Unique Character Abilities - While The Simpsons family have general abilities that can be used to fight opponents, interact with environments, and finish puzzles, each one has been imbued with special abilities that are unique to their personalities.

The Real Simpsons - With the actual voice actors from the TV show and movie reprising their roles, characters from The Simpsons Game sound exactly as they should.

Play Your Favorite Characters - Battle enemies and save Springfield while playing as your favorite dysfunctional TV family: Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and even Maggie Simpson.

Fans of the show will not be disappointed, but realize that you're coming for the jokes, the gameplay is merely a vessel to get you there. If you do need your Simpsons on-the-go, this is as competent a port as one could have hoped for on the PSP, and has most of the goodness present in its bigger brothers. The humor is what fans game to see, and you'll find it easier to get to all the enjoyable parts if you aren't constantly fighting with the camera. Though an enjoyable romp, there's no way to recommend the PSP version over one of the console iterations of The Simpsons Game. With a six hour game, that kind of replay value is just a little hard to swallow. Unless you're the type of gamer who needs to find every single bottle cap, you won't see much reason to give the game more than a single play through though. Some replay value is provided through the 'clichés,' some time-attack goals, and different collectibles for each character to find within the levels. Seasoned gamers will blaze through without much trouble in a six hour session or so. The lack of multiplayer is another downer, as romping through the game with a buddy on-the-go would seem a good fit for this type of game.

Though not game-breaking, Simpsons fans will surely want to be able to explore the game to its fullest and would be much better served by another system in that regard. The large, free-roaming version of Springfield used as your hub for accessing missions on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions is taken out, one can only assume due to system limitations. Outside of the camera issues, the game controls well, and is another example of why the PSP either needs a second analog or developers need to shop shoe-horning their console titles onto the handheld.Ī couple things taken out on the PSP version are another disappointment. The inability to turn your character and the camera at the same time makes many of the Bartman flying areas near-impossible, and many other areas of the title much more difficult than necessary.

The console iterations were hard enough to function the camera, and in the PSP version it's game breaking in many areas. The controls are another issue altogether.

The simpsons game review