Wow... I'm really not having a good run with EA this year.

I gave this game (The Simpsons - Wii) a rental tonight, for a bit of fun. I really liked the look of the game, and was hoping to pick it up for cheap sometime.

GOD NO.

This is one of the most lacklustre, and appalling titles I have played for a long time. These are my comments/feelings from the first 10-20min of the game (Wii version). I seriously doubt if the other versions would be any better...

 - the *very* first thing that happened when I launched the game, was my screen went blue. WTF? I was thinking? But then it returned to normal. The game does NOT run in 480p. I was really shocked at this.

 - next, the game menus came up. Create a game, name it and so on. I started moving the Wiimote to find my cursor on screen... only to notice that there wasn't one. Yes - the game - on the Wii - requires you to enter a name by using the nunchuck/analog stick to select letters. By now I was feeling quite distressed. 2min in.

 - the game then jumps into full screen animations (vids) that look like the show - exactly. Looks pretty cool. Except I had no idea what was going on. Apparently, I entered a dream of Homers - which required me to chase a white chocolate bunny. Ok...

 - now the game kicks in. Ok - so its a tutorial level. The controls are terrible. The gameplay is terrible. Its the ultrageneric, "bash-em-up" (1-button attack only - no combos), combined with generic platformer. The camera - when it works - "snaps" to new angles (Z button). Basically no Wiimote controls, or anything interesting.

 - collision issues. A minute or so later, I'm "running on the spot" - against an invisible wall (must have been caught on the edge of some wall...?). Then I manage to die on the spot (for no penalty) around 5 times in a row - thanks to bad placement of the camera (trying to do some 3D jump - and not being able to judge the distance properly). Groan.

 - audio seems to be randomly chosen, looping samples - that have minimal context to the actual world. Within a few seconds I'm over it.

 - fighting some chocolate bunnies by random hammering the B button - my generic animation isn't actually touching them. They are hurting me - but I can't actually tell (except that my health bar is dropping... I think). Then they leave behind some form of pickup - but I can't actually pick them up. They don't seem to be restoring my health - although by this stage I just don't care. 

... 

At one point Homer turned into a big ball, and a flick of the Wiimote made him roll around (or shoot off) in some uncontrollable fashion. Oh god - PLEASE make it stop!

To top it off, the game pulls the "smart-arse" card. Doing a double-jump reveals a "gaming cliche" (1/32). Pulling a lever does another. 

This entire game IS a series of gaming cliches - bad ones. They couldn't even be bothered to come up with original ideas - instead its "cool" to just rip off other games (in the Simpsons Universe context) - i.e. GTA.

After less than 20min of game time - I just can't go on. The level had turned into a badly controlled, generic 3D platformer/action game - that was made tedious/difficult due to a poor camera system. Its just not fun - on any level.

The one saving grace of the game, is the levels are well (graphically) designed - and look a lot like the show. Pity it doesn't run in 480p, so it shimmers and looks like crap on my TV.

...

Doh - 3/10

Thanks for the mini-review Shams, i was considering picking this up for a rental because a mate on his 360 told me that it was a blast. Thankfully will stay well clear now.

The camera was absolutely awful but I ran through it on a rental with a buddy Saturday night and it was absolutely hilarious, we just joked about how bad the camera was but the rest of the game was funny as hell. The tutorial level is a remake of one of the Simpsons' episodes.

Not sure about the 480p thing since I have a plain TV but it looked great to me the whole way through.

thnx for the info i was wondering is its good or not

Hrm, im so confused. *sobs*

If in doubt - just rent it. I'm not a *huge* Simpsons fan, so many of the jokes would be lost on me. As some of the reviews have said - expect a good episode of The Simpsons - rather than a good game.

Yeah it's definitely worth a rental if you're a fan of the series, but not really otherwise. Definitely would not recommend purchasing it under any circumstances tho -- it's not as funny the 2nd time around and it's only ~6 hours long to play through it the first time and the collectibles aren't really worth collecting.

Definately one for rental then. Its great, after years of having to suffer not having games for rental at blockbusters in the gamecube era, i can actually walk into there now and find a game i want!

I liked the Simpsons when the show didn't suck, and this game...well....the PS3 demo... sucks. Really bad. Someone else would have to pay me to play this game. I downloaded the demo, beat it, and immediately deleted the demo from my hard drive. I just wish I could do the same to the memories I have of playing it.

Shovelware crap. With Simpsons skins and voices.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tU8WwZpI-i8

I reccomend the above link. The beginning is extremely fitting. Later on it's just funny.

I played the demo on XBox 360 and was disappointed with the gameplay. The graphics look just like the show and the voices were the same too.