The Simpsons Game 360 Review - www.impulsegamer.com -
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Gameplay |
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7.0 |
| Graphics |
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8.5 |
| Sound |
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8.5 |
| Value |
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7.5 |
Distributor: EA
Classification: G
Review Date: January 2008
Reviewer: Edwin Millheim |
7.0 |
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The Simpsons Game
You’ll laugh you’ll
cry, but in the middle of it all you will laugh some more. The
Simpsons Game from EA Games has the unusual ability to frustrate at
times, but keep you coming back just to have some silly fun. The
over all look of the game world is pretty darn good. The feeling you
get is that you have some how become part of the TV world of The
Simpsons. There you are in a spectacularly re created Springfield,
and its cast of dozens upon dozens of characters from the show.
Running around a virtual Springfield and going to locations seen on
the show like Krusty Burgers or Moe’s really adds the touch of
authenticity to the game world. Any fan of the show will get a real
kick out of this game and may actually win over some new fans that
have perhaps never even seen an episode. All the humor is there, and
parents unless you have been living under a rock for the past
several years. Do not let the cartoon look fool you too much, some
of the humor can be more adult oriented. Not over the top adult, but
you may want to rent it before you buy it for any kids.
Features
Through out the game
experience, players get to play different pairings of the Simpsons
family and effectively tag team back and forth between them in order
to use each ones unique skills to get through the level. Each level
is chock full of enemies to dispatch, and the characters played have
at least one standard attack and a few special abilities. Bart for
instance uses a long range attack utilizing a sling shot, and he can
also become Bart Man and has the ability to glide. This comes in
handy over several levels and is actually one of my more favorite
characters to play. As you put along through the levels and are in
control of one character the AI controls the other. For the most
part the AI is fairly good at keep the AI controlled character out
of trouble. In a pinch switching between the two to take a more
strategic hand in things is a snap.
As par most games that utilize extra character to help the player
character along though, it more times than not feels like the player
character is the one with the big bulls eye painted on them as all
the AI enemy seem bent on going after that player controlled
character more aggressively than the AI controlled character.
There is a co op option but it does not really seem as if it had set
out to be even part of the game, more like an after thought either
way though it is still fun to have a friend play along with you. It
does not really seem as though you need them for anything. You can
have them keep the bad guys off of you while you perform other
tasks.
Now if I had to lay
some gripes down on The Simpsons game, I would have to say that some
times the controls and camera angles of the action tend to get
annoying at times. Especially when there is a crucial jump coming up
and the angle goes askew and you have to then re load and perform
the sequence again. The levels while different from one another the
play can get more than a bit repetitive fairly quickly. At times
some of the simplest things become a chore from the ninth pit of
Hades because of the controls. The game reminds me of some of the
old coin op games you used to stuff quarters in to play, but would
get so frustrated you wanted to stop, but noooooo you would just
shove another bunch of quarters in because you just had to make it
to that next level.
There is not a heck of a lot to the game play. It’s all pretty
straight forward and the learning curve of the controls is very
short. So any one can pick the game up and have a blast within
minutes. The Simpsons gives a gives a good fix to the game fans who
want to take a romp in the world of the Simpsons, it’s like a casual
game on a full game scale. Well done, and it gets a full Impulse
Gamer nod
Have fun, play games
Edwin Millheim |
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