Review: The Simpsons Game - Xbox 360

by Steven Williamson on 9 November 2007, 14:06

Tags: The Simpsons Game, Electronic Arts (NASDAQ:EA), Xbox 360, PS2, DS, PS3, Wii, Action/Adventure

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Pull levers and activate pressure pads

As you wander around Springfield you pick up missions relating to specific characters and then you can choose which character to bring along with you. There’s plenty of character switching to solve puzzles, for example, moving from Bart to scale a wall and pull a lever and then back to Homer to use his ‘Homer Ball’ ability to activate a pressure pad, but the process solving these puzzles and the game mechanics feel somewhat dated.

Occasionally, it’s the context that you are in which makes the puzzles enjoyable and the humour that has been injected into them, rather than any new ideas. For example, you use Homer to turn into a ball, bounce up and down on some huge bagpipes which in turn releases air from the pipes. You then switch to Bart and use his Batman cape to fly up the air allowing him to drift over to the next area where he pulls a lever to open the gate for Homer.

These puzzles can be visually amusing and will be the only reason why you’ll probably keep ploughing on through the 6 hours of so of single player action.

Click for larger image




Click for larger image


You’d think that the developers would take advantage of the fact that each mission requires two characters and redeem itself with an excellent co-op mode…right? Well, there is a co-op mode, so a friend can take over the control of the other Simpson’s’ family member in each level, but it just doesn’t work. The problem is that the levels heavily rely on one of your characters skills rather than both at the same time, so you are hardly ever both doing something together. Instead you’ll be hanging about fighting off citizens of Springfield, whilst the likes of Homer has all the fun transforming into a ball or Bart climbs around the environment looking for a lever to pull. As a result, co-op mode is actually less fun to play than playing single-player.