Customer Reviews: Read 22 more reviews...
 Tragic disappointment despite fantastic graphics September 17, 2008
Mr. Tim Willis
Appallingly unplayable in many places, a hugely disappointing, criminal waste of fantastic graphics, vocal and writing talent.
Several sections, even in so-called 'easy' mode, can only be passed by the brute force application of tedious hours spent repeating the same task literally hundreds of times until by accident you succeed. And since you can't bypass them, you will be tearing your hair out in frustration as you watch your character slowly die yet again, putting you back to the start.
Sometimes puzzles are simply incomprehensible and you will often need to resort to walkthru guides to progress.
You run back and forth in front of a vital lever (button, helium point etc.), frantically pressing the 'use' button as the 'pull' icon appears and disappears, but it's a mystery to the game - "He's getting shot to pieces running around there, what CAN he be trying to do? He must want to jump on top of it" (where it becomes unuseable).
To picture this control system you need to imagine getting so utterly wasted you can barely stand, so blind drunk you've smacked into a lamp post without even noticing, then attempting to stagger home. It's like walking on a tray held by a sadistic giant, as he tips you randomly and you lurch off in different directions. Added to this, he twists your head around crazily so your viewpoint veers away from what you want to look at, constantly disorientating you. This is the game's maddening camera placement, and since the joystick moves you in relation to the camera, not the direction you're pointing, your steering is completely compromised. Other times, when you need to view something, it will simply refuse to give you the viewpoint. There might be some scenery in the way but why not make the adjustment?
A lot of the game involves two characters, and if you're playing alone you need to swap between them. Maddeningly there's no 'Stay put!' command, so you'll position one of them ready to do something, switch to the other character, and watch the first one jog back over to join you. The only way round this is to switch to 2-player (split screen) mode and leave them where you want. The drawbacks then include the inactive character not defending themselves against attack, and the need to juggle controllers rapidly.
If you do complete this game it will be down to extreme tenacity and a desire to view all the content, which doesn't make a good justification. If only they'd invested the effort into playability that they put into every other aspect.
Graphics, sound, comic touches: 5/5
Playability: 0/5
Very Disappointing DO NOT BUY August 5, 2008
Mr. D. Waring (UK)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I bought my Wii from Amazon & decided to get this game along with the console after owning The Simpson's Hit & Run on PS2, I thought The Simpsons Game would live up to the same standard, How wrong could I be.
The game is truly awful. The camera angles for viewing are totally wrong, making it virtually impossible to see where you are going, I found I have to keep adjusting the viewing angle to see where I am or what I need to do which is pointless, adds to your game time & is very frustrating. Also I found that when trying to jump you end up falling even though you can see you could make it.
The only good points are the graphics, along with the voices & what is said, but due to the viewing angles I wont be playing this game again & expect something better from someone experienced as EA
My advice to anyone thinking of buying this is to either rent it first or get a cheap used version, But dont waste your money like i did on buying it brand new.
 Could be better... July 26, 2008
Jenna Self (England)
The word that can simply describe this game for me is 'Meh'.
As the title says this could have been an epic game. unfortunatly i was slightly let down. The graphics aren't great (although this doesnt bother me to an extent, but I know it will for some people), but the real problem i have with this is the controls. The instructions are very small and don't stay on the screen for a great deal of time, therefore it was common for me when i started playing this game to only realize that there was instructions just in time to see them disappear again.
There also seemed to be times when i was doing the controls but nothing happened with the charactors.
On the upside there is some new clips of the show and the plot is relatively okay from what i've played so far (although the alien invasion plot is hardly original)
Overall, this game will give you somethig to do. It will keep you busy and entertained and will certainly give you a few laughs, but those with little patience will certainly hate this game. I personally think that this game has nothing on the Simpsons Hit and Run game from a few years ago. I would certainly reccommed buying that instead of this game. And I certainly wouldn't recommend buying this game for full price (I think i got this for 18)
Interesting but badly made and infuriating June 27, 2008
J. Bell (Hertfordshire, UK)
Its a pretty simplistic game really, and its not that the tasks and levels are difficult on their own, but the game has a lot of flaws. The graphics is typically simpson-y and it actually looks quite poor, the 3D doesnt do the style any justice at all. Secondly, the camera, it was unbelievably bad, it barely follows you like it should and you have to spend a lot of time faffing about trying to jiggle the camera to the angle you need to see where you're going. This ruined the gameplay because after all, how can you play when you cant see what youre doing 90% of the time? The bad camera contributes to making the game very difficult to navigate, and along with the difficult controls you have lost all optimism within 5 minutes of gameplay. You will spend half if not more of youre time trying to complete the simplest of tasks hindered by various flaws.
On a single higher note, there are a quite a lot of funny quotes, sayings, etc in the game, which are, thankfully, done by all the original voice actors. Perhaps this is where they spent all of their funding for the game??? If you're very very patient and are a big fan of simpsons humour you might be able to play this one out. But to all others i definately dont recommend spending good money on this game.
 Wii Disaster May 5, 2008
Mr. Ross Maynard (Glasgow, Scotland)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
While the Nintendo DS version of the Simpsons Game - in 2D - is fun and challenging, the wii 3D version is unplayable. As other reviewers have said, the 3D graphics are rendered so badly you have no idea where your character is in the scenario and where to jump from etc to continue. After 30 attempts to make what should be a straightforward jump, you, like us, will be screaming at the screen. It is so frustrating you just have to move onto another game. Save your money. There are far better games available for the wii.
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