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The Simpsons Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror
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Graphics & Sound:
Every once in a while, a game comes along to remind us that more polygons can't take the place of great ideas and strong design. The Simpsons Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror (whew!) is just such a game. Many games struggle to find an original idea, and come up with something that may have sounded innovative in the marketing proposal, but doesn't jibe with fun or even decent gameplay. Instead of trying to reinvent the genre, THQ, Fox Interactive and Software Creations made the smart choice to infuse a tried and true platforming model with that nutty Simpsons vibe. The result is very nice. The premise of Treehouse of Horror is so surreal that it opens up possibilities for level design that come off looking like DaDa meets Donkey Kong. The Simpsons fall asleep in Bart's treehouse telling stories on Halloween and (I quote) have an out of body experience, sending them into the world of the Treehouse of Horror which is basically Springfield meets Spookville. The graphic effects are clean and colorful, but don't sacrifice any detail. The strangest moments you can remember from the show are the starting point for most of this game, including one level that has Maggie as a housefly and another with Homer as a giant, King Kong-like apeman. I enjoyed being able to laugh at the visuals because they are really funny, and not just because they look stupid. Treehouse of Horror makes great use of the small screen, and doesn't feel draggy or oversimplified at all. Much of the quality is in design and placement. Levels have a lot going on, but don't feel crowded. The music is pure Simpsons - or should I say Danny Elfman - and in keeping with the great scoring in the show, subtle variations on the main theme fill the game. It's just a fun game to look at, and full of crack-up characters and cool looking levels. |
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Gameplay:
Treehouse of Horror is fairly straightforward platforming, with the welcome twist of playing different characters in each level, with different controls. The whole Simpson family is featured, with Homer showing up in several forms (no spoilers) on more than one level. The variety of playing unique levels and the balance between levels is excellent. I wasn't always wild about the control and response, but it's much better than most GBC platformers, so I can't really complain. Some levels are more heavily weighted toward action, while others require good puzzle skills. Most of the puzzles are about finding items or visiting areas in the right order, taken right out of what we expect in a game like this, but it's nice to see an otherwise silly game built on gameplay the supposedly hardcore games often lack. If every GBC platforming title presented this well, we'd all be a lot happier. The major point of Treehouse of Horror is to complete all levels and return the Simpsons to their waking state, out of Horrorville and into the plain old Treehouse. Each level is themed, and spoofs some classic monster movie genre. Maggie's level, where she goes through a matter converter and turns into a fly is obvious, but more obscure references like Plan 9 From Outer Space show up also. Classic characters from the show appear in great bad-guy roles, and you can expect to fend off Principal Skinner, Apu and of course Mr. Burns. Control for each level is determined by the character you play, and it varies wildly. Maggie's level spoofing The Fly is all about flying, a side-scroller that doesn't let you do much except maneuver, while Bart and Homer do a lot of platforming. I won't spoil the others, but there's no fear of getting bored. Not to say that there's something for everyone, because if you're not wild about platforming, you won't have much fun. The majority of the levels require lots of jumping and fighting, not to mention things like falling platforms, timed switches and red-herring pathways. The great thing is how intuitive the controls and level-design turned out to be, and the only bad thing is how fast you finish a level. Leave 'em wanting more, I guess...
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Difficulty:
As I said, die-hard fans of the Platform genre will love this, not only for how true it is to the form, but how much different, fun stuff gets thrown in along with jumping and fighting. People who might not have finished a game like Crash or Rayman will still have a shot at beating this one, but not without a few tries. Luckily, there are power-ups in the form of donuts spread over most levels, and continues help even when the donuts run out. There aren't an infinite number of continues, so write down those passwords!
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Game Mechanics:
Going all the way back to probably 1993, I remember the Simpsons arcade game, which was a side-scrolling fighting game that had 4-Player action and got at least as much playtime as the X-Men and Gauntlet games in my arcade. My friend and I probably blew 5 bucks a piece trying to beat that game, and it was especially fun because each of the family had a unique fighting style modeled on some feature of theirs, like Marge's hair and broom attacks or Bart's skateboard attack. Treehouse of Horror follows similar lines, and while controls are easy to grasp, they're different for each level you play. One of the more interesting is a shoot-em-up level where Marge, armed with something that looks like a ketchup bottle, tackles wave after wave of zombies. The general controls amount to using (B) for jumping and (A) for attacks or items, but different characters use special, level-themed objects and have different means of locomotion. In a world of generally poor manuals, Treehouse of Horror sports a nice description of what you need to do for each level plus hints on some of the more obscure elements you need to win. Besides being a smart, well designed game, Treehouse of Horror is great fun to play whether you're a Simpsons fan or not. Shocking as it may seem, this is one license game that will actually improve the license instead of just ending up a complete embarrassment like most. Plus, you get a cool Simpsons Treehouse of Horror poster in the box, which you'll be proud to display after beating the dark denizens of Springfield and saving the Simpsons from a fate more horrible than smelling one of Barney's beer belches... If you own a GBC, this is one to put on your list, unless you're allergic to all things Platformer. |
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-Fridtjof, GameVortex Communications AKA Matt Paddock |
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