Part 1 can be read here.
Please, go read it first if you haven't, or else you won't understand
a damn thing in this article. Trust me, it gets REAL weird. In fact,
I think I still need to get back into the normal mindset.
Dunno if that'll do the trick, but I guess it'll be just fine.
Dunno if that'll do the trick, but I guess it'll be just fine.
But if you don't want to
read through 2,000 words, here's a short recap: In The Simpsons Game,
the family finds out that they're characters in a video game and they
all have superpowers. First they use the superpowers to stop regular crimes, until
aliens decide to invade Springfield. Bart and Lisa go looking for
help inside their own game's circuits, and come back with the
strategy guide. They kick some alien ass, but that's not enough to force the aliens to retreat. As a
result, the family goes into cyberspace to find a way to cease the invasion.
Told you it was gonna be
messed up. Well, it gets even worse this time around. When we left
last time, it was in the Bargain Bin, and we were about to save a pixelated version of the Simpson family stuck in a NES cartridge on its way to a furnace.
Homer and Bart work
together to remove the traps getting in the way of the NES cartridge,
and finally manage to stop it from falling into a furnace. The
good-rendered Simpson family helps the pixelated family out of the
cartridge. All hope seems lost for Springfield, as even the creators of the game don't seem too eager to help, so
Homer starts moping. However, there is still ONE possible way to save
Springfield. The Simpsons must ask the Creator of their world to end
the alien invasion. But how can he even be reached? The pixelated
Simpsons explain that, in order to get to the Creator's mansion, they
first need to go into other planned-but-now-cancelled spin-off
Simpson games and collect four key cards. Only with those key cards
can the Simpsons hope to meet their maker and save Springfield.
Jesus, I've seen this so often, it's practically a game cliché. No, really! It's one of the collectible clichés in the game!
Aaah! It's a Pattyselma! Kill it with fire! Or with your lipid ball attack! |
Use Super Summon FOR MASSIVE DAMAGE! |
The Simpsons now have
collected all the key cards and are ready to enter the big great
mansion. But what's in there exactly? Come on, take a wild guess.
This game has been meta and self-referential for the past 80%, surely
it can get even worse! Well, if you think that mansion is Matt
Groening's... Well, you're totally right! Homer and Bart make their
way through the mansion, and I have to tell you right away, this
level is the most difficult one in the game. One damn level. First, the father and son battle against lawyers outside the mansion. They then make their way through
the mansion, which is filled with platforms made out of drawings, with lots of spike traps and pencils that come in and out, which is really
difficult... When you'll play the game, you'll probably hate this
level as much as I do. Get ready to lose over thirty lives in your
first playthrough, and maybe 10 if you've become very good. It is
that hard. It is impossible to finish without losing lives. Still, at the end the Simpsons meet their maker, quite
literally... And Groening still tries to kill them by summoning an
army of Benders and Zoidbergs. He does realize he's already losing, right? Hey Groening, if you wanted to have a
chance, you shouldn't have given your characters infinite
lives!
The Creator is not pleased. ...Also, it seems like he didn't think the whole thing through. |
At the end, Bart defeats Matt Groening, and the family tries to reason him into ending the alien invasion. They also tell him how awful it is to be video game characters, destined to do so much exercise and die constantly... Sadly, Groening pretty much says that he doesn't care for his creations and that's why he has put their faces on everything, as if all that counted was to make money with them. And he's not gonna stop; In fact, as the ultimate act of betrayal, he presses the Game Engine's self-destruct button and then escapes with a helicopter. Damn! He really doesn't care what happens to his creations, as long as he still makes money! (Now that I think about it, that kind of sentence does get used a lot when discussing the newer seasons...)
Okay, this time it's
pretty damn clear. Springfield is doomed. The alien invasion hasn't ceased. Oh wait... Do I sense an idea? Yes, Lisa has an idea!
...But what is it... Dang, I don't remember... Wait a second, my
subconscious is slowly reminding me of it... My subconscious always remembered! Unknowingly, I was referring to it from the beginning!
“Ask the Creator.”
“The Simpsons meet
their maker.”
“Good Lord, this is
getting violent.”
“Thanks God this statue
is dead.”
“A gamer's Heaven.”
“Oh God.”
HOLY COW. THEY'RE GONNA
GO THERE. THEY'RE GONNA FREAKING GO THERE.
Lisa takes, one by one,
the buildings around Springfield, and starts piling them up until it
forms a gigantic tower of Babel that rises up to the Heavens. The
Simpsons family hurries up, until they truly reach Heaven. ...Um,
wait a second. If there is an alien invasion, that means that such a
tower would only reach the stratosphere and then space, because of the science-fiction setting of aliens that imply Heaven isn't up in the air, but no, the tower doesn't reach space, it
goes to Heaven instead, and... Wait. This makes no sense. I'm
flabbergasted. What the Hell – er, I mean, what the Heavens is
going on? Look, I'll try to turn my disbelief off for the moment, but
I can't promise a thing. Let's just keep watching the story and see
where it goes.
