Best Sims 3 Mods You Must Add to Your Game
Looking for the best Sims 3 mods? You've definitely come to the right place! The Sims 3 was originally released on June 2, 2009, so the game isn’t exactly new anymore at this point and many would rather play its predecessor or even wait for the upcoming The Sims 5. That’s understandable, however, there a couple of reasons why you should still give this classic title a try. For one, you can find a lot of mods out there that will greatly enhance your experience and make the game feel fresh again.
The other main reason is that in spite of its age, The Sims 3 is generally considered superior to its successor in many ways. In other words, you owe it to yourself to check it out if you’ve never played it before. If you did, well, what better way to celebrate its impending 10-year anniversary than jumping in for another playthrough? Especially if you haven’t played it with mods until now.
With that in mind, in this article, we’re going to take a look at some of the absolute top mods of Sims 3 you shouldn’t play without in 2019. There’s quite a large selection of mods available for this game so we’re going to break things down by category in order to make things a bit easier for you. That way, you can jump straight to the category you’re most interested in if you’re looking for something specific. Download links are available for each of the mods so don’t hesitate to grab them.
Lots & Housing
Petlandia Village
Petlandia Village adds a new medium-sized land mass to the game with its own backstory and plenty of great real estate. The village contains pretty much everything you might expect, including a school, a civic center, businesses, shops, hospital, research center, and more. Of course, there are also many homes of all sizes just waiting to be purchased. Just as its name indicates, this mod is aimed at pet lovers so make sure you have the Pets expansion pack before downloading. Petlandia Village is not populated so feel free to grab your pets and move in asap.
Ambitious Additions
This mod adds three new small lots to the game aimed at making your town more interesting. The first lot includes a tattoo chair and a makeover station complete with hair styling. The next one is a laundromat cleverly disguised as an unassuming red and white barn. Finally, the last lot is a bit more complex and features everything from a gallery and café to a drafting table, sculpting stations, and more. Ambitious Additions was designed specifically with Petlandia Village in mind and perfectly complements the previous mod we discussed. In addition to the Pets expansion pack, you’re also going to need the Ambitions EP in order to make good use of this mod.
Slithers and Critters Pet Shop
Looking for even more mods that revolve around pets? No problem. Slithers and Critters Pet Shop is just what it sounds like and adds a new pet shop that specializes in small pets. Although it mainly specializes in fish and things like that, here you can definitely also find everything you need for your cats and dogs too. This mod requires quite a few expansion packs in addition to Pets so make sure to check out the requirements before downloading.
Victorian Style #2
This mod is part of a larger collection of houses designed to resemble Victorian Era mansions. This particular house is pretty huge and comes with three floors, each specializing in a certain area. On the first floor, you have your kitchen, dining room, guest bedroom, three living rooms, two bathrooms, and an office. The second floor features an additional two bathrooms, three more bedrooms, a playroom, and a nursery. Meanwhile, the third floor extends the second floor’s playroom and also includes a gym. There are a total of five Victorian Style houses in this collection so if you’re not a fan of #2, make sure to check out the mod creator’s other creations.
Autumn Flower Domicile
Autumn Flower Domicile is one of the most ambitious mod in this particular category. The mod adds a large Asian-inspired manor with a modern Japanese interior. The house looks absolutely beautiful and works very well as a mountain vacation retreat. Among other things, Autumn Flower Domicile features seven bedrooms, five bathrooms, a hobby room, indoor spa, indoor garden, and a garage. Outside, you also have a pool, waterfall, pods, and bountiful greenery. The creator used most of Sims 3’s expansion packs and stuff packs when creating the mod. Again, make sure to check out the requirements before downloading.
Sims
The Doctors Are In – The NuWho Trio
If you’re a fan of the long-running British sci-fi TV show Doctor Who you’ll find this to be one of the best Sims 3 mods out there. The mod adds the first three doctors that appeared in the show since the series was picked up again in 2005. Namely, The Ninth Doctor played by Christopher Eccleston, The Tenth Doctor played by David Tennant, and The Eleventh Doctor played by Matt Smith. Every Whovian has a favorite Doctor but with this mod, you don’t have to choose because you get all three.
Faith Connors (Mirror’s Edge)
We’re getting a bit meta here as this is a mod that introduces a character from another game. Faith is the main character of the Mirror’s Edge series and looks remarkably well as a sim. According to the mod creator, Faith is ambitious, athletic, brave, charismatic, and has a good sense of humor. In other words, her sim version is pretty close to the original both in terms of looks and personality.
