The Simpsons Game
Is EA's first Simpsons effort worth your D'oh? Read on and find out.
Posted November 1, 2007
Coming off of a pretty successful motion picture debut, The Simpsons are set to make a triumphant return to the video game medium. Not that we haven’t seen Homer and company in game form before, but it’s been awhile since there’s been a pretty high-profile video game release such as this one. With Electronic Arts at the helm, there have been some mixed feelings about how the game will turn out, especially in a portable format on the Nintendo DS. Now that the game is available, it’s time to put Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge, and Maggie through their paces and find out whether The Simpsons Game is the definitive Simpsons experience that fans hope it is.
Plot
If you were to base your buying decision on story alone, The Simpsons Game makes a strong case. The general idea here is that mass chaos invades Springfield at about the same time that Bart realizes that he and his family have been anointed with special powers thanks to a new video game that they’re all in; in fact, they’re actually living the game. You’ll get to know these powers pretty quickly, and you’ll need all of them to proceed through the story and see what happens. Along the way, there are a ton of video game-related jokes and references that will strike many seasoned gamers as quite amusing. There are also references here to Frogger, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Gauntlet, Space Invaders, and Pokemon, to name just a few. There are some humorous twists to the story, along with a couple of villains that are simply perfect here. The story is tied together via animated movies, which are all-new Simpsons shorts created especially for this game.
Gameplay
With the great quality of the story and associated content here, the gameplay has a lot to live up to in order to make The Simpsons Game a stellar experience. Unlike the console versions, which take place in more three-dimensional environments (and their associated camera woes), the Nintendo DS version is a 2D game and relies a lot on team-based platforming. The general idea here is that, for each level—- or episode-— two members of the Simpsons family generally work together in order to reach the end. For example, Bart and Homer team up in one of the early episodes. Bart relies on his Bartman abilities to glide through the air after jumping, plus he can shoot objects with his slingshot and use a grappling hook. Homer, meanwhile, can morph into HomerBall and can either roll at high speed off ramps to reach new areas or can fill up with helium at certain icons to float to various locations. Players cannot change between characters manually, however; the current character must find a switch or accomplish a certain action in order to shift control to the other character.
This team-based gameplay works for the most part, but there are more than a few spots in the game that demand a bit of trial and error to get through. There are times when it seems like you’ve done all you can do to move on, but the game won’t let you—and there are very few on-screen hints to help out when you’re stuck. This tends to hamper the pace of the game and causes more frustration than it probably should. Every so often, you many see a visual cue showing what power or action should be used, but you don’t always see where to use it, or when.
Aside from the special powers that each character has, there is also a lot of jumping and a heavy dose of melee combat required. Jumping and double jumping are usually handled fine, but there are a few instances in certain tense areas where the double jump doesn’t seem to register, leading to instant death. Melee combat is adequate, but there is no defense and it’s hard to back off from incoming enemies, leading to unavoidable losses of energy. Lives are limitless in The Simpsons Game, but if you haven’t made it to a checkpoint, you lose some progress when you re-spawn. During some of the later episodes, when timing is critical, having to restart from a distant checkpoint can be maddening. If you also consider some of the cheap hits that your character is seemingly forced to take at times, all you really want to do is just survive from checkpoint to checkpoint.
There are a fair number of collectable items within each episode. Collecting all of the character-specific items in each episode—- such as Duff Beer Caps for Homer—- unlocks some viewable trophies at The Android’s Dungeon to look at later on. Replaying earlier levels to find all of these items isn’t essential, and it’s certainly a laborious effort during the later episodes. Aside from collecting these items, players can uncover various Video Game Clichés that the Comic Book Guy will point out as the game progresses. Double Jumps, Enemy Spawning, and Chasm Deaths are just a few to find. This is more of an inside joke for gamers, but these clichés may not get the same laughs from more casual gamers.
The Simpsons Game also has multiplayer options, which can be accessed either via a single game card or with multiple cards. There are four game modes to choose from: Bart Match, Kapture the Koveted Krusty, Hungry Homer, and Golden Donut. Bart Match plays like a deathmatch in a first-person shooter. Kapture the Koveted Krusty is essentially a Capture the Flag game. Hungry Homer is a race to see who can eat the most food. Golden Donut challenges players to hold onto the Golden Donut longer than anyone else, while avoiding attacks from other players. All of these games are basic diversions from the single-player game, and none of them are very deep. There isn’t any Wi-Fi functionality, either, to play these games with other players.
