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Developed
by Big Ape Productions and released jointly by FOX interactive and Activision,
The Simpson’s Wrestling for the Playstation I takes the popular animated TV
show family on yet another journey into the video gaming world. As seen in the
title of the game, the theme of this particular Simpsons outing deals with the
high action world of ‘Professional’ Wrestling. Instead of The Rock and Stone
Cold Steve Austin battling out for the glory of the Title Belt, we have the
denizens of the small town of Springfield entering the ring in an all out battle
royale to see who’s the last man, woman, child, or clown standing.
Though the theme of the game was truly within the sphere of humor and
sheer wit that makes up The Simpson’s TV show, it still wasn’t enough to
keep The Simpson’s Wrestling major flaws in check. The
gameplay of The Simpson’s Wrestling (SW) takes place in 10 different locations
found throughout the town of Springfield USA, ranging from such well-known
locations as the Kwik-E Mart, Moe’s Bar, and even the infamous Nuclear Power
Plant. The plot and storyline behind the game are simple, but still true to the
comedy styling of The Simpson: Aliens from another world have challenged our
world to a bout of Wrestling, with the winners taking all the glory (and earth
as well). The citizens of the
Springfield must now battle it out among themselves in various no-holds barred
and fevered matches for the right to wrestle the large headed, one-eyed
monstrosities from the outer reaches of our universe. 15 characters from the
Simpson’s universe are available for play within SW, ranging from the Simpson
family (Marge, Homer, Lisa, and Bart), to other feature characters, such as
Krusty the Clown, Barney Gumble, Ned Flanders, and Moe the bartender. Other
popular but less than prevalent characters are also available to play later on
in the game, including the Bumblebee Man, Groundskeeper Willie, and the nerdy
Professor Fink. The
game controls for SW are rather reminiscent of other third person character
battle titles and were easy to learn and utilize. These consisted of low,
medium, and high power attack buttons, a jump function, two ‘pin opponent’
buttons, and two ‘taunt’ buttons. As was expected, differenct combinations
of these buttons produced different actions for each character during the game.
Quite a bit of experimentation was needed in order to learn specific moves for
each character, but more often button mashing would take precedent during most
situations. Gamers will also find several different ‘power-up’ items
available throughout that game that are common in titles similar to SW,
including health boosts, speed enhancers, and invulnerability, among others.
Three different versions of the game are available for play, including a Circuit
Tournament (with two higher levels of challenge available upon completion of the
initial game), a practice game that gives you a single round of play utilizing
your own picks, and a two-player version. Though
most of the action within the game is standard for the genre, what makes SW
different are the specific moves that each Simspon character possesses. Each
happens to have several specialized and unique wrestling moves that are uniquely
Simpson-esque and extremely humorous in their approach. Among several of the
more entertaining actions were Marge Simpson’s full hair swat and her
‘Maggie Release’ move, which allowed the youngest Simpson family member to
cling on to the opposing character, slowing them down considerably. Barney
Gumble’s noxious belches had this reviewer laughing out loud on several
occasions, as did the Bumblebee Man’s release of a non-stop yapping and biting
Chihuahua dog that would continually chase the opposing character within the
ring. The various taunts and
‘Smack-Talk’ that was available to the characters in the game were also
quite humorous as well, and definitely kept the theme of the Simpson’s
throughout. Homer’s chant of ‘I am so great!’ could have been taken right
out of a Simpsons episode, as was Barney’s drunken lines of ring-side
domination, and Groundskeeper Willie’s odd threats in the familiar Scottish
brogue. It
seems very obvious that Big Ape Productions went to great lengths to gain the
full Simpsons license from FOX, allowing them to utilize the same voice actors
that star in the TV show of the same name, giving the game an authentic sound
and overall feel of quality. What the game designers didn’t do is put as much
effort into the overall visual aspects of the game as they did the quality of
the sound and theme. For the lack of a better descriptive term, the graphics in
SW are just plain awful. Even for a
Playstation I game, the characters were blocky and extremely 2-dimensional,
which may not sound as bad to some, given that the Simpson’s is a 2-D animated
television series. At first, we thought that the console we were playing the
game on had some sort of hardware problems, but after testing the title on
several other systems we learned the ugly truth of the matter. Given the quality
of previous Simpson based titles, the effort by Big Ape was sub-par, to say the
least. Even the early 1990’s Simpson Arcade game put the graphics in SW to
shame. It was only the other previously described aspects of the game that this
title was able to find any sort of redemption in this reviewer’s eyes. In the end, The Simpsons Wrestling was able to capture the essence of what has made the TV show the game is based on so popular these past 11 years. True to form characterization, authentic voice-overs, witty writing, and some rather off-beat game attributes were quite entertaining, but were all only fresh icing on a stale and dry cake. The poor graphic design of the game seemed ill conceived and rushed, detracting from what could have been great Simpson title. Only the most devout fans of the TV series will be able to get past the below bland presentation and flaws to enjoy the game beneath.
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