Back in December, EA announced they were bringing the arcade classic ‘The Simpsons Arcade’ to the iPhone / iPod Touch platform. The announcement had gamers excited as we all hold The Simpsons Arcade very dear to our hearts. Then it was revealed that the game wouldn’t be a port of that title, instead it would be sort of a remake and players would play as Homer, and only as Homer.
With all of these changes to The Simpsons Arcade for the iPhone, did the game live up to the expectations and fun of the original arcade title?
The Simpsons Arcade is a side-scrolling beat-em-up that has you playing as everyone’s favorite dimwit father, Homer Simpson. The game starts off with Homer attempting to do what he does best: eating a doughnut. The doughnut he’s about to eat also happens to hold a USB drive that contains a sinister plot that nearly everyone in the town of Springfield is aware of and will attempt to stop Homer at all costs of retrieving the doughnut. Not the deepest of plots, but it’ll do. Homer will have to fight across 6 levels to hopefully get a chance to take of bite of that sweet, sweet goodness.
The controls for The Simpsons Arcade are all on-screen. There’s a joystick to move Homer around, and two buttons to make him attack and jump. The controls were responsive and the combat moves were fun to perform, although a game like this lacks any kind of in-depth combo system. As you progress through each stage, Homer will be able to pick up various items that he can use as weapons, food that will restore his health, and he’ll also come across items that will allow his family to come in to lend a helping hand. The three family members have their own unique way of helping Homer through his adventure: Bart jumps on Homer’s shoulders and attacks enemies with his slingshot, Lisa performs a devastating jump rope attack that effects everyone on-screen, and Marge / Maggie allow Homer to perform a dual windmill attack that can be guided using the iPhone’s accelerometer.
The Simpsons Arcade was graphically satisfying as the stages and characters populating the world all look like they stepped out of a Simpsons episode. Each character from the show had the original voice actor’s voice, so there weren’t any awkward situations of a character seeming out of place. At any given time, there could have been 1 to a dozen or so enemies on the screen at once. One thing the game lacked was a suitable soundtrack. Each stage has a terribly dated MIDI-sounding soundtrack playing in the background that often took me out of the experience. I understand the game is an iPhone title, but for a major publisher like EA Mobile to allow a MIDI soundtrack for one of its games is highly disappointing.
While I’m ranting, another issue I had was the structure of the levels. Each stage had 4 levels: 2 side-scrolling levels and 2 boss battles. I wouldn’t have minded if the 2 side-scrolling levels per stage were long, but they could have been completed in around 2-3 minutes, which made the overall play time for The Simpsons Arcade to feel very short. At the end of a stage, you are treated to a bonus stage, but even those were limited to two types of bonus stages: One where you inflate a balloon and the other where you’re guiding Homer to eat donuts falling from the sky.
What made the original Simpsons Arcade so much fun was the ability to select any of the 4 family members and the co-op gameplay where up to four people could play at the same time. The Simpsons Arcade for the iPhone seems like a watered down version of a watered down version of the original game as not only can you not select multiple family members, but there’s no co-op gameplay at all. Given how advanced other games are on the iPhone platform by allowing players to play together either through Bluetooth or WI-FI, it seemed like a no-brainer to offer something like this for The Simpsons Arcade.
FINAL THOUGHT: The Simpsons Arcade isn’t a bad game, in fact, as a Simpsons fan I rather enjoyed the game as it accurately represented a lot of my favorite characters as well as for its simple and fun combat. When you put this game up against the source material, that is when things don’t look so great. At $4.99, it’s at a price point where its hard to recommend unless you’re a true Simpsons fan, otherwise, you won’t be missing much if you decide to skip it.
The Simpsons Arcade ($4.99) [iTunes Link]