Though the combat is shallow, the puzzles are repeated frequently, the gameplay if prolonged by time challenges as well

User Rating: 8 | The Simpsons Game X360
By drswank | Review Date:
While the Simpsons has enjoyed success as a long running TV show, it’s long run as a gaming franchise has been a tad disastrous, and that’s putting it nicely. While there have been some standout titles in the Simpsons game legacy, it’s apparent that even their best titles were mediocre at best under the flag of Acclaim. Now that EA has taken the franchise, you could almost hear the collective groan come from gamers and fans everywhere. Thankfully, I can honestly say that The Simpsons Game is by far the best iteration of them all. While a basic platformer at its core, the game’s excellent sense of humor coupled with its satirical view of the gaming industry as well as the controversy around it make the Simpsons game one that almost has to be experienced. So let’s start with the game’s premise, which starts in complete ho-hum territory with an alien invasion at the hands of Kang and Kodos (armed with boards with nails in them of all things). In the meantime, the Simpson family discovers a manual to a game starring them, in which they discover they’ve got superpowers. With game manual (along with a conveniently found strategy guide) in hand, the family sets out to stop the invasion. After a few twists and turns, the family ends up being zapped into what’s known as “The Game Engine” where an evil creator and corporation are churning out shoddy Simpsons games at a fevered pace. While the first half of the game is funny, a lot of the material is recycled from the TV show. It’s during this latter portion where the funniest and most original stuff comes from. So before we get to the positive, let’s get the negative out of the way first. While I say the Simpsons game is the best in the series’ near twenty years of existence, it honestly doesn’t have a lot to live up to. First off, you’ll only encounter maybe one or two types of enemies en masse per episode, which mixed with the fairly limited combat system, gets stale pretty quickly. Second, there are a few gameplay bugs that may cause you to restart a level due to being stuck in the environment, though that’s a rare occurrence. Third, the camera is complete garbage. This element alone will cause its fair share of rage inducing frustration due to its mule-like stubbornness and inability to give you a useable angle during the most painstaking jumps. After all, a good camera in a platformer is really somewhat important after all. Fourth, the game is short. It attempts to prolong things by giving you the option to collect 75 icons for each character and replay levels to find all of the icons and other hidden items to get the coveted “Complete Package” achievement. The game almost makes its deficiencies forgivable with the discovery of several hidden game clichés. If you find yourself drowning in water or the aforementioned, Comic Book Guy will appear with a sarcastic remark about it, like “You can’t swim until the sequel”. These clichés will have you intentionally jumping into lava pits or running against walls to find the next one – they’re just comedy gold. The main story takes you to just about every notable locale in Springfield, though almost all are completely optional during the free roaming mode that takes place between the different missions, or episodes as the game refers to them. Still, while the story mode is short on content, you’ll enjoy being able to wander the streets and exploring the Kwik-E-Mart or discovering Comic Book Guy’s hidden pirate video stash inside the Android’s Dungeon. While in free roaming mode, you can travel to different locations to start each mission. Thankfully, a number of bus stops are strategically placed so you don’t find yourself walking across town to get where you need to go. Each mission has two members of the family teaming up to work through three segments. You’ll do everything from helping Bart and Lisa take out a logging operation to controlling Marge and Homer on a crusade to ban sales of the Grand Theft Scratchy game. Each character has their own special moves that will get you past any obstacles in your way. Homer can inhale helium and float or turn into a gelatinous ball and roll around, Marge uses a megaphone to blow enemies back or call townspeople to her aid, Lisa can use her saxophone to turn enemies against each other and can use the powers of Buddhism to lift objects, and Bart can glide using his Bartman cape, scale walls, or use clouds of steam to fly. In addition to the popcorn enemies you’ll encounter, such as reanimated Krusty dolls, sailor Smithers, and Zombie Moe, your main enemies will be the heaps of death-defying jumps that stand in your way. There’s also a good amount of puzzle solving involved, but none of which are too much of a strain on the brain, which if you’re only interested in playing straight through, you’ll find this to be a walk in the park. Thankfully, the game’s story is good enough to keep you going. The humor of the game is by far its best feature. While the opening levels are enjoyable, as they’re all heavily influenced by the “Tree House of Horror” Halloween specials, you’ll get a lot of original and recycled humor that are still worth some laughs. Each character has something different to say based on what’s going on in each mission, so the dialog really never gets old. As a matter of fact, things get progressively funnier as the game goes on. These first portions of the game serve as a sort of tutorial to prepare you for what happens later, but they’re enjoyable nonetheless. The real fun begins when the family is transported into the game engine where they have to save their 8-bit incarnations from a demented Will Wright, who is floating on a platform made of a Sims diamond icon which is classic. From there, the family goes into a number of video game spoofs that are chock full of self-referential humor, satire, and above all, totally pointing out what everyone thinks about EA. The family has to play through four different video games in order to reach the one known as “the creator”. Medal of Homer is a spoof on World War II shooters where Homer and Bart need to collect surrender flags from a French village as well as the cliché escort mission. Grand Theft Scratchy has Marge and Lisa gathering mobs to clean up a mock-up of Grove Street from GTA San Andreas. Trust me, it’s much funnier than it sounds, especially when you use Maggie to infiltrate the radio station to change the music from Gangsta’ Rap to Dionne Warwick and Stevie Wonder’s rendition of That’s What Friends are For. Neverquest is a spoof of Everquest where Homer and Marge have to protect a group of Hobbits from a dragon blessed with the likenesses of Patty and Selma. Lastly, Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game has Homer and Lisa fighting through a Japanese game that takes references from Katamari Damacy, Final Fantasy, and best of all, Pokémon. Recognizing each game spoof is really half of the fun, as the episodes you’ll go through will skew off and put a classic gaming spin on things as you’ll play a version of Missile Command by blowing up kitty prostitutes in Grand Theft Scratchy, to playing a version of Gauntlet and Joust where Homer has to butt heads with the Patty/Selma dragon in NeverQuest. It’s a treat to see where the game will go next, and the further you go, the game continues to please and never gets old outside of the aforementioned nuances. it truly ups the ante. In the interest of being spoiler free, the best parts are yet to come after you pass each game spoof. All I can say is to expect some truly “Oh my god” moments.

