The Simpsons Game (DS)

GameSpot editors' review

• CNET editors' rating: 3.5 stars Very good
  Detailed editors' rating
  Overall score: 7.5 (3.5 stars)

• Reviewed by:
  Frank Provo
• Reviewed on: 11/15/2007
• Released on: 10/30/2007
• Originally published on GameSpot: The Simpsons Game (DS) Review

As you play through The Simpsons Game on your Nintendo DS, you'll find yourself cracking one smile after another in response to all of the irreverent references the game makes concerning the TV show, pop culture in general, and the video game industry. The game itself is a varied 2D platformer that shamelessly borrows concepts from dozens of popular video games, which are constantly lampooned by the characters, both during the levels and in the lengthy animated scenes that play out after each mission. It won't take you long to work through the game (five hours, at most), but you'll be satisfied from start to finish thanks to the inventive gameplay situations, the video-heavy presentation, and the satirical sense of humor that pervades everything that's displayed onscreen or piped through the speakers.

The plot of the game revolves around Bart's discovery of a magical instruction manual that gives each member of the Simpsons family unique video game powers. At first, Bart, Homer, Marge, and Lisa use their newfound abilities to defuse everyday situations. Bart and Homer stop a robbery at the museum. Marge and Lisa lead a mob to get Grand Theft Scratchy banned. Soon, they come to realize that the city of Springfield has been transformed into dozens of side-scrolling, isometric, and minigame levels, and that its residents have been corrupted into the bad guys and bosses populating those levels.

There's nothing especially noteworthy about how the levels are set up. For most of them, you alternate control between two of the Simpsons characters and use their abilities in conjunction with the usual sort of running, jumping, and lever pulling you'd normally find in any platform-style game. You'll also find yourself frequently pressing the attack button to unload punches and kicks on the ill-intentioned denizens of Springfield who liberally populate each level. What makes the levels fun is, first, how bizarre they are. Beating up chocolate bunnies and riding marshmallows in rivers of chocolate in Homer's dream world is ridiculous. So is shuffling blocks and ascending the clouds on a giant stack of Tetris bricks in one of Lisa's levels.

Secondly, the characters' abilities are downright awesome. Homer can eat food and transform into a giant ball-shaped "fatso" that can squish enemies and shatter walls. Bart has a slingshot that comes in handy against distant enemies and switches, but his true usefulness stems from his ability to transform into his alter ego, Bartman, who can float through the air and swing across hooks using his utility rope. Throughout the game, Lisa gradually develops telekinetic abilities that let you rearrange objects in the environment and electrocute enemies simply by dragging and tapping things with the stylus. Marge, the mother of the clan, has only one real ability, but it's a doozy: She can convince people to form a mob. Using the stylus, you can tap spots on the touch screen to make the mob attack enemies or destroy obstacles that are in your way. The majority of levels borrow a page from the Lost Vikings playbook and pair up two of the characters. For example, you'll swing across hooks and pull a lever as Bart, which will cause a ramp to fall from the sky--which you'll then use to launch Homer's fatso form onto an upper floor.

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