This is the final level,
so all the Simpsons are used at one point or another. Thankfully, the
developers seemed to notice that Homer was overused in the past
levels, so he's not used as much here. This is Heaven with all the
enemies you've killed and all the possible puzzles you can solve. It
starts with Marge, who can use her megaphone to control the angels of
dead Homers, the lives he lost during the game, to help the family
cross through the first part of Heaven. I'm not kidding. Next is Homer,
who's back in a splice between Heaven and Chocolate Land. Then
it's Lisa, who has to climb a giant Tetris tower all while
placing platforms and blocks so that she can keep going up. And
finally it's Bart, who reaches a grassy area... among the clouds. And
there, he fights... Benjamin Franklin. I feel like repeating myself,
but seriously, this makes no damn sense. How to beat Franklin? You use
Buddha's Hand to protect Bart from the thunder, and then Benjamin will
raise his kite. With Bart's slingshot, shoot the kite so it reaches a
storming cloud. Yep, you defeat Benjamin Franklin by electrocuting
him. Huh. Bart continues onto his part of the level, swings back and
forth in an area filled with villains, and finally reaches the
stairway leading to God. Don't spit down, Bart! Not this time, anyway! When the Simpsons son reaches God,
what happens? We find out that God is a gamer. And we find Him, the
giant Him, playing a Nintendo DS. With a target at the end of His
stylus. Bart must climb up the giant couch and attack the stylus when
he gets close enough; after which God slaps him back down from the
couch, and it gets a little harder to reach Him and His DS, with more hazards
showing up, and more dangerous enemies. After the target was hit
thrice, Bart has won.
The Simpson family
pressure God into stopping the alien invasion immediately (by
menacing to erase His save file, which just so happens to contain the
entire Simpsons universe – Holy cow! Bart menaces to destroy the
universe!), and God does... Or does He? We never see Him do that as,
before He even begins, Lisa asks the meaning of life. God replies
that the Simpsons Game is nothing but a mini-game inside the great
game of life, also known as Earth. And therefore, everything that
happened in the Simpsons Game is absolutely unimportant, as
mini-games are of so little importance to the characters of the Earth
game. In case your mind isn't screwed enough, Lisa then asks God a
question: What if He, too, was a character in a video game? God
cannot find an answer to this, and then the screen zooms out to
reveal that all this was a game played by Ralph Wiggum. After hearing
the discussion, he walks towards YOUR screen, knocks, and yells
“Daddy! Someone's looking at me!” ...The end, roll credits.
What. The. Hell?
And there's parodies of famous arcade games in there somewhere. |
Now, the gameplay. It's
really cool that you can control the four main Simpsons (even though
I believe Homer and Bart were overused; a problem not unlike a
particular critique of the recent Simpsons), and each one of them has
different abilities. The controls are simple, and the switch from one
Simpson to the other is automatic in levels where you control two
Simpsons at once. The level design is very well thought out, with no
level being too easy nor too difficult. Except Groening's mansion,
which is WAY difficult in comparison to what comes before and what comes after.
The levels themselves are also a lot of fun, many of them are very
detailed. The result is quite beautiful in some cases. The mini-games
are also very good, the little there are.
Now, the collectibles. In
every level, each Simpson can collect a number of objects (Homer
collects beer caps, Bart collects Krusty Coupons, etc.). What's the
reward when you collect every collectible for a Simpson in a level?
You can see them at the Android's Dungeon. For Homer, it's different
brands of Duff beers; For Bart, it's Krusty posters; For Marge, it's hair styling products; And Lisa gets Malibu Stacey dolls. Also in the
Android's Dungeon, you can see the list of clichés you collected.
Accompanied by the Comic Book Guy's snarky comments, for extra funny! In the
levels, most of the collectibles are very easy to find, some you
can't even avoid in your quest; only a select few, at most one or two
per level, need you to really search around or revisit previous levels.
Eeyup. Multiplayer. I like this word on the DS and on the Wii, I thoroughly HATE it on the GBA. |
-Hungry Homer: The Homer
who eats the most food wins! You can also beat the crap out of the
others to make them drop more food. Huh.
-Golden Donut: All Homers
must hurry to the Golden Donut! He who catches it can then be chased
down and beaten to a pulp to drop the Golden Donut, so another can
pick it up. At the end, the one who had it for the longest time wins.
-Bart Match: It's an
all-out Battle Royale between two or more Barts! The one who has
killed the most Barts wins! Huh, sounds like Sideshow Bob's favorite
game.
-Kapture the Koveted
Krusty: Same, same, SAME as Golden Donut. Seriously, a bit of
creativity would have been welcome. Well, at least you're playing with Bart instead of Homer. And again, the one who has the golden Krusty
head for the longest time wins.
In the end, The Simpsons
Game is nearly everything a good Simpsons game should be. Good
story, lots of jokes, absolutely hilarious concept, very creative,
simple gameplay... Yep, it's really great. In fact, I doubt a game
that would have followed The Simpsons Movie's story would have worked
as well.
Okay, this is no Triangle Wars, but hey, it's still fun. |
And of course, I can't talk about the home console versions of this game, as I don't have them. My guess is that they're pretty similar, except in 3D, and with probably more playing time... I guess the story stayed the same almost in its entirety... And also the quality is much, much better... But still, I definitely recommend The Simpsons Game. Regardless of the console. Go buy it and have a mind screw of a time.
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