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Review
Many Simpsons fans, myself included, have always wondered why it's proved so difficult to make a good Simpsons computer game. The characters themselves are ideally suited to a good storyline, yet previous gaming incarnations have proved shallow humoured and lacking in real quality. With the release of the first Simpsons movie, EA are determined to lay the ghosts to rest and provide that holy grail of video gaming, a decent Simpsons title!
With such a wealth of characters in Springfield, it seems natural that EA should have made this a somewhat free-roaming game. You'll enjoy walking round the streets of Springfield, finding all your favourite places like Moe's Tavern and the Comic Shop, but maybe not running into Patty and Selma or worse, the school bullies. You start the game as Homer in the 'Land Of Chocolate', though sadly, once again, it's just a daydream location. Soon enough, you're teaming up with Bart to set upon your first real mission.
The various missions throughout the game employ certain levels of action-adventure characteristics, jumping from ledges, seeking out items, but also require plenty of use of the Simpson family's special powers. Bart can use his slingshot and Bartman cape to glide, while Homer can belch to stun enemies and roll himself into a giant ball to squash them, and so on. Most of the environments deliberately play to the strengths of the specific family members, so you'll find yourself switching between Homer and Bart to make it through a level in single player mode.
The Simpsons Game also include a 2 player co-op mode as well, bringing double the fun, you might think?! Sadly the imaginative co-op mode is often lacking in any real advantage, for starters splitting the screen down the middle can make it difficult to spot incoming enemies, especially with the somewhat difficult to control camera, but by far the worst thing is that some levels require one character to do almost all the special moves to advance the plot. As such, the player controlling Bart might be flying around the ceiling or firing at targets, while the poor sap playing Homer simply stands and watches. The only good thing about this is the animations when characters are left idle for a minute or so, which are hilarious.
