Certainly a Simpsons-worthy presentation; however, broken camera and shallow gameplay detract from the experience.
So that's what the game does right. However, as is often the case with licensed games or games that otherwise ride the fanfare of their subject's success from another entertainment medium as the reason for their existence, the Simpsons Game has some serious flaws that may well have you tossing the controller in disgust. First and formost, the camera is TERRIBLE!!! All the time you will likely find yourself struggling to find a decent angle from which to control your Simpson character, and all the time you will likely fail to get the right one. The R3 button does offer some control over where the camera goes, but you can't shift the view up and down and it only pans around a certain small distance from left to right. This is particularly infuriating when you have to make a big jump or use Bart's gliding cape (and since this game is a 3D platformer, things like this happen ALL THE TIME and it ALWAYS SUCKS). The camera on its own almost singlehandedly destroys the experience at times for these reasons, since it's hard to appreciate the hilarity of this game when you're trying to land on the exact right platform for the 15th time and still failing, so when this happens just turn the game off, do something else and get back to it later or else you'll just ruin it for yourself. SPOILER ***In fact, even GOD HIMSELF points out how bad the camera in this game is in the ending of the game... 'Nuff said.***
The other major problem that this game faces is that for all it's endless humour and enderaing translation of the Simpsons experience, there just isn't much to this game. Each Simpson has a few abilities (Bart can turn into Bartman and glide with his cape and use a Slingshot with collectible ammo, Homer can unleash a gigantic burp that kills all enemies in its radius, turn into HomerBall---an obese rolling ball of death, can float in the sky as Helium Homer, and shoot at enemies as Gumby Homer; Marge can brainwash passersby with her Megaphone and send Maggy into crawlspaces too small for an adult, and Lisa can stun enemies with her saxophone and solve puzzles by moving large objects using the hand of Buddha) but that's about all the depth this game has to offer. Every level looks different but plays more or less the same---kill bad guys, accomplish objectives, and follow the linear path to victory. It's a very shallow experience, and funnily enough it makes no excuses for it.
That brings me to the next and final point of this review. For some reason, The Simpsons Game is not only intent on satirizing video games and their predictable structures and cliches, but also making you play through all of them in the process. All of the overused game mechanics that this game pokes fun at (overuse of trampolines, lava and elemental enemies, levers, enemy spawners, and my favourite---the chasm death---among many others) are in this game in force. Thus, The Simpsons Game is likely not only making fun of all these things about video games, but also likely slightly ridiculing anyone who plays the game through all of these cliches and hackneyed mechanics after the game has brought them all to your attention over and over again. At least that was the impression I got after I saw the ending. So may that be a reason to open up a book or something the next time your brain hurts from trying to make the same jump over and over again, I suppose.
Anyway, the bottom line is that this is a hilarious game that does a lot of things it aspires to very well, but also (purposely?) overlooks some very important mechanical issues in the process. I wouldn't dream of spending $30 or $40 on a new copy of this game, but it's probably worth a rental if you're curious.