Series Review: The Simpsons PS2 Games

Game: The Simpsons: Road Rage

Console: Sony Playstation 2

Developer: Radical Entertainment

Release Date: 24th November 2001

As the first Simpsons game on the PS2, Road Rage had a lot to live up to in a new console era. The basic plot of the game is that Mr. Burns has taken over Springfield's transit systems, and is operating them in a way that is endangering the health of the citizens. To combat this, Homer (and subsequently other citizens of Springfield) begin trading as a taxi service to compete with Mr. Burns' buses and attempt to earn enough money to buy the public transport services back. 

There are 4 gameplay modes in Road Rage; Sunday Drive allows players to explore Springfield freely without the option to earn money, Mission mode challenges players to complete 10 missions in order to unlock a surprise, 2 Player mode operates a strange competitive taxi system where players compete to deliver the same passenger to their destination, and Road Rage, the main mode is where money is earned driving the citizens of Springfield around.

As a big fan of Crazy Taxi, I couldn't help but notice the similarities between the main game mode and the gameplay of the Crazy Taxi series, and apparently nor could Sega as they filed a lawsuit against the developers of this game (and settled out of court). The controls are nowhere near as tight as those of Crazy Taxi; circle is used to brake normally and square for handbrake, which contrasts with the majority of driving games, and when using the handbrake it's anybody's guess where the car will end up facing. 

After each turn earning money in Road Rage mode, it's added to the cumulative total and players can decide whether to unlock a new stage or character once certain financial targets have been reached. There are 6 stages to drive around in total, and 17 vehicles to choose from (though they all handle equally badly). The overall map and layout of Springfield is good, but there don't seem to be enough places of interest, shortcuts or secrets to keep exploration interesting. 

The mission mode involves crashing into a set number of things as a certain character, or delivering a passenger to a specific location whilst avoiding Mr. Burns. This mode is fairly uninteresting until Stage 8 where it becomes almost impossible due to the tight time limit, and ridiculous starting camera angle. Until the time starts players are only able to see behind them, resulting in a head on collision over half the time. I gave up after far too many attempts at having fun in this mode. 

Graphically the game has a nice cel-shaded cartoon effect and Springfield has a good variety of locations from the show, despite a general lack of detail. The voice clips and character speech are one of the best parts of the game, as they're often humourous and with a fairly large range of characters, the repetition is almost tolerable. Overall there's not a lot of reasons to pick up this game; the main mode is a shallow Crazy Taxi rip off and the missions are badly designed. 

Rating: 48/100
Grade: D

Game: The Simpsons: Hit & Run
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Radical Entertainment
Release Date: 16th September 2003

Usually when reviewing games, I like to complete them if possible to get the fullest impression of the story and overall gameplay available. Upon starting The Simpsons Hit & Run, I was pretty confident that I'd be able to breeze through the story and review the game after a single sitting, or maybe 2 at the most. What I found was a children's game that was so inadvertently challenging because of many factors, that I had to skip a few missions at the end of the game because they were just too hard to do.

Things start out innocently enough; players control Homer through a fairly easy tutorial style level. Each level in the game has 7 story missions, as well as side missions, races, collectibles, and gags to find. Missions typically contain one or more of four main gameplay elements; collecting, racing, chasing or destroying. Each of these are fairly self explanatory and are completed in vehicles for the most part (only a few collecting missions require on foot sections).

To start a mission players must simply follow the instruction in the top left of the screen, which usually involves going somewhere or talking to someone. A cutscene plays upon arrival, detailing the plot of the mission before telling players the first objective and getting the mission underway. There are 7 levels in total in the game, with Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Apu as playable characters. The controls for each are pretty much the same, as players are able to run, jump, kick and drive vehicles. As was the case in Road Rage, the acceleration, brake and handbrake buttons are mapped differently from most driving games.

The in game currency; coins, play a big part in the game as a whole. Some missions require specific vehicles and outfits that must be purchased with coins. In parts of the game missions of this kind appear almost back to back, requiring players to farm for coins around the map if they're not in possession of enough. I've never liked mandatory map exploration as a game mechanic, and as nicely mapped as the game is, these coin collecting sections easily become tiresome.

As players damage objects and run over people with the vehicle, Hit & Run points are gained, and added to the meter in the bottom right hand corner. If enough segments of the meter are filled, Hit & Run mode is initiated and police will chase after players, attempting to 'bust' them at the cost of 50 coins. This can occur at any time in game, even inside of missions. While the police are fairly easy to get away from, if there are other objectives, it can make things more difficult.

