Funny story about the first time I played this game: I was in the fourth grade and my mom decided to reward me for good grades with a trip to the local arcade. She gave me a bunch of quarters, told me to go have fun, and followed me around (I appreciate) at enough of a distance to not cramp my ten-year-old style. I was planning to make a full recon sweep of the arcade but stopped halfway through, in front of the shiny new Simpsons Arcade Game machine, and with an "ooh, the Simpsons!" that I imagine sounded something like this I dropped some quarters in and started playing.
A few other kids walked past and joined in, and before long the arcade cabinet had worked its magic, bringing four kids together; total strangers united in the noblest pursuit of trying to best a quarter-muncher. Looking back, we were all awful; we didn't understand the concept of attack priority or boss i-frames, so we blew so much money standing right in front of bosses and spamming attack even through animations where they were invincible. We had a blast though - I still remember the collective "ooooh" when we first discovered we could do co-op attacks. Several times I ran out of money and I felt a tap on my shoulder; it was my mom, staring at the screen and holding out a fistful of fresh quarters in her hand.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to a comically tragic end: deep into a pitched battle with the final boss, I got roasted by a nuke, put in another quarter, pressed start, and... a split second later the Homer player landed the final blow on the boss and the game was over. I knew what was coming; my mom had generously spent the downpayment of a small car on this game, but like any Asian parent her generosity had its limits, and in this case the limit was wasting the final quarter when the game was already over. She was obviously more angry with the situation than with me, but I got an earful anyway, and as we walked back home I can only imagine the alarm we caused to passersby as they all caught out-of-context aural snippets of "Why did you pay more money?! The man was already dead!!"
Anyway, how's the game? Very competent as it turns out. The graphics are vibrant and capture the aesthetic of the show well, and the animations are great - some of the slapstick effects are quite subtle, such as Lisa briefly getting entangled in her jump rope if she whiffs too many attacks. Even the dated cutscenes are charming in a "well-done MSPaint art" kind of way. With only one attack button, no grappling, and the game's main mechanical innovation (co-op attacks) being gimmicky and situational, the game obviously lacks depth, but is still fun enough to sustain your interest especially given its short runtime.
If you're looking for a mechanically deep game or something that's rewarding to try to 1cc you should probably look elsewhere, but this is a great distracting romp that virtually anyone can get into. Everyone should have a funny Simpsons Arcade Game story.
A few other kids walked past and joined in, and before long the arcade cabinet had worked its magic, bringing four kids together; total strangers united in the noblest pursuit of trying to best a quarter-muncher. Looking back, we were all awful; we didn't understand the concept of attack priority or boss i-frames, so we blew so much money standing right in front of bosses and spamming attack even through animations where they were invincible. We had a blast though - I still remember the collective "ooooh" when we first discovered we could do co-op attacks. Several times I ran out of money and I felt a tap on my shoulder; it was my mom, staring at the screen and holding out a fistful of fresh quarters in her hand.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to a comically tragic end: deep into a pitched battle with the final boss, I got roasted by a nuke, put in another quarter, pressed start, and... a split second later the Homer player landed the final blow on the boss and the game was over. I knew what was coming; my mom had generously spent the downpayment of a small car on this game, but like any Asian parent her generosity had its limits, and in this case the limit was wasting the final quarter when the game was already over. She was obviously more angry with the situation than with me, but I got an earful anyway, and as we walked back home I can only imagine the alarm we caused to passersby as they all caught out-of-context aural snippets of "Why did you pay more money?! The man was already dead!!"
Anyway, how's the game? Very competent as it turns out. The graphics are vibrant and capture the aesthetic of the show well, and the animations are great - some of the slapstick effects are quite subtle, such as Lisa briefly getting entangled in her jump rope if she whiffs too many attacks. Even the dated cutscenes are charming in a "well-done MSPaint art" kind of way. With only one attack button, no grappling, and the game's main mechanical innovation (co-op attacks) being gimmicky and situational, the game obviously lacks depth, but is still fun enough to sustain your interest especially given its short runtime.
If you're looking for a mechanically deep game or something that's rewarding to try to 1cc you should probably look elsewhere, but this is a great distracting romp that virtually anyone can get into. Everyone should have a funny Simpsons Arcade Game story.