December 19, 2007

Review Extravaganza Su… Tues… Early Wednesday Morning: The Simpsons Game

So one game that has been on my mind since someone showed me a Youtube video of some of the cut scenes (from the DS version, of all things) was The Simpsons game. I’ve never really been a Simpsons fan, and with all the bad talk about how The Simpsons has gone downhill combined with how horrid most licensed games are, I never would have given this another thought. But those cut scenes did make me chuckle, so I was thinking about trying it. Well, I’m sitting on a fat stack of Hastings Credit, so I decided to try the demo, and if I liked it, go and rent the game. Well, I liked it, and was impressed by how the sound clips never repeated and were all entertaining. So I rented it, and I’ve been playing it all night. I’m not done, but I will be tomorrow… but I can say with confidence that the game is quite enjoyable, and that this is how licensed games should be made.
The basic plot of the game is that the Simpsons stumble upon an instruction booklet, which tells them they are in a video game and thus have video game superpowers. This sets up all kinds of things that pull in all sorts of Simpsons characters, a lot of which I only vaguely recognize and would probably like more if I ever watched the Simpsons, as well as setting up tons of Video Game parodies. It does this really well, actually, and it’s refreshing as well to see EA (who made the game) poke tons of fun at itself as the evil video game overlord who does nothing but stamp out sequels. In any case, why you play this game is for the dialog. All the characters have lots of lines that are very true to the show and very entertaining, and, thankfully, the designers decided NOT to have any of these lines repeat (unless you restart the level, which is okay) which is a godsend and keeps them all entertaining, as opposed to moving into annoying. (For an example of how not do to this with dialog, see almost all the dialog in Clive Barker’s Jericho) It’s all fan service and funny jokes, and even as someone to whom a lot of the fan service goes over my head, it’s still entertaining.
The gameplay itself is nothing to write home about, though. It’s serviceable, and rarely frustrating, and honestly, that’s all I can ask for from a licenced game. It would be neat if it were better. For example, Marge plays kind of like Captain Olimar, and rallies mobs to do things. If this was even MORE like Pikmin, it would have been completely awesome. Instead, it’s just a little like Pikmin, and doesn’t really come off as anything memorable. It’s just a little variety from the beat-em-up action of the other characters. The worst part is the camera, which can do some really odd things and not always control like you’d like. In those times, you just have to kinda give up, and let the game do what it wants. It can be a little frustrating, but, at least for me, the humor inherent in the game more than makes up for it.
Anyway, the game is short. I’m going to beat it tomorrow, no doubt in my mind. I’m over halfway through it. It was completely worth the 6 dollar rental, but I can’t see how it could be worth much more than that, even if you were the sort of person who is willing to go through and find all the collectibles (I’m not, though I think I will go back and collect all of the “Video Game Cliches” that I missed, because those are funny and completely true) and try to ace all the time trials to maximize replayability. I dunno who would have thought it was worth the 60 dollar asking price. But it’s pretty great, and it’s on like every console under the sun. Go rent it for something and enjoy it, eh? Especially if you’re a Simpsons fan, you won’t be disappointed.

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