In the 1980’s, two cash generating money machines were born, Electronic Arts and The Simpsons. One has generated thousands of video games; while the other spawned countless T-shirts and other merchandising items, and helped the fledgling Fox Network gain a foothold. It stands to reason that these two iconic bastions of entertainment should join forces, but can these two marketing behemoths develop a game worth playing?
Fans of the Simpsons have been burned with sub-par games in the past, and might be understandably concerned that EA would publish an ill-conceived title with minimal effort. Fortunately, these fears are unwarranted, as EA worked side-by-side with The Simpsons’ creator and writers to develop a game that should appeal to any fan of the series. The Simpson Game is true to everything that makes the series great, humor and parody. EA spared no effort to build a game that lampoons life, culture, video games, and even themselves.
The Simpsons Game is a platform style game with a multitude of levels – or episodes – tied together with storyline in which the family realizes that they are in a video game. This becomes apparent after Bart finds a game manual outlining each character’s special abilities. Most episodes are played with two predefined characters, such as Homer and Lisa, or Marge and Bart. The tandem must work as a team to finish the episode, as each character has distinctive abilities that will be utilized to clear an obstacle or defeat an enemy. Each episode is uniquely themed from Homer’s Chocolateland fantasy to Super Happy Fun Fun Homer. Each can stand alone, much like the Sunday evening episodes from which they are derived. Holding everything together is the town of Springfield, which the gamer can explore at leisure, and talk the characters the make the TV show great.
Homer arguably has the best, and most hilarious abilities. All characters have a melee attack and a power-up attack, such as Homer’s belches that can stun or kill enemies. Homer can call upon his “Homerball” and Gummi Homer alter egos to clear obstacles or provide a ranged attack. Bart uses a slingshot as his power-up attack, which is upgraded later in the game, and uses his Bartman persona to glide from heights and utilize zip lines and his grappling hook. Marge has the ability to use her bullhorn to enlist the aid of Springfield’s citizens to attack objects and enemies and build platforms. She also can deploy Maggie to crawl into ductwork to find hidden objects and activate switches. Lisa uses her saxophone to stun or confuse enemies and also uses Buddhist shrines to invoke the Hand of Buddha to lift objects and repulse enemies. While this skill is necessary to complete any level Lisa is present, while she is in her Zen state, she is vulnerable to attack.
Perhaps the greatest thing The Simpsons Game brings to the table is humor, and this title is full of great parody from start to finish. Video games new and old are lampooned nonstop from start to finish. The Simpsons are tasked to defeat Frogger, Space Invaders, Final Fantasy, Donkey Kong and Missile Command style games in their quests. Throughout the game there are scores of references to games, from video game factory workers that resemble Mario and Sonic, to game posters for ‘Zero Life”, Apu’s “Sitar Hero” and a slightly disturbing image of Homer advertising “Need for Speedo” (yuk). EA manages to take several shots at themselves, including a company executive that bribes Mayor Quimby, to questioning whether more money should have been spent on development rather than marketing. Despite’s Rockstar’s very vocal criticism of the Grand Theft Scratchy reference, this title is the central focus of a couple of episodes. Most gamers are going to love the humor and references that are pervasive throughout The Simpsons Game.
Video game parody takes another form in the collectable video game clichés to be discovered throughout the game. There are 31 clichés to discover and “unlock”, including bosses with one obvious weakness, to doors that don’t open, to exploding barrels. Each one is presented with the sarcasm that only The Comic Book Guy can provide.
Seemingly no expense was spared to make the voice acting equal to the television series. Most every character from the Simpsons is present, no matter how small the role. Even Kelsey Grammer has a cameo to reprise his role of Sideshow Bob. Will Wright, creator of SimCity and the Sims, plays a wacky mad-scientist type role, bent on destroying obsolete video games, including an 8-bit Simpsons game. Any animated series is truly about the voice acting, and it’s quite refreshing to see that EA went the extra mile to bring all the talent from the series to the game, as well as provide an avenue for unexpected voice cameos.
