The Simpsons Game
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Simpsons Game | |
|---|---|
 XBOX 360 Cover art |
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| Developer(s) | EA Redwood Shores, Rebellion, Amaze Entertaiment |
| Publisher(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Distributor(s) | Electronic Arts |
| Series | The Simpsons |
| Platform(s) | Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable |
| Release date | USA October 30, 2007 CAN October 31, 2007 EUR November 2, 2007 AUS November 8, 2007 Xbox 360 JPN October 30, 2007 PlayStation Portable USA November 6, 2007 PlayStation 3 EUR November 9, 2007 JPN November 29, 2007 |
| Genre(s) | Action/Adventure/Platformer |
| Mode(s) | Single player, Co-operative multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | BBFC: 12[1] ESRB: Teen OFLC: PG PEGI: 12+ |
| Input methods | Gamepad, Wii Remote, Sixaxis, DS Stylus, Dual Shock 2 |
The Simpsons Game is a video game based on the animated television series The Simpsons, made for the Wii, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, PlayStation 2, Nintendo DS and PSP. Each version has an exclusive cover art. It is a third-person action game featuring an original storyline written by Tim Long, Matt Selman and Matt Warburton. The plot is self referential in nature, with the family discovering that they are forced to participate in another Simpsons video game. Similar to the show, the game pokes fun at popular culture, other video games and EA, its developer.
Contents |
[edit] Story
The game begins with the family watching TV (a Grand Theft Scratchy commercial), except Homer, who is fast asleep. While he is asleep, he dreams of the Land of Chocolate, a fantasy town consisting of nothing but chocolate. Homer dreams that he has the power to turn into a giant ball and eat anything in sight, and it dismays him to awaken.
Meanwhile, Bart coerces a teenager to let him buy Grand Theft Scratchy, but when Marge finds out, she confiscates it. While Bart mopes, a video game manual crashes down in front of him. With the manual, Bart discovers that the whole family has super powers. Homer sees Bart in his Bartman costume and discovers that Bart has super powers, thus, bringing him into a cave with him while reading swimsuit magazines under the history museum. Bart sees the local school bullies steal from the museum and defeats them in each three exhibits (Dinosaur, History, and Space), discovering that it was Skinner who authorized the heist.
Later, Bart uses Homer's ability to eat and turn into a giant human ball to enter The Duff Eating Challenge at the Duff Brewery. He wins by a landslide, and rejoices.
Bart introduces Lisa to the manual with which she finds she has amazing Buddhist powers. They discover that Mr. Burns has formed a large logging facility that will "cut down every tree to be replaced by a single luxury toothpick", entitling his glorious logging facility as "Aunty Nature, Environment-Friendly Clear-Cutting". Bart and Lisa use their powers to destroy the facility and rescue Lenny and Carl from death by saw blades ("Eh, we weren't thinking about you all the time, you know?").
Later, Marge is confident that Grand Theft Scratchy will be banned, but learns that Mayor Quimby is hosting a promotional event in exchange for a bribe by the EA Executor. After seeing Martin Prince carjack Ned Flanders, Marge discovers that she has the power to convince crowds to do whatever she wants 'just like Oprah' (she used to think that she can talk to whales like Aquaman and do whatever Hawkman does), so she recruits a mob of Springfielders to destroy as much of the billboards, parade carts, and gamers as possible. Lisa points out the hypocrisy of her methods of violence to ban a violent game.
During dinner, the family is euphoric with their new powers. However, this leads to a huge argument about what they should be doing. Marge says that Homer should put his powers to better use. Bart didn't like Marge banning Grand Theft Scratchy because of the things in it like selling guns. Lisa didn't like Bart destroying half of the Museum of Natural History and Homer didn't like Lisa destroying Mr. Burns' lumber mill since it threw hundreds of workers out of the job. Kang and Kodos see this as an opportunity to strike the earth, and an alien invasion unfolds. Desperate to defeat the invaders, Bart and Lisa find Professor Frink--however, the geeky professor is kidnapped by a huge ape similar to Donkey Kong. Bart and Lisa defeat the ape, gaining the right to take the Game Guide. They use the guide to discover what they have to do next. First, Bart and Lisa aid Captain McCallister in beating back mind-controlled dolphins that are attacking Squidport in Day of the Dolphin. Then Bart and Homer rescue Cletus from the aliens and Sideshow Bob. Finally, they defeat the now alive donut mascot Lard Lad.