Graphically, the game is the first to truly take on a 3D cel-shaded art style, which is about time. The characters all look great; though they look a tad rough close-up during a few in-game cut scenes. The majority of the major plot points are done through fully animated cartoon shorts that ooze the typical Simpsons humor and all look really nice. The environments are just as good, though a few hardcore fans may question the placement of certain locations in relation to others, but they can really just get over themselves. When you’re exploring in free roaming mode, the town is depressingly barren of traffic and almost seems lifeless if it weren’t for the many key characters of the series walking around. Every environment looks like it has been pulled right out of the show, whether its Moe’s Tavern, the church, or any of the crazy places you’ll go in the world of the game engine. Speaking of the game engine, the creativity of the environments is something to behold. Your first foray into the game engine is full of burned out characters resembling Mario and Sonic powering the works while vats of coins, wooden crates, and health packs are manufactured. It’s all just really cool. Do me a favor and take my castrated, spoiler free word for it.

As is expected, the voice acting is top notch – c’mon, it’s the Simpsons after all. All of the original actors are here and none of them is phoning it in. The jokes definitely match with the quality of the show – take that for what you will, but it’s guaranteed you’ll laugh at least once before the game is done. Some of the most entertaining dialog will come from the enemies you encounter or the townspeople as they’re walking down the street. Oftentimes you’ll see them engaging in actual coherent conversations if they meet up with each other. It’s a wonder how much dialog was recorded for this game. The music also matches well with the environments and has an epic feel behind it.

Though the combat is shallow, the puzzles are repeated frequently, the gameplay if prolonged by time challenges as well as fetch-and-collect quests, and the platforming elements are all pretty basic, the humor, satire, and sheer creativity of where the story takes you definitely make The Simpsons Game an enjoyable experience. It’s so hard not to start rambling about the many memorable moments this game has, so let me give you the short of it. If you’re a gamer and a die-hard fan of the show, you’ll be in heaven here. Given how short the game is, it’s hard to recommend for a full-price purchase but it’s definitely worth a weekend rental at the very least, thus earning The Simpsons Game the coveted “wait until it’s thirty bucks” recommendation. It’s a game that any fan of the show or games in general just has to experience.

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