Star Trek: TOS – Leonard Nimoy as Spock
This has to be one of the best mod for Star Trek fans. Well, at least as far as this particular category of mods is concerned. Just as its name suggests, the mod adds The Sims version of Spock as portrayed by the legendary Leonard Nimoy. Unfortunately, Nimoy passed away a few years back so this mod is a fitting tribute to the late actor. According to the mod creator, Spock’s traits are genius, brave, loner, vegetarian, and no sense of humor. Again, pretty much identical to the original version.
Jimi Hendrix: The Legend
The last mod we’re going to mention in this category is Jimi Hendrix: The Legend. Much like all the other mods we discussed here, this one is pretty self-explanatory. The mod introduces The Sims version of legendary American guitarist Jimi Hendrix. There are two versions of this mod available, the first of which features the base Sims 3 skin and hair. If you want the more genuine portrayal complete with proper skin, hair and all the other important features you’re going to need a few more mods. Check out the download link below and scroll towards the bottom of the page to see which extra mods you need.
Also Read: Sims 4 Challenges
Overhauls
Children Can Care for Their Lil’ Siblings
Having a little sibling is hard, especially when you’re little yourself. This mod is a shout out to all the big brothers and sisters out there who had to take care of their little siblings when they were young. This mod allows children to pick up toddlers from cribs or put them back in, walk to lots with them, tickle them, change their outfits, and more. Essentially, it allows children to interact with toddlers in a way that’s similar to how adult sims do it. The mod includes plenty of custom animations to make interactions look as genuine as possible.
The Transmogrifier
The Transmogrifier is not just one of the top mod around, it’s also one of the most fun. What this mod basically lets you do is change the script class of an object and make it behave like something else. In practical terms, you could replace the scrip of a rug with that of a hoverboard to create a flying rug. You could also make your bed behave like a vehicle and drive around in it or you could simply remove all functionality from an object and use it just for aesthetic purposes. The possibilities offered by this mod are quite vast so experiment with it at your leisure.
Age
Does it ever bother you that sims jump from one life stage to the next without undergoing a gradual aging process? Well, no need to worry about that anymore because this mod lets your sims age naturally. Sort of. What the mod actually does is update sims bit by bit every night in order to simulate the aging process. As such, you’ll notice that sims slowly start to grow gray hair, wrinkles, and adjust their walk style to reflect their age. If you’re not happy with the gray hair part, fret not. The mod creator also included the option to dye the hair of sims to other colors.
Sim Height Slider
This is a fairly basic mod but it can have a huge impact on your gameplay. Sim Height Slider is exactly what it says and allows you to adjust how tall or short your sims are. The adjustments can be made while your sims are in their child or teen stages and will carry over as they age. The slider is not available for the toddler as it apparently caused some wonky looking animations.
The Third Person Mod
This is an amazing mod that lets you step into the shoes of your sim like never before. The Third Person Mod adds a brand new perspective that almost makes you feel like you’re playing an RPG or action-adventure game. Even more impressive is the fact that you can easily switch between normal mode and third-person mode with the press of a button. While in third-person mode, you can control your sim using the WASD keys.
Poses and Animations
On Display (Modeling Poses)
Make things look more lively with this mod that ads a wide variety of new poses for your sims. This mod was originally inspired by clothing store mannequins but the creator has since expanded it to include a lot more diversity. On Display requires a couple of other mods like Pose Player or Animation Player. Make sure you install one of those first if you want this mod to work properly.
Kapow! (Comic Book Poses)
Speaking of poses, here’s another mod that adds even more of them to play with it. This time around, the poses are inspired by comic book covers. Kapow basically allows your sims to pose like Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain America, and many other famous superheroes. There are also nods to a few other pop culture icons in there, including Neo from The Matrix. Just like On Display, Kapow requires you to install one of the other two mods mentioned earlier.
Inked Up
Last but not least in this category we have Inked up, a pose package aimed at tattoo artists. Or tattoo addicts, depending on your playstyle. Want to make your sims shrivel in pain as they're getting a tattoo or give you a thumbs up once the artist finished inking them up? This mod lets you do that and much more. Inked Up also includes the Tattoo Gun Accessory, which is an edited version of the Ambitions Tattoo Gun. However, this mod doesn’t require the Ambitions expansion pack or any other EPs or stuff packs for that matter. Once again, though, you will need the Pose Player or Animation Player mods for this to work properly.
Final Thoughts on Sims 3 Mods
In spite of its age, The Sims 3 is still a highly enjoyable game even in 2019. The vanilla game is quite good as it but adding a few Sims 3 mods on top really takes things to the next level. The best part is that we only covered a relatively small percentage of the total mods you can find for this game. The Sims modding community is constantly creating new ones and there are literally thousands more where these came from. Don't hesitate to check them out!
