The Simpsons Game - 360 Demo

[stainboy]

Yeah, me and a mate couldn't even do the 2nd one, I did it on my own but gave up after failing the top one. I doubt much more would have happened after that.

[Nembot]

The best part of the demo was when Homer chins Kent Brockman in the opening second, it all goes to **** from there on in.

[Prophet Hero]

I downloaded the PS3 demo a few days ago, and my thoughts more or less echo everyone else's.

Very smart visuals and a great visualisation of Springfield but what was on offer bored me to tears. As a Simpsons fan that hit me hard.

[Jebus]

It seems you guys all had more difficultly on lard-lad than me...He has a set pattern, he chases you. So get bart up high and make lard lad chase homer...switch to bart and shoot his back up, then float down to him...

Done it twice now, couldn't do it in the four minutes (!!!!) the demo says you should aim for, but 10 was my best.

[stainboy]

We were sort of trying that but couldn't get him somewhere close enough for Bart to reach him. The Bartman cape is annoying to direct. What happens when you beat him?

[Jebus]

Cut-scene and demo ends

[Yoshimax]

Max loves this - I'm gonna have to buy it I think ><

That's my excuse anyway if the achievements turn out to be easy

[Brats]

After the massive slagging I gave the demo, I ended up buying this. It was super cheap and the nipper wanted something to play after I'd caned and traded in Lego Indian Jones.

The full game is more enjoyable than the demo - the lard boy level being one of the worst in the game. Most levels follow a linear pattern and are fairly generic, although each character has special powers which are used quite well. The whole thing hangs together much better as the story is that The Simpsons are aware that they are in a game and there's loads of referential stuff in it, including Comic book Guy interrupting whenever you encounter a gaming cliche (using a double jump, invisible walls, etc).

The best level so far is inside the 'game engine' where you must pursue an angry Doney Kong who has kinapped Professor Frink who has the Prima cheat guide to help you progress. On the way, you encounter loads of old videogame characters, such as a knackered Sonic being used to power the game engine by running on a large hamster wheel. Enemies are American Footballers from John Madden and Ryu from Street Fighter.

Co-op is nice with the screen splitting down the middle, which means that you don't have the other player running in the other direction and pulling you into oblivion (like the Lego games).

The controls, camera and collision detection are still atrocious. Luckliy, most levels don't reuire that much precise movement and there are infinite lives similar to the Lego games. A few bits are teeth gnashingly poor though. One level sees the view go top down for a frogger like parody which should be easy, but it's so frustrating due to the way that if you land at the enge of a platform, you slip off and die.

If they had released this with some solid controls, it would have been an 8/10 game. if you can live with them, it's worth a punt for Simpson's fans.

[peeveen]

I started playing this a week or so ago, and I'm taking it very slowly. It has some glaring flaws, but makes a nice easy change between other harder games. I imagine if it was the only game I had going, it would bore me to tears, but taken in very small doses, it's quite good whimsical fun.