The Simpsons don't really need an introduction. Their episodes have been playing on television for more than ten years, and they are probably the most known family in the world. EA is trying to use this popularity to make their game a big success.

The introduction isn’t as good as it should be. Who had hoped for a scene with couch action will be disappointed like me. The options on the other hand are quite good. You can replay old cut-cenes and clichés over and over again.

You play as Bart, Lisa, Marge and Maggie or Homer. You can’t choose with which characters you want because that depends on which episode you are playing. You always have two characters between which you can switch to solve puzzles etc and each one has its own powers; Bart can transform into Bartman, Homer into Homerball (an even fatter version of himself), Marge can summon a crowd to fight for her, and Lisa can use her meditation to lift objects and kill enemies. In the beginning it’s all very fun to do, but the further you are in the game, the more repetitive it all feels.

A nice add-on is the co-op mode. Here you to play with 2 players. The second player only has to press the select button, and then he can control the second character. The use of a walkthrough, which you can find on the internet, might come in handy.

The difficulty of the game is quite high. Enemies won’t die from one hit and you’ll have to replay some levels more than once. Especially the ones against time are hard to win.

The biggest negative point is the camera. It isn’t stable and can suddenly switch angle so that when you are running over a bridge, you’ll fall off. Another problem that occurs is when you are running in the house and since cameras can’t be moved, you’ll find yourself disappearing behinds walls etc. without knowing where you are.

The graphics aren’t that good either, but it’s nice to see that they have kept the comic style. The environments are dull and badly made without a lot of interaction. There are also some bugs present like when you jump behind a house that you drop into a hole that leads nowhere.

The game includes a lot of clichés but it’s up to you to find out which ones they are.
The annoying part is that when you’ve found a one, a huge pop-up appears which ruins the game a bit.

There are a lot of parodies on different games and movies like Medal of Honor, Around the World in 80 Days, Grand Theft Auto, The Matrix, ... You’d think this would be hilarious, but sometimes you don’t even know which parody you’re playing as it isn’t always quite clear.

Of course there are also some positive things to be said about The Simpsons Game. The cut-scenes are especially made for the game and hilarious. All the elements known from the Simpsons humour are present. Also the fact that the original cast has given their voices for the characters is a positive point.