Candy Machine separately.  That would have been a huge hit to the player-base and the cost of the venue would have been altered drastically and affect ones opinion on the venue in a more negative manner.  They could have also not sold this venue on an early bird discount like past venues, due to popularity, but decided to sell it at a much more discounted price.

Rating of Price: 9/10 - It could have been worse, but it was priced much better like a few other venues in the past.

Lot Information

Utilizing all of the content that comes with this venue set is a brand new carnival-themed commercial lot.  This lot is designated as a Big Park lot type and is a 50x50 lot size.  The cost of this lot is $93,508 Unfurnished and $260,583 Furnished and comprises of different areas to explore.

There is a bathroom in the far west corner of the lot, a parking lot area with three parking spaces and a wagon (Dresser object), two other areas with wagons for your sims to change their clothes, a huge tent with nothing too important inside other than the popcorn machine and a viewing area for potential showtime performances when combined with The Sims 3: Showtime, an arcade tent that includes the new Whack-A-Set! premium collection set, a carousel area, a sandbox area, a relaxation area with a fountain, dining area, and a mini-stage outside.

I do love the layout of the lot as it has enough space for players to add anything extra they want into this venue, such as other carnival-themed objects that were included in Showtime or the Le Cirque Celebration! store set. 

I do wish there was more room in the tent to add the 8x7 showtime stage, but I'll have to make some adjustments to make it work. The same can be said for the outside stage area for magic shows.  

Meanwhile, as much as I see the clown fountain being big for a reason, in order to make the carnival venue stand out, I think I'll have to remove it as it takes up a huge portion of the lot. I'm sure once it's removed, there is so much potential to customize the lot to anyone's liking.

Below are the images of the layout of the lot.

Rating: 7/10 - Layout is nice, but more room inside the tent and the stage is slightly needed.

Premium Content 1 of 3: World of Wonder Carousel

The first of three premium content included is the World of Wonder Carousel.  This premium content is a huge object and is a very detailed and visually appealing premium content introduced into The Sims 3 Store.

This object can be found under Sort by Function > Entertainment > Parties and costs $21,000.

If sold separately at a future date, the cost of this premium content is 500 Simpoints.

The object itself comes with three different recolors and the recolor channels only recolor the red/white stripes on top, the centerpiece, the poles at the edge of the carousel, and the blue colored edges.  Sadly, you cannot change the color of the wood on the floor, or the stencil on this carousel either.  The animals are also not recolorable, but that is okay considering there are different designs of the animals in this object.

There are two options for this carousel and you can choose to ride it by yourself, or ride it with other sims in the lot. Your sims will walk towards the object and then "magically" fade away and place themselves on one of the animals in the carousel.

What's nice about this object is that not only can you ride with other sims, the object itself will que other sims in the lot to enter the carousel, making it possible for the carousel to have maximum capacity.

Sims from age groups children and older can ride this carousel.

You will sometimes see sims happy and excited when riding the carousel, or sad and scared (like the man below). Animations included waving at sims who are watching, petting the animal, ride the animal "like a cowboy", look at other riders, dancing on the animal, or pointing at other sims in the ride.

So far, I have not had any sims get sick after the ride, so it looks like it is not possible for such a thing to occur with this premium content, unfortunately. I wish there was a feature that a sim can get nauseous from this ride, but it's still in testing.

After that, the carousel will start moving and the animals will go up and down for about an hour and 45 minutes, and you will sometimes get the Wheee! moodlet during the ride and 15 minutes after it ends. So far only the outer ring gets sims seated and I have yet to see the inner ring with sims in it.

After that, there is nothing else extra from this premium content. 

Rating: 9/10 - While this premium content is visually impressive, a good length of a ride, and lots of fun, I want some more interactions and negative effects.  I am in love with this premium content though.

Premium Content 2 of 3: Popcorn Machine and Cotton Candy Maker

The second premium content introduced in this venue is a collection of two mini-premium content: The popcorn machine and cotton candy maker.  These two mini-premium content are remakes of the snowcone machine, but come with new animations and add on to the nice list of snacks you can get at a venue! 

If sold separately at a future date, the cost of this premium content is 600 Simpoints.

Both objects can be found under Sort By Function > Appliances > Large Appliances and cost $160 for each of them.

They both come in four different designs shown below.

There is only one option for each of them, and you can either have popcorn or cotton candy.  Unfortunately, there are no flavor options and you only get one color of cotton candy and your typical butter-seasoned popcorn.  I do wish they included a small variety of colors and flavor to choose from, and it would have made these premium content objects much better.

Children and older can use these objects also.

They will not also fulfill the hunger need and your sims shouldn't autonomously swarm to these machines (as far as I've seen so far). Therefore, your sims won't get fat or any negative effects from eating out of these machines.

There is nothing extra other than the animations of the popcorn machine popping popcorn and the cotton candy machine running to make cotton candy. They do not empty out and will continue producing food without turning off or anything.  Sadly, your sims cannot also make any of the food objects and only just come to "have" said treats.

Below are the animations of getting both popcorn and cotton candy.

