God, there are so many standout moments… that bit where it suddenly turns into a topdown, Gauntlet-like scrawler for one, or when Mayor Quimby is bribed by a seedy EA executive in a hot tub with hot chicks in tow. Then there’s that bit when Will Wright shows up to antagonise players (“I’m Will Wright, bitch!”), or a laugh-out-loud trip to the town’s Planetarium (“Asteroid belts… my belt separates my gut from my junk”). Oh, and lest we forget a spot-on assault on both Grand Theft Auto and the reactions of stupid parents to violent games brainwashing children. In short, The Simpsons Game is a constantly amusing and diverse experience… and while far from perfect, it’s easily one of the year’s best surprises.

That said, it’s worth clearing up some confusion regarding the title. For a while now, we’ve all been under the impression that The Simpsons Game was going to be a big lampoon of sorts – each level ostensibly based upon and inspired by certain well-known titles. That’s simply not the case. Sure, there’s that aforementioned top-down Gauntlet bit, not to mention one or two other similarly themed surprises. On the whole, however, The Simpsons Game apes videogames as a medium more than any one game in particular. So ‘Mob Rules’ isn’t a San Andreas-like romp where you get to slaughter innocents and bed prostitutes. Instead, it’s Marge with a speakerphone organising a mob of angry adults to, literally, beat up children on the youravaged streets of Springfield in her quest to reach the Mayor of Springfield.

Likewise, ‘Shadow Of The Colossal Donut’ is far from the epic grandeur of the game it’s attempting to riff. Bart doesn’t have to climb the massive Lard Lad monstrosity, rather, he has to hit three specific points on its back with his slingshot to open panels that he then has to deactivate. As fun as it is, The Simpsons Game’s biggest surprises are levels such as the one where you go into the very engine itself, only to see Mario and Sonic spinning wheels and operating machines to ensure it keeps running. Later, things get even more self-deprecating – right down to the game openly mocking Electronic Arts. Either EA has the best sense of humour in games right now (save for developer Valve and its Portal), or nobody actually showed it The Simpsons Game before it was signed off.

Either way, it manages to suit The Simpsons perfectly and is consistently funny throughout its relatively lengthy single-player. What doesn’t quite hold up so well is the quality of the animation. The in-game graphics are truly wonderful, accomplishing a style somewhere between the movie and the 3D animation in Futurama. Yeah, there are jaggies abound, but, thankfully, the developer has finally found a way to do The Simpsons justice in 3D without it looking dodgy. The same cannot be said for the cut-scenes. Rather than use the game’s engine to present them, the developer has chosen a style similar to the show. Nothing at all wrong with that… except the scenes are jittery as hell, and the painted style is different. Imagine a Flash-based version of The Simpsons and you kind of get an idea of what it’s like. In other words, it’s pretty ugly sometimes.

The camera is shockingly bad at times, too. Its biggest problem being that it can’t do full 360 turns, getting stuck in walls and obscuring your front view. It makes certain platforming sections a bit of a joke. Shifting between characters is simple enough using the D-pad, although there is a short delay that could see you hitting it a couple of times and bodyswapping lots. But the biggest problem of all, for us, is the lack of clarity in some of the design. It’s easy to get stuck in The Simpsons Game, unsure what the hell you need to do to continue, because the game hasn’t adequately explained what it is you need to do next. Thank God other journalists in the office had completed it, then, as we may have eaten the bloody game in frustration if they weren’t around to help us… like, five times.

Perhaps getting stuck was down to our own incompetence, or maybe it’s due to the fact there’s just so much to appreciate in the game. We raced through a number of sections, but only to get to the next to see how insane things would continue to get – and what it would poke fun at next. That’s because there’s just so much depth to it, with some genuinely amazing level design at times (an early fight through a museum stands out among others), not to mention insanely funny humour, a great story and an excellent co-op mode. After so many terrible games before it, the potential for an excellent Simpsons game has been met – let down by a rubbish camera and sometimes unclear objectives. Without those things, it could have been truly special. Instead, it’s just purely great. Without doubt, this is the best Simpsons game ever.

Craig Gilmore