Ever since I got my first glimpse at this game I have been so excited about it. I am a huge Simpsons fan. I own all of the seasons that are available on DVD, I paid to see The Simpsons Movie, and I have various other collectables that bear The Simpsons mark. When I went to see The Simpsons Movie, I was a little apprehensive because I did not want to be disappointed. I was afraid that the writers had become complacent and were getting greedy. Thankfully, I was not let down by the movie and I have been hoping the game would not let me down either.
The demo drops Homer and Bart (the playable characters) into downtown Springfield where there’s some construction and destruction going on. The Lard Lad has come to life and enlisted minions of Mini Sports Krusty dolls. On first impressions the game looks great, the cut scenes look better than an episode on TV. The only other character really involved in the demo is Kent Brockman who is the man in the field covering the attack. Kang makes a small appearance, but really it’s Homer, Bart, Kent, and Krusty in this part. The playing area of the demo is small and square, but at the speed of the characters it’s not a big deal. I hope that levels in the game are not as restrictive as the demo. It is okay as a battle area for a boss, but I would not want to play level after level in such a restricted area. The demo has some nice points of information which help figure out the uses of the characters abilities and the controls.
The controls were a little pesky to me. The scheme is the typical left analog to move the character, right analog moves the camera. I often had problems with the camera getting stuck on a building or the invisible ceiling. This really was apparent when fighting Lard Lad from the roof tops. Trying to position Bart for an attack Lard Lad was tough because I had problems getting Bart turned at the right angle where he would ’lock on’ to Lard Lad before firing his sling shot or laser. The controls were my biggest annoyance with the demo. I wish the demo was a little more open so that the level could be explored, but all there really was to do was fight and get on roof tops (normally by the same means). However, there were a few other tasks that could be accomplished.
Finding the video game clichés were fun. (Hint: One of them is "Invisible Wall"). There were also things that Bart and Homer could collect, for example, Homer can collect Duff bottle caps. Minimal character switching was required except to pick up the character specific collectables. For the most part, I played as Bart because of his abilities to turn into Bartman and glide. However, Homer Ball does make short work of mobs of Krusty dolls.
After successfully pulling Lard Lads wires and ending his rampage the demo cuts to a funny scene of Homer punching the statue in the ’donuts’ while Kang and Kodos watch from space. A stat page shows how you did. The goal time for the demo is four minutes, I took almost 40. That’s OK. Before exiting the demo a few quick game facts are showed with a few snippets of game play video.
Despite a few annoying things I enjoyed playing The Simpsons Game demo and I am still looking forward to this title. The visuals are great and the little quips from the characters throughout the mission were funny, without being repetitive. I really hope the demo was not an entire episode of the game, although 12 is a good number of episodes four minutes is not very long. I really enjoyed the demo and I will be getting this game on October 30th.
