The Simpsons Arcade Game
The Simpsons Arcade Game
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Game Information
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Plot
The Simpsons are walking in the street when Smithers, who stole a diamond from a Jewel Shop for Mr. Burns, accidentally bumps into Homer. This sends the diamond flying and landing in Maggie's mouth. Smithers kidnaps Maggie and runs off with the diamond in her mouth, prompting the Simpsons to pursue him and attempt to rescue Maggie. On the way, they encounter goons hired by Mr. Burns to stop the family from getting Maggie back and are forced to fight them.
After defeating several goons including a wrestler, they chase Smithers into Krustyland, where they are attacked by Clowns and rabbits (from Matt Groening's original cartoon Life in Hell). They corner Smithers on a Krusty balloon but the balloon pops, sending the family and Smithers falling down to Springfield Cemetary. Zombies waken up by Mr. Burns rise from their graves and attack the Simpsons family, but the family fight them off. The Simpsons family then follow Smithers into Moes Tavern, where they encounter several mobsters and a Drunk which they are forced to fight.
The Simpsons later follow Smithers to the Springfield Butte. Smithers is fleeing from a bear and carries Maggie towards a river, and the Simpsons follow his trail, battling woodsmen and apes on he way. The bear that was chasing Smithers went to kill the Simpsons, but the family defeat the bear. Smithers escapes by helicopter and the Simpsons family are sent down a large waterfall and are knocked out. In their coma, the Simpsons envision themselves in the clouds and in their minds they battle a gigantic bowling ball. After waking up, they see the helicopter landing on top of the Channel 6 studio. They get in the studio and see Scott Christian doing a news report on Maggie's kidnapping. They have a brief battle with a Japanese Kabuki Warrior before hopping on a helicopter to the Springfield Power Plant, where Smithers has taken Maggie.
At the Power Plant, the Simpsons family confront Smithers, who battles them with bombs.When Smithers is defeated, Mr. Burns breaks through the wall inside a large machine which attacks with Bombs, Lasers, Missiles and Pincers, and starts a climatic battle agains the Simpsons. After a long fight, Burns is defeated, and the Simpsons rescue Maggie, who places her pacifier into Mr. Burns' mouth. They celebrate along with Grampa, Patty and Selma. In the end, Homer throws the diamond away and Maggie puts her pacifier back into her mouth.
Gameplay
The player chooses from one of the four Simpsons family members: Homer, who punches and kicks; Marge, who swings her vacuum cleaner; Bart, who wields his skateboard; and Lisa, who uses a jumprope like a whip. The game's levels are based on various locations from Springfield, including Downtown, Krusty Land, the Graveyard, Moe's Tavern, Springfield Butte, a Dreamland, the Channel 6 studio and the Springfeild Nucler Power Plant. Each level ends with a boss whose speed and strength would increase after taking a set amount of damage.
Although the game is one of many beat 'em ups produced after Final Fight, it contained many innovations, including the option for two players to team up and attack enemies, with the exact attack differing slightly depending on which two characters were being used. Food could be used for healing, and various weapons and items could be obtained for use for a short time or for a one-time projectile attack. These items were often brought into the game by other Simpsons characters, and the Simpsons' own pets could be used as thrown weapons at various points in the game. The Japanese version of the game included small scale nuclear bombs that, when thrown, clear all on-screen enemies, as well as a life bar that can be doubled by eating food when your character's health was full.
The main characters retained their voice actors from the show. The game features two minigames in which players competed against each other to be the first to finish a task (inflating a balloon shaped like their character in the first game, waking up their character in the second). The minigame was based on repeated button-pushing, with the player who pushed the buttons fastest winning. If fewer than four players were present, the player or players competed against 1-3 computer-controlled characters in these minigames.
The game featured many strange enemies, ranging from the infamous men in the purple suits, to battles with Bongo-like rabbits. The game included battling fat, old men; miniboss-like firemen; and even giant donuts.One of the visual gags in the game include Marge showing rabbit ears similar to the Life in hell rabbits, like her skeletal silhouette when electrocuted. According to several DVD commentaries, before The Simpsons became a full series,
Voices
(Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer didn't do voices for the game)
Levels
- Dreamland
Bonus Stages
- Blow up your balloon
- Wake up
Enemies
- Henchmen
- Fat Guys
- Door Ladys
- Fire Fighters
- Clowns
- Rabbits from Life in Hell
- Zombies
- Barrel Ladys
- Apes
- Woodsmen
- Donuts
- Marge Clouds
- Power Plant Employees
- Saxophones
- Bart Devils
- Space Mutants
- Ninjas
Bosses
- Wrestler
- Krusty Balloon
- Mobsters
- Drunk Man
- Bear
- Bowling Ball
- Robot
- Kabuki Warrior
- Smithers
- Mr Burns
Trivia
- This was the first Simpsons video game ever.
- Hank Azaria and Harry Shearer didn't do voices for the characters of the game.
- One of the visual gags in the game include Marge showing rabbit ears similar to the Life in hell rabbits, It happens when her skeletal silhouette when it she gets electrocuted. This is a reference to Matt Groening's initial design of the character Marge Simpson. Groening originally wanted Marge's hair to conceal rabbit ears, and have them finally exposed in the last episode, but this was soon scrapped.
- When the tall mobster says Where do you think your going, Mr Burns says that in the part 2 fight that has the same voice.
- Smithers' laugh is actually heard from every single enemy or boss when they laugh.
- When Maggie puts the pacifier in Mr Burns mouth, it desipears and then goes back in Maggies mouth but the diamond is surpost to be in her mouth.
- When any of the characters talk, their mouths don't move.
- Smithers and the mobsters have the same theme music.
- The bear boss appeared in stage 2 when it escaped from Krusty Land and went to the Butte for its new home.
- The enemy ape is based on Homer where everyone thinks he is Big Foot when he went into a mud pool to get the bees off when he tried some honey. It happened in the episode "The Call of the Simpsons".
