The Simpsons Game

"A Simpsons Game That's Good? Ay Carumba!"

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Intro
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The Simpsons. What started out as just a few seconds long short on has grown into so much more a little over a decade later, most obviously a long running animated television series and one movie. However, there is one thing among gamers that The Simpsons are famous for. Sadly, that is that many of the games that the titular characters appear in can be on the bad or, at least, not that great side.

Of course, a few, such as the famed arcade game, don't suffer from that fate and are remembered fondly among fans. This game just happens to be one of the lucky few. What's even nicer is that all the voice actors from the television series provides the voices of their respective characters, even for the minor ones that appear throughout the game.

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Story - 10
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Part of the game's story is pretty much similar to what you might find in the cartoon. The game starts off with Marge taking away a new video game, obviously based on Grand Theft Auto, away from him. This leads up to Bart discovering that he, his family, and everyone else are actually video game characters. Not only that, they also have superpowers as well. This revelation could not have come at a better time as shortly after, aliens invade Springfield and it is up to our favorite family to save the day.

Of course this may sound a bit reminiscent of Bart vs. the Space Aliens for the NES. Believe me, the two games are nothing at all alike. Even after the aliens invade Springfield, you barely have any run-ins with them other than here and there. It's not even until about the fifth mission that the story really gets strewn together.

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Graphics - 10
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The graphics are great. The house as well as Springfield and its inhabitants are very nicely detailed. It's almost like playing the cartoon itself. Which brings up the game's cut scenes. The cut scenes could very well pass as scenes from the cartoon. Nicely rendered and definitely not bland and disappointing. I was honestly happy with how the graphics both in-game and for the cut scenes were done.

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Length - 7
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One of two areas that I feel really hurt the game. While definitely a fun and great game, it is also rather short. I got the game for Christmas ‘07. I started on December 26th and by three days later, I had finished the game. Given that I wasn't worried about finding the clichés or collectibles while playing my initial play through, the game is rather short.

Of course the game can be a lot longer if you want to start thinking about getting all the collectibles and finding the clichés. But for those of us who give more attention to the actual game and not finding random stuff, then well let me say that while it is not exactly a long game, it's not nearly short enough to make you regret renting and/or buying it and finishing the game.

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Difficulty - 5
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The other area that really “hurt” the game for me. Although it's a bit of a double-edged sword, I suppose you could say. On one side, the difficulty is perfect in the sense that it is a great game that is easy enough for (old enough) kids to play but not so easy that the older gamers out there would just brush the game off without bothering to play it. But even then the difficulty is not much to write home about.

As much as I liked it, for example but without spoiling anything, I found the final boss battle to be a joke. It was so easy, it seemed more like one last mini-game to throw out before you got to see the ending than an actual boss fight. However it's not unusual as none of the boss fights were hard by any definition of the word.

As I said, perfect for the younger crowd. Not-so-much for the older.

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Characters and Abilities - 8
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Another good but not perfect part of the game. In the game, you can play as all the Simpsons. Even Maggie gets to be a playable character, but only in certain parts of very few certain missions. All the characters have the common fighting abilities, a.k.a. punching. Of course where the fighting abilities shine are their secondary/super powers. Bart becomes Bartman and can use a slingshot, glide, or use a hook grapple, Homer uses his burping abilities as well as turning into an inflated Homer ball or blob Homer to roll, smash, or lob blob grenades, Marge rounds up mobs to do her bidding, and Lisa can use her sax to stun or defeat enemies or even stun the enemies into attacking each other as well as using her Buddist powers to pick up large objects or defeat enemies.

However, the bad part I found about the game's use of its characters was a bit lacking. There's only a very, very few missions that you can use anyone but Homer and Bart. Pretty much every mission minus two or three has you using at least one of the pair the whole time. So unfortunately, for both the two and fans of them, Marge and Lisa must sit in the shadows of their male counterparts most of the game.

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Humor - 10
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How can you have a Simpsons game in this day and age without bringing the show's humor with it? Obviously this game just would not have been the same without the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, humor that occasionally becomes borderline adult? The game definitely doesn't fail to match the poking humor of its television media counterpart. There are constant jokes from beginning to end in the game. Everything from video games to even God gets poked at, although not offensively so fortunately. Even Matt Groening takes part in the self-referential humor. There were quite a bit of jokes made in the game that in the very least brought a smile to my face.

If you're a fan of the show, then this is definitely one of the best parts of the game.

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My Overall Opinion and Outro
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And that brings us to the end of the review. Despite as I may or may not have come off in the review, I really love this game. Given there were a very few things I found that I disliked a bit, these did very little to make me not like the game. I actually never played the recent Simpsons games that came out before this one such as Hit and Run, but I would definitely say this is a good game, especially for Simspons fans. I've played quite a few ever since the days the Simpsons set foot in the three NES games but this is the one and only Simpsons game that I own. Dare I say that I like this game almost as much as the fan favorite arcade game that was released back in the day, if not more so. So that should tell you something.

If you're wondering if I am basically saying to give this game a deserving shot, then yes. Give this game the shot that it deserves. This would make a great addition for any gamer that is a Simpsons fan. Despite feeling it to be rather short, I still really enjoyed the game.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/06/08

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