The Simpsons Game
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Bart: The only Simpsons Game we play is the one where we pretend Homer isn't an alcoholic. |
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The Simpsons Game is a platformer based on The Simpsons. It's also an Affectionate Parody of loads and loads of other games, and lampshades just about every Trope they can think to lampshade.
Each character has their own special powers: Homer can become a giant belly and smash into things; Bart becomes Bartman, and is able to glide and shoot with his slingshot; Lisa can harness the power of the Buddha and stun enemies with her saxophone; and Marge can rally up supporters and is able to send Maggie into small gaps.
During the game, Bart finds the manual to The Simpsons Game, from which the family discovers their superpowers. Soon afterwards, there is an Alien Invasion. After that, the family is sucked into their computer and starts playing through levels based on other video games. Finally, they attack the fortress of the creator, Matt Groening, and ultimately make a stairway to heaven in order to battle William Shakespeare, Benjamin Franklin, and God.
Notable that it came out a few months after The Simpsons Movie was released, although they aren't connected beyond both being The Simpsons [Media]. Also gets points for having both the writers and the original voice cast brought on to help with its development.
Tropes used in The Simpsons Game include:
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Lisa: It's the mother ship! |
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- Affectionate Parody: Of just about everything.
- Alien Invasion
- Anal Probing: A conversation between two alien Mooks in the Alien Invasion level,
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Alien 1: This human has tiny pieces of paper which gives him big, big savings. We must study him! |
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- Anti-Hero: Homer and Bart.
- Art Evolution: The cutscenes are animated in the style of the show, instead of using the game engine, and they had to be done in High-Definition for the Play Station 3 and Xbox 360. On top of that, the first level is "The Land of Chocolate", previously seen in a dream sequence from the 1991 episode Burns Verkaufen der Kraftwerk.
- Badass Family
- Badass Normal: Obviously Parodied by Bart's Powers
- Balloon Belly: Homer's powers.
- Berserk Button: If the alien had known anal probing happened to be his berserk button, then maybe Cletus would’ve just left. Well, because they did it anyways, cue Cletus.
- Biting the Hand Humor: While the original show constantly mocks Fox, the game constantly mocks EA.
- Bottomless Pits
- Bragging Rights Award: Getting all the collectibles gives the Simpsons unlimited energy for their attacks.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall:
- The Simpsons family are quite aware they're in a Video Game.
- One with hilariously self-referential cutscenes.
- Though apparently the Sea Captain is the only one who's aware of the series it's based on.
- Ralph Wiggum is aware that "someone's looking at me!"
- The Simpsons family are quite aware they're in a Video Game.
- Brick Joke: In Bartman Begins, the mastermind behind the robbery is revealed to be Skinner. In Mob Rules, he is a recruitable character, and is found in front of the museum he tried to rob.
- During the first cutscene of The Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game, Homer refuses to eat any sushi ("unless it's full of chocolate and there's no sushi in it"). The only available food in the level is sushi, and he eats it anyway. This is just a gameplay mechanic, but it's still hilarious.
- The Cameo: Sideshow Bob is working with Kang & Kodos. Bart lampshades how weird it is that he'd be working with the aliens; Bob advises Bart to "Try not to think about it too much, and instead just focus on what an unexpected treat it is to see me here".
- Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: The French villagers in Medal Of Homer play this trope straight to a frankly absurd degree. Young Abraham Simpson even calls the French like this in the same segment.
- Just to be clear about this, the first mission in the level is a Fetch Quest to remove all the white flags from a French city.
- Cliché Storm: One of the collectibles in the game is "Video Game Cliché Moments", as pointed out by Comic Book Guy.
- Crossover: Near the end of the game, The Simpsons fight the characters from Futurama
- Namely, Bender and Dr. Zoidberg clones in the Groening mansion, where they're summoned by none other than the man himself.
- Damn You, Muscle Memory!: There is a Dance Dance Revolution parody/ShoutOut in the final level of the game, but the arrows are in the wrong place for those familiar with the real game. It should be left-down-up-right, EA Games, not left-right-up-down!
- Double Jump
- Eiffel Tower Effect: The Around the World in 80 Bites episode.
- Escort Mission: Medal of Homer has one. Abe lampshades it and Comic Book Guy declares it the Worst Video Game Cliché Ever.