Later, the family uses the internet to discover what they must do next. However, Homer spills a beer all over the keyboard, and the family is warped into the Game Engine, where they find the creator of the Sims, Will Wright, destroy old 8-bit Simpsons from previous games. Homer and Bart rescues them, and then discovers that in order to beat back becoming obsolete, they must defeat the grand creator of the Simpsons. However, in order to access his mansion, the family needs to acquire four key cards from four upcoming Simpsons games in order to pass in Neverquest, Medal of Homer, Grand Theft Scratchy and Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game. First, Homer and Marge manipulate Hobbit-like creatures into defeating a Patty and Selma like dragon in the game "Neverquest." Next, Homer and Bart travel to France in a WWII era, thwarting Mr. Burns' plan to steal priceless French paintings in the game "Medal of Homer." After that, Marge and Lisa travel to "Grand Theft Scratchy," eliminating all offensive material and replacing it with goody-goody things. Finally, Lisa and Homer travel to ancient Japan in a turn-based RPG style to defeat the evil Mr. Dirt (Milhouse), aiding Mr Sparkle. in "Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game."
Once they have all four key cards, Bart and Homer infiltrate the creator's mansion. While imagining a mad genius, they are greeted instead by Matt Groening, who "looks like a drunken grad student." Groening sends Futurama characters after them, but is defeated. Groening admits that he is only in it for the money, and quickly escapes after planting a powerful bomb into the Game Engine. The characters all escape, but Springfield is still under attack by aliens.
Lisa suggests that she use her power to create a stairway to heaven and ask God for advice. Heaven Security Forces attack, but Homer sets the enraged characters on them. The family then encounters God, who challenges them to a Dance Dance Revolution game. After winning, God reveals that He dropped down the video game manual on accident (while listening to The Scorpions' hit, Rock You Like A Hurricane), thus endowing the family with superpowers. After realizing His misdemeanor, He grants the family four wishes. The aliens are thwarted, the family gets to keep its superpowers, no more Simpsons games will come out making the current characters obsolete, and Homer gets three wishes. The game ends when Lisa asks God if He ever wonders if He Himself is part of a game. God sheepishly says that the idea is dumb, but suddenly the camera pans out, revealing that Ralph Wiggum is indeed playing a game, and then realizes that he is being watched by someone (the player).
[edit] Gameplay
Players are able to control four of the five members of the family, each with their own unique abilities. Maggie is, in effect, an extension of Marge, briefly being playable in air ducts and other small spaces. Two different family members are playable on each level, aside from The Land of Chocolate tutorial where only Homer is playable. The game contains 16 levels, known as episodes. Each episode requires specific skills related to the characters in that episode. For example, in Episode 4: Lisa the Tree Hugger, you are required to use Lisa's "Hand of Buddha" skill to move large objects, and Bart's slingshot skill to shut down numerous machines. Unique enemies are featured in all episodes with the exception of the final level, in which the enemies are "recycled" with different colors. Several after-episode challenges exist. These include finding all the collectibles for each character, finding all the videogame clichés, and in the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, completing a certain task related to the episode's plot in a time trial. On the second level Bartman Begins, a Lara Croft statue can be spotted.
Each family member has their own abilities: Bart is similar to a traditional platform character, with slingshot, grapple and cape to glide, and the ability to use ziplines. Homer's abilities let him turn into a giant ball by eating food, turn into a gummi blob version which can shoot pieces of gummi, and he can inhale helium and turn into a balloon. Marge can recruit a mob she can use to destroy, repair and build parts of the environment, and to attack enemies. Maggie, inside a carrier on Marge's back, can be deployed into small areas for certain objectives. Lisa's power is using Hand of Buddha ports to move objects across the landscape, and to flick and smash enemies, freeze and send lightning bolts at her enemies. She can also use her saxophone to stun enemies or make them attack each other.