The moodlets that come from both machine are unique to each of them as getting popcorn gets the Freshly Popped moodlet and getting cotton candy gets the Sugarly Sweet moodlet.

Rating of Popcorn Machine: 5/10 - Lack of flavors made this object less premium-content worthy and there is no other animations other than getting popcorn. Machine can't be turned off or emptied either and your sims can't "make" popcorn.

Rating of Cotton Candy Maker: 5/10 - Same as the popcorn machine as you can't turn it off, empty it, make cotton candy or choose a variety of colors. 

Premium Content 3 of 3: Whack-A-Set!

The third premium content included is a collection of three different "Whack-A-Mole" remakes and include Whack-A-Chicken, Whack-A-Clown, and Whack-A-Corndog.  While they may not seem premium content-worthy, it includes coding that isn't found in the base game and unfortunately Whack-A-Mole can only be obtained in Supernatural, and there is little to no coding of that arcade machine in the base game. 

What's nice about this premium content collection introduced is that since this set is a venue, none of the items can be sold individually except premium content at a future date.  Creating this provides potential for simmers to purchase these three arcade machines as a single premium content collection for 300 simpoints without having to purchase the venue.

They can all be found under Sort By Function > Electronics > Miscellaneous Electronics and are each sold for $795. They all come in three different designs shown below.

They all have their own unique screen animations as the corndog goes from uneaten to eaten, the farm changes from day to night, and the clown goes from happy to evil.

The objects that you whack also get their own design too.

It costs no simoleons to play and you will get a scoring depending on how you do with the game.

Other than that, there isn't anything else included in this premium content collection, no moodlets or anything.

Rating of Whack-A-Set!: 4/10 - It isn't premium content and just a collection of arcade machines.  Thankfully, it is treated as premium content to be sold separately as a set rather than not be sold separately at all. Other than that, there is nothing special about these three and as much as the animated screens are nice, I wouldn't consider these really premium content but a set of arcade machines.

Tent-Building Kit

Introduced for the first time in The Sims 3 Store, we can create our own tents using over a dozen brand new tent pieces included in this venue.

Most of the pieces can be found in Build Mode > Columns but all 13 tent pieces (post is a column) can be found under Sort By Function > Decor > Roof Decorations and cost $10 each.

They are all recolorable and pretty much function like columns around each other. They DO NOT block weather out and are merely decor. You can customize and create your own venues with this tent-building kit and it was a nice addition to add with this venue. 

Below are all of the images of the pieces:

Rating: 4/10 - Even though they are a nice addition to the set, I wish there was a way for some of the pieces to block weather once it combines with other pieces.  Unfortunately, with how the pieces were designed, it was a disappointment to find that the roof pieces of the tent do not program to block weather. I wished the pieces were like windows, curtains, doors and roof pieces rather than act like columns honestly.

Other Build/Buy Content

Included in this venue are nine other objects that help decorate this venue to make it look more like a carnival venue.

I love the stereo that is included in this venue along with a new sandbox for the kids to play in.  The fountain is a bit huge, but I can see why it's huge based on what it looks like in this type of venue.  Most of it is just decor, but the design on pretty much of these objects is well-done.

All of these are recolorable, except for the fence and gate sadly, and below are the images of all of the objects.

Wishing Wonders Fountain
Location: Buy Mode > Sort By Function > Decor > Sculptures
Price: $75,000

Wild Wagon of Wonder
Location: Buy Mode > Sort By Function > Storage > Dressers
Price: $1,575

Sands of Time Sandbox
Location: Buy Mode > Sort By Function > Kids > Miscellaneous Kids
Price: $275

Box of Infinite Fidelity
Location: Buy Mode > Sort By Function > Electronics > Audio
Price: $350

Wonder Wall With Hedge
Location: Build Mode > Fences
Price: $75

The World of Wonder Welcome Gate
Location: Build Mode > Gates
Price: $190

Weird and Wild Wall Art
Location: Buy Mode > Decor > Wall Decorations
Price: $180

Glowing Orb Streetlight
Location: Buy Mode > Lighting > Outdoor Lights
Price: $340

The Finest Shrubbery in the Land

Location: Buy Mode > Decor > Sculptures
Price: $210

Rating: 6/10 - I like the objects and they are nicely designed. Not the best that has been introduced in The Sims 3 Store, but overall good. I do wish the fence and gate were recolorable and had unstenciled designs on the gate... but other than that it was pretty good! 

Overall Review

Price: 9/10 

Venue: 7/10 

Theme and Design: 8/10 

Carousel: 9/10 

Popcorn Machine: 5/10 

Cotton Candy Maker: 5/10 

Whack-A-Set!: 4/10 

Tent-Building Kit: 4/10 

Build/Buy: 6/10

Overall Review: 6.3/10 - I do love this venue, the layout, and the new objects and gameplay introduced in the store.  This venue set provided some visually-stunning content, and while there may be some flaws and disappointments in some of the objects, overall it is a pretty nice set and worth spending your odd 1615 Simpoints on (should be 1600 honestly).  If you like everything in this venue, then get it.  If not, wait for the premium content to be sold separately or the venue to be sold for a cheaper price.