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Written by: klamkilla

As one of the biggest Simpsons fans out there (and the

reigning Sega IRC Simpsons trivia king mind you), it

comes to no surprise that I was looking forward to

Simpsons Wrestling. Unfortunately however, is the fact

that a game with such potential turned out to be well

as Homer would say, "The suckiest bunch of suck that

ever sucked." (Quote modified to fit situation.)

GRAPHICS

This game employs the cell shading effect made

popular by Jet Grind Radio. Unlike the aforementioned

game though, Simpsons Wrestling looks very rough, very

grainy, and very choppy. Characters move with a stiff

awkwardness about them. It is almost unwatchable to a

certain point. The frame rate is simply atrocious

dropping below 30FPS at some points. The view which is

from a 3/4 isometric angle is atrocious, the rings

are bland, and the backgrounds which range from the

Simpson estate to Moe's Tavern are plain ugly.

SOUND

I know what you're thinking, "Well it is a Simpsons

game so there has got to be a lot of great tunes and

quips from the show". Well you're only half right. All

of the quotes are either taken from the show or were

recorded exclusively for the game. Which means you get

some great lines from the likes of Willie, "No one moves

faster than a greased Scotsman", Apu "Yes I am sorry I

do not speak English", and the rest of the cast.

Music however is horrible. There are absolutely no

tunes from the show. While it would have been nice to

hear the mono rail song, the Kwik-E-Mart song, or even

the goddamn theme song in the game, they are all non

existent. Instead we get really crappy bland ska.

CONTROL

Seriously can this game get any worse? Yes, yes it can.

The control is simple to learn, but frustrating to

execute to any degree of success. Walking in the 3/4

view is annoying. Punching and kicking bogs down your

movement and special move combinations are non

existent.

GAMEPLAY

Choose one Springfeldian, and choose whether to fight in

a tournament or against another human player. That's

it. Each character has a standard 3 hit combo that is

executed by pounding on the X button, a jump move that

is executed by pressing triangle and THEN pounding on

the X button, a special move that seems to be

accessible at random by pressing the square button, and

a taunt which is executed by pressing the R1 button.

Come to think of it, this game bears no resemblance to a

wrestling game sans the ring.

Here is a little challenge that I actually tried. I closed

my eye, randomly picked a guy, mashed on the X button

for the whole game, and still beat it in under 20

minutes. OOOHH really challenging.

In closing, not even a Simpsons die hard should buy

this game. Go rent it and see for yourself how badly

the license was murdered. Let's hope for the better

with Simpsons Road Rage, all though my hopes aren't too

high.

Gameplay: 1.0
Graphics: 2.0
Sound: 3.0
Value: ---
Control: 1.5

Final Score: 2.0   (out of 5)