The game starts out with an intro that's a good mirror of the TV show opening. It also gives some stats about each of the family members; something that brought me back to the early days of the show when the characters weren't all over the place personality-wise.
Like Watching The Cartoon
There was a 2 and 4 player version of the game, and it was possible to pick Homer, Marge, Bart, or Lisa. I believe Homer uses Fists, Marge uses a Vacuum, Bart uses a Skateboard, and Lisa uses a Jump-Rope. The plot of the game is that Smithers has stolen a diamond from a shop, and while escaping collides with the Simpsons. The diamond ends up being used as a pacifier for Maggie, so Smithers grabs her and makes a getaway.
What's Up With The Cape Smithers?!
Of course, the Simpsons aren't going to take this lying down, so they immediately rush off to the rescue. From the very beginning and throughout the game, many classic Simpsons characters from the first season are featured in cameos.
Simpsons And Bouviers
The family must traverse through 8 different levels to get Maggie back, fighting a bunch of Burns' and Smithers' cronies along the way. The player can jump, attack, jump and attack, do a more powerful quick jump attack, or even use two players together to attack. The levels are all fairly short, but they're all pretty fun to play. Along the way, the family can also get food to heal (punch the trees!), or even attack using items like a slingshot, mop, rocks, bowling balls, and even the family pets among others. There's also a couple bonus levels where the player can mash buttons to win points for an extra life. There's not too much else to explain about the game, as it's very straightforward, but I'll post some screen shots of the different levels.
Stage 1 - Skinner and Martin
Stage 1 - Boss
Stage 1 - Marge Is Angry
Stage 2 - Otto Not Driving A Bus, Marge With A Short Super Attack After Dying
Stage 2 - Marge And Snowball II Fight The Boss
Bonus Stage
Stage 3 - Intro With Binky As Death
Stage 3 - Dancing At The Zombie Zoo
Stage 3 - Boss
Stage 4 - Moe And Barney
Stage 4 - Where's My Spy Camera?!
Stage 4 - Boss
Stage 5 - Nelson Helps
Stage 5 - Blinky
Stage 5 - AHH!! Sideshow Bob!
Stage 5 - Boss
Stage 5 - Krusty Copter
Stage 6 - Bart Devils
Stage 6 - Boss
Bonus Stage 2
Stage 7 - Alien And Robot
Stage 7 - Boss
Stage 8 - Evil Smithers!
Stage 8 - Burnsy
Maggie And Burns
End
End 2
One more interesting note about this game was that the characters had voices as well. Most of the family sounds pretty good, but Smithers sounds awful and Burns sounds pretty bad. His constant "excellent" while you're pummeling him in the end is rather cheerful though.
I really never pictured Smithers as the kind of guy who pulls a diamond heist, kidnaps a baby, and has a cape with a bunch of terrorist bombs inside. When you beat him, he even suicide bombs himself, which is pretty messed up! I also wonder at this criminal mastermind who doesn't just pull the diamond out of Maggie's mouth so the Simpson family will stop chasing him... but it really doesn't matter at all to me, cause this game kicks so much ass!! I fondly remember spending many a quarter on this one at arcades in my childhood, and I give it a run through every now and then to this day. I would say it probably only takes less than an hour to get through the whole game, but that's part of the fun too. Just a quick fun game that can be played at anytime. While there really shouldn't be much replay value, as the game doesn't have any real secrets to find, I find myself drawn to this one again and again. It's especially fun to play with a group of friends as well!
Overall, I would give The Simpsons Arcade Game an 8. Simpsons' fans and retro gamers alike should find this game quite entertaining, but it's also easy to approach for casual gamers because of it's simple controls and familiar gameplay style.
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