The Simpsons Game (Wii) Review

You see, the thing with The Simpsons is it goes from the sublime to the ruddy ridiculous. At one point you'll be giggling away like a child who's just picked his nose and flicked it at someone's head and then the next you'll be as angry as the person who finds said green delight in their hair. The Simpsons then, is the videogame incarnation of a manic depressive. The format is simple enough, you're shoved into the virtual world of Springfield where all the Simpson family have somehow managed to get superpowers. How? Why, they're characters in a videogame of course. We could call it a 'postmodern self-aware critique of the conventions of a repeating and stagnating medium', but we won't because we're not idiots.

The humour is right on the mark. From the first instance when you try a double jump and Comic Book Guy pops up with your first 'Videogame Cliché' you'll be happy as Larry. Then the camera will get stuck on a bit of scenery and you'll die because of it making you very angry. The gameplay is sandwiched in-between little bits of animation scripted and done by the actual Simpsons team. If you've liked the humour in The Simpsons for the last six years or so, you'll love it. If you don't, then you'll like some bits and frown at others.

The game kicks off with a nice simple tutorial in the magical land of chocolate (as featured in an actual episode of The Simpsons) and then spans out as your characters realise that they are in fact trapped in a game and they all have special powers. Homer can turn into 'Homer Ball' 'Gummi Homer' and even 'Helium Homer', each one kind of does what you'd imagine, he rolls, he turns into a Homer shaped Gummi Bear and he is able to float. Bart can turn into Bartman, Lisa can play the saxophone and do with the mysterious 'hand of Buddah' (we'd guess the developers ran out of ideas of things Lisa can actually do) and rather tediously Marge can order mobs of people to do her willing by shouting slogans through a megaphone. Odd. Still, all these powers have certain upgrades that you get in the game to make them bigger and better.

The aim of the game is fairly simple. Normally you are placed in a certain themed land and asked to use your powers to solve puzzles. Depending on what characters you use on the mission (the game automatically picks them for you for specific missions) will change how that part of the game will play. Marge can only really use her mob, and Lisa can only do things with her saxophone and Buddah hand, so levels with them on will involve a lot of related puzzles.

Our main issue with the game is that it is mind numbingly repetitive at times. It relies on the tropes of the individual characters and the levels with them on all have the same puzzles. Jump over this, smash this, fly over this, pick this up. Whilst it makes a big deal about videogame clichés and pokes fun at the conventions of our beloved industry, it stumbles rather ironically by becoming an identikit platformer with some vaguely amusing jokes chucked in. At times you simply find yourself playing the game to watch another little bit of The Simpsons. In our opinion, you'd be far off buying a good platformer (a very good one staring a certain rotund plumber has just been released), or simply pick up Season 4 or 5 of The Simpsons on DVD, you can probably pick them up for less than the ruddy game.

Where this title really shines though (and makes us think twice about being so mean) is in co-op mode. It is seriously bleeding fun at times. You both take on a character each and you get to play through the game together. Admittedly LEGO Star Wars does this far better, but there is something rather entertaining about running around a warship as Homer and Bart killing lots of Wayland Smithers look-a-likes. The Simpsons charm remains intact, so when the game comes up with a good puzzle or an enjoyable level or two it really is great fun and well worth playing. The trouble is, you have to plough your way through a lot of dross to get to the yummy gaming fruit.