Another contributor the game's difficulty are the strict time limits; missions in later levels hardly allow enough time to drive to the destination, and as there are no checkpoints this can mean doing entire missions repeatedly until the perfect run is achieved. If the onscreen action gets particularly intense, the framerate tends to slow to around 15fps, which makes it much harder to precisely control your vehicle. The AI can also affect the difficulty of missions, with later races being almost impossible to win, and NPC cars being generally unpredictable.

Graphically the game seems a little dated and blocky in appearance, although this can be forgiven as it's based on a cartoon. Objects do have a tendency to clip through one another, and there are a few bugs which can impede gameplay a little a times. The music behind gameplay varies for each playable character and fits the overall mood very well. The voice clips and overall humour of spoken lines in the game are good, even if some are repeated from Road Rage.

Overall Simpsons Hit and Run is an enjoyable, if ultimately difficult sandbox game which takes a lot of the best elements of the Simpsons cartoon and uses them to construct a decent and humuorous plot. While there's not a huge variation in the types of missions available, they're usually pretty fun. Despite my problems with the game's difficulty and other problems, it's still one of the best transitions from tv show to videogame around.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C

Game: The Simpsons Game
Console: Sony Playstation 2
Developer: Rebellion Developments
Release Date: 30th October 2007

Based loosely on The Simpsons Movie of the same year, The Simpsons Game is the only PS2 release in the series to not be based around driving. Instead, each of the Simpson family has special powers which allow them to complete tasks inside levels in order to complete the game. Homer has the ability to roll into a ball through eating, inflate through inhaling helium, and turn into a Gummi Bear through eating Gummi Bears. Bart can fire a slingshot, climb certain walls, and glide with his cape. Lisa is able to control various objects through meditation, and later in the game attack via meditation, and Marge is able to rally mobs to break or build certain objects. Maggie is given the power to crawl through vents, and push buttons with her dummy, but to a certain degree she's an extension of Marge's powers as she's carried around levels by Marge until being needed.

There are 16 stages in total, all with cartoon cutscenes before, during and after the mission has been completed, most of which have a good deal of classic Simpsons humour. The first set of 5 levels acts as somewhat of a tutorial for each character's controls, the next set of 6 build upon each character's powers and advance the storyline, until the final 5 levels; each of which is a parody of an existing video game. Levels range from around 5 minutes in length to 40 minutes or more. There's a target time for each level, but I only managed to meet one as some of the objectives take some figuring out.

Gameplay varies from level to level to a degree; players control up to two characters per level, and must avoid or defeat enemies using the somewhat clunky fighting controls, whilst platforming and using their powers to complete objectives. Switching between characters is controlled via the d-pad, but whichever character you're not controlling changes to being controlled by the AI. This can be a problem when trying to execute a strategy on some levels, as the other character will jump off ledges, or generally away from where you want them to be, within seconds of switching.

A lot of the level objectives seem to require players to complete them in the specific way that the developers intended; even plausible strategies for completing objectives are rejected in favour of "how you're meant to do it". Scattered throughout levels are collectibles for each character, as well as 'video game cliches' that can be found by any character. While it's nice to have some collectibles, there's no reward for rounding all of them up, and their only purpose seems to be padding the game out.

Despite the larger budget and amount of content featured in The Simpsons game, there's still quite a few problems with it. For a start there are many camera issues; often it's hard to get the view exactly where you want it, and other times a wall or object can completely block your view of the on screen characters. Another issue is that the AI character can often get in the way when trying to fight or platform, as they're completely impassable.

At one point in the game, I managed to fall completely through the floor of one level which meant that I had to restart the console, and subsequently the level. The checkpoint system works to a degree, but the only time you'll ever need to use it is when the AI has constantly taken hits from enemies, just as your character also loses all of their health. Overall this issues affect the entire game and can detract from the fun somewhat.

Graphically the game is much like the cartoon in its gameplay sections and its 2D approach works well in almost all aspects. The cutscenes for the game are just like an episode of the show, which for me is far better than the 3D style cutscenes in Hit & Run. Much of the game's humour comes from lines spoken by the show's characters. As these are performed by the show's voice actors and written by the show's writers, they're always of high quality and generally very funny, as are a lot of the parody elements in the game.

Overall The Simpsons Game is very much a game for fans of the television show, but unlike many games based on television shows it's extremely faithful to the source material. In terms of gameplay, things can get repetitive, linear and generally awkward at points, but if you're willing to endure that there's a semblance of a game underneath which is pretty hilarious in many respects.

Rating: 73/100
Grade: C