Tag: Simpsons »

The hugely popular The Simpsons Bongo Comics have made their way to the iPhone and iPad, with an official app just released.

Simpsons Comics comes from the masters of all things iOS comic book related, ComiXology.

Much like ComiXology's other apps, the initial download is free with new issues of The Simpsons based comics available, priced between $1.99 and $3.99. Recent and classic Bongo titles are included such as Simpsons Comics, Bart Simpson and Radioactive Man.

New Bongo comics will be available for purchase through the app within a month of their physical publication, with readers able to buy and download at least two digital releases a week, if they so wish.

Recommendations will also be available after finishing each comic book, so it's an ideal way to steer new readers in the right direction for plenty of fun with Homer and the family.

Simpsons Comics is available now and it's an Universal app.

Many people remember the classic Simpsons coin-op game where up to 4 players could play as the cartoon family in a beat-em-up quest to save baby Maggie. EA has now brought a completely new game to the iPhone that looks to relive some of that classic action, but they left many of the core features on the cutting room floor. The actual gameplay does an admirable job, but this time around you can only play as Homer and there is no multiplayer, both of which severely limit the replay value of the title.

In The Simpsons Arcade, the evil Mr. Burns has gathered most of the side characters of the show for a top secret plan to steal all of Springfield's natural resources. They proceed to download the specifics of the scheme called "Project: Operation Mission" onto a USB drive, and then implant it into a rather tasty looking donut. When the donut accidentally falls into Homer Simpson's hands, it is promptly stolen back, and Homer decides that he must get his hands on this exceptional donut that people are willing to kill for.

Once you get past the nonsensical plot, the core fighting gameplay is simple but effective. Homer is controlled via a responsive joystick, and has an attack button that strings together a combo of moves when tapped repeatedly. He also has a jump button that can be combined with the attack to unleash a belly flop that knocks down nearby opponents. Homer can also sit on downed opponents, as well as grab someone who has been stunned. The game has a handful of suit-wearing enemy types with different attack patterns, as well as weapons such as baseball bats, tasers, and oversized mallets that can be picked up to deal some extra damage.

The other Simpsons family members do appear in the game, but only as the occasional power-up. Bart jumps on Homer's shoulder and shoots a steady stream of slingshot fire, Lisa just clears the screen, and Marge triggers a berserker Homer that you can tilt around the screen.

The game itself is spread across six levels, which include Downtown Springfield, Springfield Mall, Channel 6 Studios, Krustyland, GOP Headquarters, and the Burns' Mansion. Each stage is made up of a fighting segment, mid-boss, some more fighting, and then an end boss, with a load screen in between each. The fighting segments can get repetitive and boring at times, but the boss battles bring a wide variety of characters into the mix. In between levels, you get to play one of two mini-games that can win you an extra continue. They are a tilting game where you use Homer's mouth to catch donuts and avoid broccoli, and a button-tapping game where you have to inflate a balloon the fastest. A rather nice touch is the interactive continue screen that is displayed when you lose a life. Homer is sprawled on the floor and you need to slap him back to consciousness by swiping back and forth across his face.

Once you finish the game, you get a very brief scene of Homer eating the donut (spoilers!), and that's about it. You don't have the ability to play as a different character, let alone a choice of alternate difficulty levels. Combine that with the lack of multiplayer, and The Simpsons Arcade leaves you with very little reason to come back. The action, while not the most exciting in the genre, is pretty solid, but the game just does not lend itself to repeated play. This feels liked a missed opportunity, and really stalls what was shaping up to be a quality package. The colorful graphics are worth mentioning, but the music is exceedingly annoying. Luckily, there is the option to adjust the sound in the game, as well as use your own music.

The Simpsons Arcade is a decent side-scrolling brawler, but there's no getting around the fact that it is sorely limited by having only one playable character and no multiplayer options to speak of. Games in this genre are generally short in length, and are meant to be replayed multiple times using different characters or with friends. While The Simpsons Arcade is a respectable effort, it's lacking both of these qualities, making it pretty much a simple one-and-done experience at this point.

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I had the chance today to take a quick look at three upcoming games from EA. Some of them are hotly anticipated, another we hadn't even heard about before today.

Need for Speed: Shift

This has to be one of the most anticipated games of the season. Well at least for Chris, our editor. He shut himself in a small room with nothing but red bull and Cheetoes and played Need for Speed: Undercover until his thumbs stopped working. I think he's going to be out of touch for weeks when he get ahold of Need for Speed: Shift.

This game looks fantastic. While the original specs and screens we saw were less than inspiring. But now that the game is done and real, it's fantastic. Especially so if you have a 3GS as it has some special graphic taking advantage of the better graphics processor on that device.

Shift has everything you expect in a Need for Speed game. There's multiple events/tracks, multiple game methods, multiple upgradable cars, etc. The different events and cars are, of course, unlockable as you progress through the career mode.

One big feature that Shift has that the previous Need for Speed didn't have is multiplayer. While it's only local and 2 player with Bluetooth and 4 player with Wifi, there are 6 different game methods.

Here are a few more images to hold you over. Need for Speed: Shift will be out soon.

Spore: Creatures

EA announced Spore: Creatures for the iPhone a few months ago. But, they were quiet about it after that. Well, until now. While I don't really think that Spore: Creatures is much different than Spore: Origins, it does take everything up a few notches. There's just more of everything as this game is meant to pick up where Origins ended.

More creature customization options. Lots more. I've been told there are well over a billion different possibilities from the dozens of creature parts, colors, and abilities that you can add.

Included in the game itself are 4 different and distinct game play zones. Each zone has 5 different levels to travel through while evolving your little Spore.

The one thing that is really different with the game play over the previous Spore game is that ability to either fight or socialize. This can change the way the game progresses and how your creature evolves.

Here are a couple more pictures, Spore: Creatures should be out in January.

The Simpsons Arcade

This one came out of left field. The Simpsons Arcade is an old school arcade fighter set in the Simpsons world of Springfield. Developed under the supervision of one of the writers and featuring the voices of all 6 Simpsons voice actors from the series, this promises to be a fun and very funny fighting game.

You control Homer in this game. There's an on screen joystick and two buttons that let you perform different attack and defense moves.

You progress through 25 levels set in 6 different environments in Springfield. There are of course a bunch of different weapons to use that you can pick up along the way. There are 6 major bosses and 12 mini-bosses. The final boss battle is said to be epic!

As a Simpsons fan, I'm looking forward to this. I was a little worried when I first heard of this. Lets be honest, there have been some less than stellar Simpsons games over the years. But in my short time with the game I found it to be interesting, well made, and really fun. The Simpsons Arcade will be out soon.