PSP World

The Simpsons Game Review Playstation Portable

The Simpsons. The worlds favourite family. I mean, let's face it, The Simpson’s have commercialised everything, and done fairly well with it, except for one thing, Video games. Ever since the Arcade Game, The Simpson’s just haven’t
practically cut it in industry, Recent entry’s Like Hit and Run or Road Rage weren’t…too bad, but could have been a whole lot more. Now 8 publishers and 21 games later, EA looks to return to the franchise since The Simpsons Road
Rage, though unlike EA’s last outing with the Simpsons, or any other publisher with The Simpsons, this might just be
the first time that a Simpsons Game can be called ‘okay’.

The Main plot of the game is that after losing another Mature Rated Game to his Mother, Bart finds a Game Manual of ‘The Simpsons Game’ that came in from the sky, and magically Bart, Homer, Lisa and Marge all get super powers and abilities. That’s basically all you need to know without getting into enough of the story to ruin the experience, because on all seriousness, Its hilarious, All the voice acting and scripted lines are at episode quality, and are written by the script writers of the show, and on comparison of this game and every other game, that’s a HUGE accomplishment, (Seriously).
The whole game is based on Parodies of popular Games such as Everquest and GTA, and each level seems to display that in a great way, it also has a great going on revisting episode scene favorites, like the Land of Chocolate. Only problem is that it’s over all too quickly, about 8 hours worth or less is on the table depending how good your at playing this game, so make sure your willing to replay if you buy it.

Gameplay wise, under the hood, is a Platformer, but things like Lisa’s gravitational Pull, or Homer’s immediate 500 pound weight gain, and other things help give the game an Identity. Unfortunately there are some nagging problems that while were a bit bothersome on the Consoles, and quiet annoying on the PSP. Mainly the camera is what brings the game down, with the PSP’s absent 2nd analog stick, you going to be constantly readjusting the camera (unless you have some weird physic ability to predict what your about to run in too). Another problem is the absent free roaming seen in the 360 and PS3 versions, I particularly liked the Free-roam on the 360, and taking it out, strips some of life out of the game (I mean who doesn’t like to randomly hit Skinner’s mom and see her scream like a maniac). We’ve seen Free-Roam is possible on the PSP, look at GTA, so why is it absent? (Answers please EA Games!). One thing I did particularly like is the co-op option that is available during the entire game; it helps a lot of the time when you require using both Characters for a certain goals, which helps get around the constant changing of characters when playing solo.

As far as sound goes, it once again resembles a Simpsons episode, the One-liners, the random music and some very intelligent voice acting, in Custscene’s and in gameplay, the game’s audio seems to have a good way of staying fresh. And visually, The Game is very strong showing of Cell-Shading Graphics, though for the PSP that isn't much of an achievement, but more of a "Good to be there, but not needed" feeling, the game for have benefited from a more animated 3d look, as the Character models don't always look the same as there animated counterparts.

The end result of this Simpsons Game is probably a shining example to make a Simpsons Game… On Consoles, On PSP it doesn’t stand out as well, but still is able to be a good game despite the drawbacks that’s caused by the PSP’s design. If you haven’t actually got a 360/PS3/PS2/DS, or just want a more interesting TV show game on the PSP than Family Guy, then The Simpsons Game could be up your ally.