Graphics
As previously mentioned, The Simpsons Game on the Nintendo DS is a 2D affair. The visuals are colorful and appear just as they would when watching the show. There’s a good mix between Springfield locales and new areas created especially for the game. The character animations are smooth, and there quite a few of them. Bartman’s cape flows as he glides. Marge’s body pirouettes through the air during double jumps. Both of the screens on the DS are used for the game to show the worlds and characters will spend time in both. There are occasional hitches in the scrolling frame rate if there’s too much happening on the screen at once, which is a bit surprising and somewhat disappointing. These occurrences are rare, though, so they don’t interfere with the game that much.
Aside from the in-game graphics, there are story sequences that are shown via full-motion videos. These movies are noticeably compressed, but the use of the ActImagine Codec is becoming a standard practice for showing FMVs on the DS. There isn’t a lot of pixelization, and the sound synchs up well with the video. There’s about 20 minutes with of animation, which is pretty impressive for such a small card.
Sound
The one aural element that will make itself known almost immediately in The Simpsons Game is the amount of speech. All-new lines have been recorded by the cast of the show (and a couple of others), and they’re all delivered perfectly and in character. While these new lines are pretty funny, they also become repetitive quickly. In fact, some of the lines repeat twice or three times in a row for melee attacks. At other times, the lines play randomly and without a trigger. This random speech becomes a minor distraction later on, especially after you’ve heard the same lines a dozen times or so. Unfortunately, it becomes overkill. As for the music, it’s not bad. The music reflects the setting for each episode, and is generally upbeat and resembles the incidental music that you’d hear while watching the show.
The Final Verdict
Despite a genuinely funny story and great content for fans, flaws in the overall game design keep The Simpsons Game from being an elite game. It’s not a bad game by any stretch, but ambiguity and guesswork lead to frustrating moments in a platformer like this one. More direct goals or objectives would have been great for this game to satisfy more players than just diehard Simpsons fans who will fight and struggle with this game until the very last frame of animation. There are moments of greatness, but these are mitigated by cheap hits and even cheaper deaths. Fans of the show may feel compelled to spend $30 on this, but for just about everyone else, The Simpsons Game is worth a rental to experience the humor and the surprises stored within the story.
Plot
If you were to base your buying decision on story alone, The Simpsons Game makes a strong case. The general idea here is that mass chaos invades Springfield at about the same time that Bart realizes that he and his family have been anointed with special powers thanks to a new video game that they’re all in; in fact, they’re actually living the game. You’ll get to know these powers pretty quickly, and you’ll need all of them to proceed through the story and see what happens. Along the way, there are a ton of video game-related jokes and references that will strike many seasoned gamers as quite amusing. There are also references here to Frogger, Super Mario Bros., The Legend of Zelda, Gauntlet, Space Invaders, and Pokemon, to name just a few. There are some humorous twists to the story, along with a couple of villains that are simply perfect here. The story is tied together via animated movies, which are all-new Simpsons shorts created especially for this game.
Gameplay
With the great quality of the story and associated content here, the gameplay has a lot to live up to in order to make The Simpsons Game a stellar experience. Unlike the console versions, which take place in more three-dimensional environments (and their associated camera woes), the Nintendo DS version is a 2D game and relies a lot on team-based platforming. The general idea here is that, for each level—- or episode-— two members of the Simpsons family generally work together in order to reach the end. For example, Bart and Homer team up in one of the early episodes. Bart relies on his Bartman abilities to glide through the air after jumping, plus he can shoot objects with his slingshot and use a grappling hook. Homer, meanwhile, can morph into HomerBall and can either roll at high speed off ramps to reach new areas or can fill up with helium at certain icons to float to various locations. Players cannot change between characters manually, however; the current character must find a switch or accomplish a certain action in order to shift control to the other character.
This team-based gameplay works for the most part, but there are more than a few spots in the game that demand a bit of trial and error to get through. There are times when it seems like you’ve done all you can do to move on, but the game won’t let you—and there are very few on-screen hints to help out when you’re stuck. This tends to hamper the pace of the game and causes more frustration than it probably should. Every so often, you many see a visual cue showing what power or action should be used, but you don’t always see where to use it, or when.
