The Simpsons Game

"Let me put it this way: My wife actually WANTED to play with me!!!"

The Tagline says it all. I've been searching for a LONG time to try to find a game that my wife and I can play. She doesn't like game much, but the games we do play together end up being unfun. When we play a racing game, she has more fun playing Bumper Cars instead of racing. When we play a fighting game...well, she kinda sucks at those. She loves her Mario on her Gameboy and she loves Sonic on my old Genesis. Obviously, Platform games are her thing. After much searching I decided to give this a shot...and I found a winner.

My wife and I played this co-op CONSTANTLY until we beat it. She never wanted to stop playing. It was an excellent experience that I am grateful for. With that in mind, this review is based off an entirely CO-OP playthrough.

Graphics: 8.5/10 Not bad. The gameplay itself is basically a normal Simpsons episode in appearance. Some of the cutscenes don't look right though. You will see what I mean when you play it. Overall, not bad at all.

Controls: 7/10 This is one area that was a little hit-or-miss. The controls were far too floaty at times. My wife is not exactly an Advanced gamer so she struggled on some of the platforming segments. Admittedly, so did I a few times.

Sound: 10/10 The sound is great. So excellent music in some stages. The voices are all from the show and sound great. The characters make some truly hilarious statements during gameplay.

Gameplay: 8/10 If it wasn't for the HORRIBLE camera, the gameplay would be a 10. In CO-OP the camera is just terrible. At times you cannot see where you are going and this leads to some idiotic deaths. The game itself is AWESOME. The platforming is clever and includes a few puzzles that are pretty hard (they require both players to do something at the same time usually). The game has several parts where you play a Simpsonized version of an old classic (Space Invaders, Zelda, Guitar Hero, etc), I thought these were hilarious but the references were lost on my wife. SPOILER: The last boss of the game: You play Guitar Hero against God!!!!! LOL!!!!!

Overall: 8/10 (not an average) A truly great game. Some of the stages were simply brilliant, others were only so-so. The achievements are good and will force you back through a 2nd playthrough; the game is so fun though you will not mind.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/14/07

Game Release: The Simpsons Game (US, 10/30/07)