The Simpsons Review (XB360)

America's favorite dysfunctional family, The Simpsons, arrives on the Xbox 360 in Electronic Art's aptly titled The Simpsons Game. This enjoyable 3-D adventure offers a wealth of content for diehard fans of the show, who'll eat up all the exclusive clips and voices. However, while the game's presentation carries it far, a few quirks hold it back, making it more of a curiosity than a must buy.

The Simpsons gives you the opportunity to explore Springfield in glorious 3-D, wandering through such locales as The Duff Brewery, Moe's Tavern and of course, the Simpsons' home. You'll do this controlling Homer, Marge, Bart or Lisa, each of which possesses signature abilities. Homer, for example, transforms into the Homer Ball, a pudgy blob that rolls into enemies and easily breaks objects with the useful Downward Smash. Bart turns into Bart Man, using his cape to glide over chasms. Lisa unleashes her inner musician with her saxophone, temporarily stunning enemies, and Marge whips out the megaphone and uses it to gather an angry mob. As for Maggie, Marge sets her baby loose in air vents scattered throughout the game, and you guide her from a cute first person view, hitting switches with her pacifier.

That's about as complex as it gets. EA didn't attempt to push the adventure genre forward, instead opting for levels that involve a healthy dose of ladder climbing, platform jumping and box breaking, stuff that was cool over a decade ago. Even the ability to swap between two characters at a time to solve puzzles gets old, as does the annoying split screen co-op mode. Not only does splitting the screen limit the playfield, thus causing you to screw up challenges, but it also messes with the game's speed. Furthermore, it doesn't help that the characters suffer from ugly rough edges that contrast with the phenomenal looking environments. If anything, EA committed sacrilege disgracing Matt Groening's creations.

Yet despite these issues, ones that would cripple most games, The Simpsons easily wanders into must play territory because of its exquisite presentation. Walking around Springfield rocks, not only because you get to sight see, but also because you bump into numerous characters from the show, such as Principal Skinner, Otto, Krusty the Clown, Ralph Wiggum and a host of others, all of which feature their signature voices and phrases. In addition, the show's creators pumped over 40 minutes of exclusive clips into the game (which look great in high definition), and the game pokes fun of itself for relying on ancient game conventions. Destroy a box or exploding barrel and Comic Book Guy pops up to make fun of you for uncovering a video game cliche. Even the Simpsons get in on the fun, with each family member learning their special powers by reading the game's instruction manual. And it's not like the missions suck. We had fun destroying Grand Theft Scratchy floats with an angry mob, beating up loggers as Bart Man enjoys a Frogger inspired mini game with Lisa. Collecting useless junk gets boring, other than the satisfaction of acquiring all of the Xbox 360 achievements (sorry PlayStation 3 owners), but that doesn't seriously hamper the experience.

Obviously, Simpsons nuts will thoroughly enjoy the game, not for its excessive box breaking and switch hitting, but for all of the sweet content and attractive visuals, sans the characters. For $59.99, you basically receive an eight to ten hour interactive bonus episode. At the very least, it makes for a great rental.