The Simpsons Game

Review from Yug, Yug, Yug, Yug, Yug and Yug - Monday, 17 December 2007 @ 11:05pm

The Simpsons are an institution, theres no denying it. The TV show has aired over 400 episodes since 1989, has won 23 Emmy Awards, was named the 20th century’s best television series by Time magazine, and is the longest running American sitcom and cartoon series.

By comparison, video games based on the Simpsons haven’t fared quite so well, with some high points (The Simpsons: The Arcade Game), some low points (The Simpsons Skateboarding), and a whole bunch of generally mediocre games. The latest in the series (the 22nd to be precise), The Simpsons game, is thankfully one of the high points.

Although timed to take advantage of the recent publicity blitz from the movie, the game has nothing at all to do with it, completely deviating into it’s own story about Bart finding a video game manual for ‘The Simpsons game’, and discovering powers that both he and the entire Simpsons family have, which then need to be used to save Springfield from an alien invasion. It’s a strange ‘game within a game’ mechanic that has been used plenty of times before, but never with this much self referential humour. If there is a video game stereotype to be mocked or parodied, rest assured it will be during the course of this game.




Yes, this is a Simpsons game that doesn’t merely recycle old jokes or phrases from the existing Simpsons library, but mostly contains original and hilarious sequences and cut-scenes, laced with razor sharp wit and dripping with satire. The whole game is laugh out loud from beginning to end, and regardless of anything else I say during this review, the game itself is worth your time simply because of this.

Getting back to the actual game however, it’s another 3rd person style game, similar to Hit ‘n’ Run only this time completely cell shaded. It is, not surprisingly, a perfect fit, and looks extremely good in high definition on the next gen systems. Although the town of Springfield is also once again recreated in loving detail, it’s merely a means to reach the different areas where you have to go to begin each mission.

As the story progresses, the levels change dramatically. I mean seriously, I remember watching the trailer for the game and it looked so amazingly varied in content, thankfully the full game delivers. Here are just a few thing’s you’ll find yourself doing:

• Competing with other Simpsons characters in an ‘all you can eat’ contest.
• Summoning creatures during RPG style turn based battles.
• Destroying a 2 headed dragon while saving a town full of Flanders kids.
• Parachuting into a French village to save them from the Germans.
• Commanding angry mobs to attack pimped up Itchy and Scratchy characters.
• Attack a giant Doughnut Boy as he terrorizes Springfield.
• Use Lisa to save the forests from destruction.
• Fighting old school video game characters from Street Fighter, Sonic, Mario and Madden.
• Battles against Futurama characters Bender and Dr Zoidberg.
• Infiltrate the Springfield school as Maggie crawling through air ducts.
• Defeat the Alien invasion

It’s extremely varied and fun, and makes for a very entertaining game where you really want to finish each level so you can progress to the next one just to see what kind of unique and crazy scenario you’ll be thrust into next.




It’s a shame then that a game with such graphical polish, attention to detail and clever dialogue is let down by decidedly average gameplay mechanics, ironically the very same issues that the game itself continually pokes fun at. The fact that a lot of the time you have to fight with the camera controls in order to see where you are or time a jump can make the platforming sections tedious, especially when it snaps to a different position mid jump, and you land in the water where … as the video game guy so dryly points out as a typical video game convention … you cannot swim. It’s funny the first time, but looses its humorous charm extremely quickly.

They do try to mix it up somewhat, with each level requiring particular Simpsons characters, each one with their own abilities. Bart has a slingshot for long range attacks and can also transform into Bartman, who has the ability to hover using his cape and reach certain places using his gadgets. Homer can transform into a giant ball (strange, but funny) and plow through enemies and structures, as well as being able to stun with his belch. Lisa can stun with her Saxophone, and at certain meditation points she gets a god like control that allows her to move select structures around and attack enemies. Marge has a megaphone at her disposal, and can recruit other NPC to her mob and then command them as she wishes. And finally, Maggie, while not a separate playable character, sits snugly on Marges back and can be called upon to sneak into small crawl spaces, usually in order to complete some small puzzle.

Levels are also littered with random powerups that give our favourite yellow skinned family temperary super powers, such as Homer’s helium induced levitation, Barts metal clad invincible Robo-Bart, Lisa’s Kung Fu transformation, or Marge changing into her police uniform to become Officer Marge.




It’s all quite fun, but ultimately still boils down to a fairly straight forward platformer / beat em up, with average camera controls at best. After you’ve beaten the game (which could take a day of solid play), there is incentive to return to get all the achievements and collectibles in each level, with different collectibles required for each character. You can also play co-op through the game, a mode which I would usually highly recommend, but for some reason doesn’t quite work as effectively here. Perhaps if it didn’t split the screen it might work a little better, as it is controlling the camera is hard enough when you have a full screen to yourself, split it in two and your objectives get confusing really quickly.

You could also play through again on a different difficultly level, but considering how it seems to see-saw between toddler easy and demonicly hard throughout the game regardless, I can't see that as having much appeal.

Ultimately, I’m not saying this is a particularly bad game … in fact, for a Simpsons game, it’s excellent. It’s just that isn’t a really difficult comparison to live up to.

Summary

One of the best Simpsons games ever made (but that's not saying much), you will laugh at some of the sharpest Simpsons writing in years, yet cry at the frustrating controls.

Pros

Recreates the Simpsons universe successfully, graphics are cartoon perfect, this game is FUNNY - really really funny, super powers are enjoyable, levels are varied.

Cons

The attempts to poke fun at frustrating game issues falls flat when those issues are in the game itself, camera can be flakey, difficulty level is all over the shop, at it's heart it's a fairly standard platformer.