For personal reference more than anything else. Have done the spoiler warning just in case though.

First time doing a complete playthrough (I think?) after playing it a whole bunch as a kid and getting to final level (or episode as they're called in this) and from what I remember not being able to do the final section.

The story in this game is kinda weird, its meta and the meta-ness (?) dictates the way the plot goes but even with that it still feels like a things just kinda happen and you need to go along with it game. I'm not overly against this but it leads to some moments like in the penultimate episode where the game becomes a criticism of the other Simpsons games, that just appear, get talked about for like a minute and then the game goes onto something else straight afterwards. I don't really know how I feel about the plot in all honesty but I will say that it didn't really interest me all too much and there were only some bits that I thought were decent.

The characters are ok here, they feel more in character here than in the majority of Hit and Run but even if they got that bit right the humour is something that just suffers. I'd say there were probably less than 10 jokes here that I actually found funny which for a comedy game (or game based on a comedy show) feels pretty bad. The game also has the Hit and Run issue of repeated voice lines albeit to a lesser extent here as its mainly just in a few episodes rather than everywhere.

The game itself is honestly just kind of dull its a beat em up(?) which I don't really play a lot of, but I think this is a pretty bad one as the combat is really basic meaning that you'll do be mashing square more times than not, even more so because the hit boxes are pretty bad, there were way too many points where attacks just would not connect and it made what I think is supposed to be the main part of the game feel bad to play.

The game tries to experiment but nine times out of ten it doesn't really work either with Lisa and or Marge centric episodes where with Lisa you need to move things around with her Hand of Buddha power which feels like the put the shapes in the correct holes puzzles or with Marge where you use her Mob Control power where the game essentially becomes Pikmin (which from the little I've played of that series seems to just not feel as good as the actual Pikmin games). But then you have episodes that really try to mix things up like the Lard Lad puzzle boss which, it may have just been that my copy of the game not really working properly as it did skip on cutscenes but from what I've seen and gathered might just be because it was a little bigger or more complex than a lot of levels and struggled to run on the PS2 whereas if it was the PS3 or Xbox 360 version it may have been fine but this level among others really seemed to chug and just sort of shit the bed when trying to play it. But the Lard Lad boss itself felt pretty bad due to how far Bart could glide constantly changing and the mascot itself not being in a good position to open the latches or just plain running away at times. There was also a collectable hunting section in the war level, two protect the bases whilst killing the enemy or enemies sections and even a poorly presented (my shit way of saying the angle from where you see where the enemies are coming from felt wrong) rhythm game that just felt kind of bad as the final boss fight, which why they chose this as the final fight is completely beyond me.

The camera is bad but unlike in Hit and Run where that was only a problem some of the time, due to how this game works and it having more mandatory platforming it felt like a constant issue this time around.

You also play with a partner and the A.I is pretty bad as they just stand there not doing anything half of the time meaning you have to move them yourself if you need them in a certain area (but if you're at one of those both characters need to step on a button or pressure plate bits then they will stand on the other one if you stand on one) or if you go to do something while there are a bunch of enemies then they will just die which can be annoying if you need to switch back to them. Another note was that it seemed like such an odd choice to essentially need to force members of Marge's mob to attack other enemies by directing them to an enemy, especially with how many enemies there were in her episodes (which was at its worst in the Grand Theft Itchy episode) but due to how it worked I just didn't use it, probably should have been an automatic thing they did if they were in range of an enemy.

There were some neat little details or moments like the memorial for Maude in the final episode, the fact that you fight Bender and Zoidberg at one point (who both have their same voice actors from what I could tell) and the level hub being the Simpsons' house. But even with these it feels like I'm clutching at straws trying to find stuff as there just wasn't as many details as I would have liked from this game, despite being a Simpsons game it felt weirdly generic for a lot of the time which was a shame.

Overall the game just felt weirdly boring especially in the second half, there were some positives but they were easily outweighed by the negatives, its not a bad game its just an alright one. Probably won't come back to it but I don't know.

I played the PS2 version, which is not the best version of the game, but I had a lot fun.

This was one of my favorite games on the PS2 growing up and right now I can't think of a single thing that I particularly disliked about it.

Sure, maybe as a game it wasn't anything spectacular; but it was the writing and self aware story that made it so fun to play.

I mean, the final boss of the game is god and it's nothing but a Guitar Hero minigame for some fucking reason. It's dumb, it's absurd and it makes no sense but it knows what it is and just rolls with it.

One of the better if not the best Simpson game imo.