Aside from the special powers that each character has, there is also a lot of jumping and a heavy dose of melee combat required. Jumping and double jumping are usually handled fine, but there are a few instances in certain tense areas where the double jump doesn’t seem to register, leading to instant death. Melee combat is adequate, but there is no defense and it’s hard to back off from incoming enemies, leading to unavoidable losses of energy. Lives are limitless in The Simpsons Game, but if you haven’t made it to a checkpoint, you lose some progress when you re-spawn. During some of the later episodes, when timing is critical, having to restart from a distant checkpoint can be maddening. If you also consider some of the cheap hits that your character is seemingly forced to take at times, all you really want to do is just survive from checkpoint to checkpoint.
There are a fair number of collectable items within each episode. Collecting all of the character-specific items in each episode—- such as Duff Beer Caps for Homer—- unlocks some viewable trophies at The Android’s Dungeon to look at later on. Replaying earlier levels to find all of these items isn’t essential, and it’s certainly a laborious effort during the later episodes. Aside from collecting these items, players can uncover various Video Game Clichés that the Comic Book Guy will point out as the game progresses. Double Jumps, Enemy Spawning, and Chasm Deaths are just a few to find. This is more of an inside joke for gamers, but these clichés may not get the same laughs from more casual gamers.
The Simpsons Game also has multiplayer options, which can be accessed either via a single game card or with multiple cards. There are four game modes to choose from: Bart Match, Kapture the Koveted Krusty, Hungry Homer, and Golden Donut. Bart Match plays like a deathmatch in a first-person shooter. Kapture the Koveted Krusty is essentially a Capture the Flag game. Hungry Homer is a race to see who can eat the most food. Golden Donut challenges players to hold onto the Golden Donut longer than anyone else, while avoiding attacks from other players. All of these games are basic diversions from the single-player game, and none of them are very deep. There isn’t any Wi-Fi functionality, either, to play these games with other players.
Graphics
As previously mentioned, The Simpsons Game on the Nintendo DS is a 2D affair. The visuals are colorful and appear just as they would when watching the show. There’s a good mix between Springfield locales and new areas created especially for the game. The character animations are smooth, and there quite a few of them. Bartman’s cape flows as he glides. Marge’s body pirouettes through the air during double jumps. Both of the screens on the DS are used for the game to show the worlds and characters will spend time in both. There are occasional hitches in the scrolling frame rate if there’s too much happening on the screen at once, which is a bit surprising and somewhat disappointing. These occurrences are rare, though, so they don’t interfere with the game that much.
Aside from the in-game graphics, there are story sequences that are shown via full-motion videos. These movies are noticeably compressed, but the use of the ActImagine Codec is becoming a standard practice for showing FMVs on the DS. There isn’t a lot of pixelization, and the sound synchs up well with the video. There’s about 20 minutes with of animation, which is pretty impressive for such a small card.
Sound
The one aural element that will make itself known almost immediately in The Simpsons Game is the amount of speech. All-new lines have been recorded by the cast of the show (and a couple of others), and they’re all delivered perfectly and in character. While these new lines are pretty funny, they also become repetitive quickly. In fact, some of the lines repeat twice or three times in a row for melee attacks. At other times, the lines play randomly and without a trigger. This random speech becomes a minor distraction later on, especially after you’ve heard the same lines a dozen times or so. Unfortunately, it becomes overkill. As for the music, it’s not bad. The music reflects the setting for each episode, and is generally upbeat and resembles the incidental music that you’d hear while watching the show.
The Final Verdict
Despite a genuinely funny story and great content for fans, flaws in the overall game design keep The Simpsons Game from being an elite game. It’s not a bad game by any stretch, but ambiguity and guesswork lead to frustrating moments in a platformer like this one. More direct goals or objectives would have been great for this game to satisfy more players than just diehard Simpsons fans who will fight and struggle with this game until the very last frame of animation. There are moments of greatness, but these are mitigated by cheap hits and even cheaper deaths. Fans of the show may feel compelled to spend $30 on this, but for just about everyone else, The Simpsons Game is worth a rental to experience the humor and the surprises stored within the story.