The Simpsons Arcade: I Choo-Choo-Choose You!
Over the span of only a handful of years, Konami released several iterative side scrolling brawlers that were based on known properties. This included Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, (Bucky! Captain) Bucky O'Hare, and the amazing six-player, triple screen X-Men. Somewhere in between was The Simpsons, a four-player brawler that spans eight levels across familiar and not-so-familiar Springfield landscapes. Much like the other Konami brawlers, the charm of The Simpsons is both with the property and the simplistic gameplay.
Actually, that's all there really is to The Simpsons. How simple, you ask? Run to the right and attack. Ever feel like you don't know where to go in a video game? The solution that The Simpsons offers is just run to the right, man. Run to the right and hit dudes. Continue for about half an hour. If that gets too tedious, you can hop online and invite some friends or hop into a random game with strangers and continue running to the right and hitting guys! If you get bored with that, well... I guess that's all the game really has to offer.
The XBLA and PSN versions offer some unlockable goodies like a brief history of the development, some promotional materials along with sound and music tests. Not really much to keep you going. Personally, I finished the game and even unlocked all of the achievements in the first four hours. This game is short, just like any other brawler. That's really part of the appeal for games like these. They're short, sweet and don't really wear out their welcome.
Developer Backbone Entertainment isn't really known for cutting corners when it comes to quality emulation. The Simpsons offers "sharp" and "smooth" visual styles but I didn't see a difference when playing through it multiple times. There's also an arcade cabinet-style background that offers some added immersion, but it's not as great as something like Capcom's Final Fight: Double Impact wallpapers. One of the best additions is in the menus, where the ambient sounds of a convenience store can be heard, just like in the early 90's! Radical, dude!
Granted, most of my appreciation for this game comes from the deeply rooted nostalgia of playing this game next to the Neo Geo cabinet at the local Circle K. The same could be said for any of the other Konami brawlers. If you're interested in playing it, just be aware that it's incredibly short. If you've never played it but you're interested in either The Simpsons or early 90's arcade games, 10 bucks is a perfectly acceptable asking price. If you remember playing the game as a kid and loving your time with it, the price is certainly worth having your own copy to mess around with. Grab some friends and... run to the right and punch dudes.