On the Wii version, there are two different motion sensitive controls. Flick the Remote for certain actions (Homer: Homer Ball Roll, Helium Homer Burst, Gummi Homer Smash. Bart: Grapple onto a hook. Lisa: Play saxophone to stun nearby enemies. (later) Buddha Smash and Buddha Lightning. Marge: To gather a person for the mob, to have the mob destroy or build something.) Flick the Remote and Nunchuk at the same time for a character to use up energy for a special attack. (Homer: A big burp. Marge: Makes a loud noise from her megaphone. Bart: A bat attack. Lisa: Plays her saxophone while spinning around.)
[edit] Reception
The game received mostly positive reviews, while most reviewers criticize its short, uninspiring gameplay and troublesome camera system, they praise the visuals and the writing of the game which lampoons the gaming industry and the show itself. Despite the criticism, the game won the award for Best Game Based on a Movie or TV Show at the Spike Video Game Awards 2007.[citation needed]
| Publication. | PS2 Score. | PS3 Score. | Wii Score. | Xbox 360 Score. | Nintendo DS Score. | PSP Score. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IGN | 6.5 of 10 | 7.7 of 10 | 7.0 of 10 | 7.7 of 10[2] | 7.7 out of 10 | 7.0 out of 10 |
| Gamespot | 7.0 of 10 | 7.0 of 10 | 6.5 of 10 | 7.0 of 10[3] | 7.5 of 10 | |
| Official PlayStation Magazine (UK) | 8.0 of 10 | |||||
| Official PlayStation Magazine (Australia) | 6 of 10 | 8 of 10 (Bronze Award) | ||||
| Game Trailers | 7.9 of 10[4] | |||||
| Play Magazine | 7.5 of 10 | |||||
| 1UP.com | 7 of 10 | 7 of 10[5] | ||||
| Eurogamer | 6 of 10[6] | |||||
| Geek Monthly | 82/100 | |||||
| Computer and Video Games | 5.1 of 10[7] | |||||
| Game Informer | 7.25 of 10[8] | |||||
| Official Nintendo Magazine | 74% | 83% | ||||
| Game Rankings Average | 71% | 73% | 66% | 73% | 72% | 66% |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+[9] | |||||
| X-Play | 3 out of 5 | |||||
| Gamepro | 3.75 of 5 | 3.5 of 5[10] | ||||
| Nintendo Power | 4.0 out of 10 | |||||
[edit] References
- ^ THE SIMPSONS GAME rated 12 by the BBFC. BBFC (2007-09-19). Retrieved on 2007-09-24.
- ^ Ahearn, Nate. The Simpsons Game review at IGN. IGN.
- ^ Navarro, Alex (2007-10-29). The Simpsons Game review at Gamespot (html). GameSpot. Retrieved on 2007-10-30.
- ^ The Simpsons Game review at GameTrailers.com (html). Game Trailers (2007-10-29). Retrieved on 2007-10-30.
- ^ Davies, Jamie (2007-12-01). The Simpsons Game review at NTSC-uk. (html). NTSC-uk. Retrieved on 2007-10-30.
- ^ Brammwell, Tom (2007-10-30). The Simpsons Game review at Eurogamer (html). Eurogamer. Retrieved on 2007-10-30.
- ^ Taylor, Rob (2007-10-30). The Simpsons Game review at CVG (html). Computer and Video Games. Retrieved on 2007-10-30.
- ^ Juba, Joe (December 2007). The Simpsons Game review at Game Informer (html). Game Informer. Retrieved on 2007-10-31.
- ^ Work of Bart Entertainment Weekly.
- ^ Burt, Andy (31 October 2007). The Simpsons Game review. GamePro. Retrieved on 2008-01-11.
