The Simpsons Game

Many things have already been said about this new Simpsons game title, not least Mayur’s great 360 review as well as my preview published earlier in the year, here on NZGamer. Rather than regurgitating what you may have already read (and if you have not already read the above review and preview, I encourage you to do so), I’d like to emphasise a few key points and go over the aspects of the game that left the greatest impression on me.

The Simpsons Game is like a loud nerdy guy in the pub. You know the one I mean: the guy with the great sense of humour, who despite his bottle glasses still seems to get all the girls even though others have more muscles and a nicer car. I guess what I’m saying is that the game part of this game really isn’t all that good, but its ‘Simpsons personality’ really pulls a lot of the game off, and many (if not most) people will excuse some of its cardinal sins for this reason.

When I say “cardinal sins” I really do mean it. Things like a shocking set of controls, which are completely counterintuitive, and which are limited by large structures you may be standing next to. This means if Homer is standing on a ledge, with water below, and you’d like to leap from the ledge to a small surface, you can never really orient the camera to show both Homer’s position and his destination at the same time. The result? Dead Homer - again and again. Of course, every platformer will have tricky bits; if only this one would let you have a good go at those tricky bits every once in a while, it wouldn’t be so frustrating.

In addition to the tricky camera angles, the controls, which are quite straightforward, don’t seem as responsive as they could be, especially when you’re fighting. Still, I must say, it will take a long time before I could grow tired of Homer beating up chocolate bunnies…there’s that personality factor again!

My other beef is that while the game is touted as promoting ‘co-op play’, in many cases this doesn’t pan out as satisfyingly as you would expect. Hint: if you’re going to make use of the co-op aspect of the game, DON’T play as Homer. His main ‘skill’ seems to use his weight by standing on things to move them, letting the fleet-footed Bart leap and soar around the game. Bart gets all the action, while the dupe playing Homer inevitably has to go make the tea.

The game is also short – clocking in at around eight hours of platform game. And while you can continue exploring Springfield once the main action’s finished, there’s not a lot of point to it, unless you’re the obsessive type who must collect every single bit of everything in every game you play. (I’m not that type.) Optimistic folk may say “who cares if it’s only eight hours? As long as those eight hours are really good, why does it matter?” This may be true, but it’s also true that there are an awful lot of games out there that manage to combine great gameplay with a good month’s worth of gaming – rather than a weekend.

Of course there are fantastic aspects of the game, the best being that particular flavour of Simpsons humour that seems to infect anything it touches. Homer telling the chocolate bunnies “maybe you’d do better in a turn-based RPG” as he fought them had me cracking up for hours. And comic-book guy’s sarcastic take on video game clichés will bring a gleam to any Generation Xer’s eye. The music and voice acting are incredible, and they do a lot to add depth to the PS2’s graphics capabilities, which are really starting to show their age now.

I’m pretty sure that people who love the Simpsons will be keen to try this game out – regardless of any review results. Deep down, I’m glad – I love the Simpsons as much as anybody. I think fans will have a lot of fun with this one, as long as they take this for what it is: a platformer released on an aging console, with a helluva lot of personality and charm – a little like Homer himself.

"High on personality, low on originality."

7.5 Good