|
Monday 14 January, 2008
GAMEPLAY
This time I picked Homer and it was exactly like Bart’s. The cars on the street were blocking your way and it was impossible to drive. I keep backing up every five seconds and Burns’ radioactive buses would not leave me alone. Thankfully, I earned enough money to unlock Professor Frink and continued the game with this new character. Again, same problem. Although I should mention that the dialogues of the characters are the only thing that is keeping me entertained throughout the game.
However, overall, I truly did not enjoy this game. I find myself getting frustrated and screaming at my television screen every second. Everything was the same. Even though you can unlock new characters and such, but so what? Once you are in a new town, you do the same again and so on. Plus, it takes too long to load new characters and towns. I think I sat in front of my television for at least five minutes waiting for the game to load, only to be disappointed.
DESIGN
First of all, I noticed this game is almost exactly like Crazy Taxi which came out in 1999. This game, however, was released back in 2001. What’s the point of playing a game that is exactly like the one you’ve played for hours two years ago? In other words, this is a Simpsonized version of Crazy Taxi. Now I know why I didn’t play this game when it first came out. Furthermore, both the games’ main objectives parallel each other. You are to drive around the town, stop within the customer’s circle, and drop them off at various locations (in this case, Springfield). The only rewards are new characters and locations, which later can get dull and tedious since all you do is, well, drive.
On a more positive note, the storyline at the beginning was interesting enough to keep me playing for a few hours; or maybe because I am a Simpsons fan. Anyhow, the game’s control is simple and straight-forward. There is even an arrow to direct you where to go, so it is nearly impossible to get lost. Despite the easy control, it is quite difficult to maneuver your car on the streets. You will find yourself colliding with at least thirty cars wherever you go and not to mention, Burns’ radioactive buses are crashing into you every second. At one point, my car was actually floating in mid-air. Basically, the best chance of getting to the customers’ destined locations at the fastest way is through short-cuts and people’s backyard. However, the only possible way to discover such short-cuts is by investing more time in the game. Last but not least, the dialogue of the characters might seem funny at first but later only gets irritating. After using the same character for two game sessions, Homer for example, he was already repeating the same lines over and over again. The game lacks the variety of quotes for every character. If only they had more, I would’ve been laughing out loud at the lines rather than concentrating on the negatives of the game. Therefore, I recommend this game to those who have a lot of time on their hands and fanatics of the Simpsons. Or else, stick to Crazy Taxi.
|
