The Simpsons Game (Xbox 360)

The Simpsons Game was developed by Visceral Games. It released in 2007, the same year as The Simpsons Movie, but not a tie in with the game.

The Simpsons family discover they are characters in a video game and are in possession of super powers. The playable characters are Homer, Marge with Maggie, Bart and Lisa. Homer has the ability to turn into a ball and roll into enemies as well as turn into a gooey homer and fire projectiles. Marge can use a megaphone to recruit Springfield citizens in to do her bidding. Bart becomes BartMan and uses his powerful slingshot and flying ability. Lisa can use her saxophone to stun enemies and her Buddhist hand to attack and freeze enemies.

The game is one big parody of video games. You will notice hundreds of small nods to some of the biggest games in history. Some levels transport you right into a parody of an in game world. Grand Theft Auto, Medal of Honor and Pokémon are three games that are directly given a level based on their worlds. The enemy's aesthetics change every level to keep in theme, most enemies will look like they're taken right out of other games, Madden and Street Fighter are two games in particular. The character set ups change every level, two Simpson family members are paired up together and it's also co-op.

It's an action platformer, with a lot of puzzles. It can be frustrating to play alone, constantly switching between characters to complete puzzles. Split screen co-op is the perfect way to play. A lot of the action gameplay is just beat-em-up and completing puzzles to get to the next section. Each level is completely different and you can't wait to see what's next, what games will be parodied. You can also see a bunch of video game posters spread out clearly parodying other games like Need For Speed and Mortal Kombat.

Across their journey through video games, The Simpsons music free their 8-bit selves as they're cast away and left to die, stop Will Wright, (The creator of The Sims) defeat Matt Groening, (The creator of The Simpsons) stop an alien invasion and win a dance of with God. Some levels are featured right from the show itself, Homer returns to the Land of Chocolate, killer dolphins rise up once again and Lard Lad returns to life attacking Springfield.

Outside of the main story, you're given the opportunity to explore Springfield in free roam. All the notable sites are there, as well as hundreds of the characters to see. Each character has their own collectable item, that'll help improve their powers and health bar. Comic Book Guy pops up to tell you you're doing generic things in video games, like double jumping and combos, they're in the form of game cliché collectables. Each level also has a time challenge, they are relevant timed missions to each story level you already completed.

It wasn't quite Hit and Run 2, (something we all still want to see) but it was worthy of its own stature in the series of Simpsons games we've seen. It was a really fun co-op game, with great levels and hilarious game spoofs. It's unfortunate that the sequel was cancelled, there's been a lack of Simpsons games the past decade, I'm starting to think we may not see another one.

7.6/10