By Stevie Smith Dec 5, 2007, 7:24 GMT
(Review provided courtesy of Play.tm)
The Simpsons get down to some seriously funny shenanigans in Springfield on the Xbox 360. Credit: EA.
In a gaming industry overflowing with graphic violence, sporting regurgitation, contrived narratives, and tyre-shredding vehicles, the one thing in short supply across most genres is humour. Of course, while the likes of Bully (Canis Canem Edit) and Psychonauts have certainly exuded witty writing and smile-inducing creativity in recent years, actual laugh out loud comedy isn't something readily associated with videogames.
Well, at least up until now. Because, with The Simpsons Game, videogame titan Electronic Arts is set to well and truly tickle our long-discarded laughter glands with a little help from America's favourite dysfunctional yellow family - which has largely failed to make a positive impression on gaming audiences despite its undoubtedly cast-iron appeal.
While free to roam through a well constructed and fully three-dimensional re-creation of Springfield - visiting various famous locations from the long-running TV show at one's leisure - Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge, and baby Maggie embark on an adventure that opens with them attempting to deflect the negative societal effects of EA's controversial new videogame 'Grand Theft Scratchy.'
Once dealt with, the family then finds itself defending the besieged town from an invading alien horde... only to be sucked into The Simpsons Game's own game engine to do battle with the likes of Will Wright and Matt Groening before climbing the stairway to heaven to take on God himself in a Dance Dance Revolution showdown. Seriously.
In the main, The Simpsons Game successfully thrives on the comedy attributes of its characters by remaining faithful to both satire and parody, the core strengths that have served the award-winning TV show so well for close to 20 years. From start to finish, The Simpsons Game lampoons the very industry and audience it is attempting to appeal to by throwing in masses of related references that only self-confessed gaming geeks will truly understand and appreciate.
This is perhaps never so evident than when battling cheese-eating "surrender monkeys" after travelling back in time to war torn France during 'Medal of Homer,' or rescuing the terrified Shire midgets from a twin-headed fire-breathing dragon (Patty and Selma) in 'NeverQuest', or defeating a host of Sparklemon creatures and sumo wrestlers in Katamari-inspired 'Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game.'
Other moments of parody arrive courtesy of Comic Book Guy and his belittling tirade of collectible 'Video Game Clichés,' which are unwittingly uncovered by the player by flicking switches, dodging giant saw blades, breaking barrels, drowning, falling into chasms, and generally performing a host of other utterly predictable game-related actions.
Also, the game is peppered with title-based movie sound-a-like levels such as 'Bartman Begins,' and 'Invasion of the Yokel Snatchers,' along with fantastic billboard posters for upcoming videogames such as Apu's 'Sitar Hero', and Will Wright's 'Snore.' In fact, in comedy terms, the game sets out its stall from the moment the disc boots up, at which point the player is asked to "Press Start" and is promptly awarded with some Gamer Points for successfully securing the "Press START to Play" Achievement. To be honest, if the game doesn't endear itself to you at this juncture, you're either dead inside or simply a hardened fan of Family Guy.
Satire centres on the game's Grand Theft Scratchy, a controversial new videogame that Marge is adamant should be banned due to the negative message delivered by its gang warfare, pimps, prostitutes, excessive violence, and constant carjacking. To help mild-mannered Marge prevent Grand Theft Scratchy from arriving in Springfield, the player is duly tasked with using nothing more than Marge's uncanny ability to whip up mob-fuelled violence in order to beat down the Springfield police and force Mayor Quimby to bar the game's release. It's interesting to note during the course of this particular character quest that EA is brave enough to use itself as a foil for laughter, with a half naked Mayor Quimby at one point shown accepting a sizeable monetary bribe from an unnamed EA executive while sharing a Jacuzzi with a bevy of EA-provided bikini-clad lovelies.
The pretty cell-shaded environments, which actually do a fabulous job of creating both a living, breathing version of Springfield and a host of videogame-related rip-offs, serve The Simpson's Game very well from an authenticity point of view, and are bolstered by more than 40 minutes of specially animated 2D show footage that drives the game's narrative. Sadly, although distanced 3D in-game characterisations and animations work well throughout, sporadic 3D cut scenes ruin the general feel provided by the 2D animated segues as they look and feel extremely cheap and somehow don't convincingly resemble the characters fans know and love thanks to 19 seasons of traditionally hand-drawn artwork.
Player interaction is also expanded by the in-world inclusion of virtually every character ever created across the sprawling Simpsons' universe. While they're limited to one or two lines when encountered on the town's streets or in their places of business, certain favourites pop up in specific game levels. Notably, and perhaps blessed with the funniest eco-driven clip of the game, Mr. Burns and Smithers dovetail a level where Lisa and Bart battle to stop 'Auntie Nature's' evil loggers from cutting down of all Springfield's forestation.
Other attributes bestowed on the characters include the following: Homer's ability to burp noxious gas, roll or float as the food or helium-filled Homer Ball, and also become green translucent Gummi Homer; Lisa is able to use her saxophone to stun enemies and turn them on one another, and she can also tap into her spirituality by using the Hand of Buddah, which allows her to manipulate the environment from above, strategically moving items and attacking enemies with physical and elemental skills; finally Marge users her megaphone to gather members of the apathetic Springfield community into a brawling mob willing to carry out her violent bidding, while Maggie can be sent down air ducts in order to press hard-to-reach buttons and gather collectibles.
Speaking of collectibles, each character has 75 of them littered throughout Springfield, as well as small amounts peppered across levels, with both the former and latter unlocking character goodies, trophies, dolls, costumes, etc., if collected in their entirety. Homer must collect 'Duff' bottle caps, Bart 'Krusty the clown' icons, Lisa 'Malibu Stacey' cards, and Marge 'Try-n-Save' shopping coupons. The collectable elements are the only things that provide the player with any form of motivation to return to completed levels or remain in Springfield once the single-player game has been completed - which takes around 10 hours. The only other added draws emerge through a co-operative two-player mode that allows friends to tackle unlocked level episodes together, and also a single or two-player Time Challenges mode, which challenges players to race through unlocked episodes against the clock - with best times posted live via online leaderboards.
While The Simpsons Game survives for the most part on the strength of its solid humour and its ability to parody the gaming world at its every turn, gameplay suffers thanks to an unreliable and occasionally downright awful camera system. Character control is also somewhat twitchy at times, which can leave the player trawling through sections repeatedly before finally nailing the required timing or getting lucky in correctly assessing the game world's depth of field. Also, boss battles and certain puzzle elements offer up no sense of clarity, often leaving the player to work things out without any form of helpful direction while enemies pursue relentlessly. Of course, strategy guide hand holding is equally as unwanted, but The Simpsons Game is clearly meant to appeal to a younger audience, which will likely find itself flailing in clouds of confusion during certain tasks.
That being said, EA's adventure through Springfield always manages to coax a giggle - in no small part due to the characters all arriving accompanied by their real-world voice actors - and successfully scores full-blown laughter on several occasions. If Electronic Arts had chosen to construct a licensed Simpsons game around anything but this particular theme, comically hammering the gaming industry from all sides at every available opportunity, The Simpsons Game simply wouldn't have managed to emerge as an experience that all fans and gamers, regardless of age, can appreciate and enjoy. As it is, it may contain a smattering of fundamental quality lapses, but its faithful delivery and superb comedy timing make it hard not to like. And, when all is said and done, it's worth playing The Simpson's Game just to witness the moment a deflated Mr. Burns welcomes a suggestion from Smithers to lighten his mood by dispatching some ruffians to pummel Al Gore.
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