- Exploding Barrels: "Frustrating and AND hackneyed"
- Genre Savvy
- Glass Cannon: Bart has the easiest reload rate for his shots and can crank up charged attacks in quick succession that way, but beyond that his powers aren't as adept in fighting as the others.
- Gotta Catch Em All: Each character has a set of items to collect in each level.
- Groin Attack: At the end of "Shadow of the Colossal Donut", when Bart and Homer take down the Lard Lad Donuts mascot statue, Homer continually pounds the fallen statue in the crotch, with Bart telling him to show some dignity in victory.
- Helium Speech: Occurs when Homer inflates himself.
- Humanoid Female Animal: The orange female prostitute cats look more humanoid than Scratchy.
- Interspecies Romance: Professor Frink's relationship with his new turtle bride.
- Invisible Wall: Because the game doesn't go on forever.
- Lampshade Hanging: The Clichés, obviously.
- Lethal Lava Land: "It's not that original."
- Levels Take Flight: A fight occurs on a flying boat.
- Lightning Bruiser: Homer, his main power makes that he can easily bash into enemies at incredible speeds.
- Mini Game: The Simpsons Game.
- Mythology Gag
- No Fourth Wall
- Palette Swap
- Petting Zoo People: The orange female prostitute cats
- The Power of Jazz: Lisa can knock people out with a few notes on her saxophone.
- Power-Up: Every family member has one that makes them deal more damage as well as being temporarily invincible.
- Rage Against the Author: Simpsons vs Groening. After beating him up, the family call him out for milking their franchise.
- Rage Against the Heavens: When defeating Groening doesn't stop the chaos in Springfield, they take it the one person more powerful than him - God.
- Respawning Enemies: "Infinite bad guys from a small door. Way to rip off the clown car."
- RPG Episode: Homer and Marge go through a level called "Neverquest" and Homer and Lisa go through JRPG battles in "Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game".
- Self-Deprecation: Matt Groening's cameo.
- With a hell of a Take That in the mix:
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Matt Groening: "Your creator is TV's most beloved animation visionary!" |
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- Shout-Out: To a metric ton of other video games. Even Hotel Mario, when the Mario Expy says at the end "I hope it's a-spaghetti!". Not a lot of tropers are willing to describe them, but you have a list of them in The simpsons wiki. [1]
- Slippy-Slidey Ice World
- Slogan Yelling Megaphone Guy: Marge.
- Squishy Wizard: Lisa with her Buddha Hand power is the most powerful member of the family, but her physical durability and as her physical attacks are no better than the rest of her family, and she needs to be near a Buddha statue in order use her powers.
- Space X:
- "I told you to pick up your space-rake!"
- "Space me agrees!"
- Super Drowning Skills: It's not the sequel yet.
- This Loser Is You: Oddly enough, God fills this role.
- Trailers Always Spoil: Sideshow Bob is revealed as working with Kang & Kodos for the purpose of making a cameo. This would be a surprise... If the game's advertising didn't mention the surprise cameo whilst showing the character's distinctive silhouette.
- Versus Character Splash: In Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game, when you fight the Sparklemons.
- Video Game Cruelty Potential: You can beat up and knock out characters walking around Springfield. You can have Homer beat the crap out of Sherri and Terri.
- Video Game Tutorial: Because you wouldn't read the manual.
- Weak but Skilled: Marge's powers arguably make her the most powerful member of her family (except maybe Lisa, who even then has a restriction to when she uses her powers), she can gather supporters of endless proportions and get plenty of help in situations she couldn't handle by herself. The game makes that civilians cannot die no matter what, so whenever a supporter is defeated, you can just recruit back into your cause. You can essentially prepare an army of your choice and size.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Marge has the power to bend people to her will, which she uses to create a mob who destroy a bunch of Video Game merchandise and advertisements, as well as beating a bunch of innocents in the process. She does this in the name of censorship.
- Widget Series: "Big Super Happy Fun Fun Game" is a pastiche of weird Japanese video games, including references to Pokémon and Katamari Damacy.
- Worst Whatever Ever
- Would Hit a Girl: Playing as either Marge or Lisa won't protect you from the enemies anymore than Bart or Homer.
- Would Hurt a Child: Enemies don't seem to have a problem with attacking Bart and Lisa. Marge and her mob sure don't have a problem with beating up kids buying Itchy and Scratchy.