The Simpsons is probably one of the greatest TV shows ever. This satirical animated take on Middle America has remained one of the most popular and even important shows in the last 11-12 years. Many years ago a handful of silly Simpsons arcade games hit the arcades, when there were arcades to go to, and you could play as your favorite Simpsons family member in what was a simple action game. These arcade games weren't horrible, they were just silly, and back then, the whole Simpsons thing was still quite fresh, so the arcade games were somehow more entertaining.

With the huge rise in the popularity of wrestling on TV, many game companies have tried to cash in on wrestling games, and almost all of the games, whether they were trash or pure gold, made their respective companies money, hand over fist. So, if you were a business and you owned the Simpsons license, like Fox does, wouldn't you just put two and two together, and make a Simpsons wrestling game? It's a natural and simple formula for cash. Well, Fox has done it, but they couldn't have handled it any worse than they did.

What the Simpsons Wrestling represents is the kind of throwback license shovelware that Acclaim used to crank out back in the Genesis days. The Simpsons Wrestling is not only one of the ugliest games I have ever seen, but also it's a disaster in just about every other respect. The paper-thin disguise that this "thing" is a game is so blatantly obvious that even a blind man could see through it. In short, The Simpsons Wrestling is garbage.

Gameplay

I can see it now: Some marketing guy is sitting at his big shiny desk thinking about having to make even more money off the Simpsons... he sits back for about one second and asks himself what's the other most popular show on TV. The answer comes quick, and he makes a short call to his secretary, and they organize a quick meeting with a producer, who sheepishly agrees to handle the project. Simpsons plus wrestling equals easy cash. It'll be great, Homer will throw Willy, Marge will do something with her hair, Bart, skateboard, Lisa, saxophone, Barney, beer, etc. It's not actually a bad idea, you know? I mean, it could be quite fun. Only in reality, Simpsons Wrestling is merde.

The only wrestling part of this game is that there are two characters in a ring, with ropes, and they each have a few attack moves. The rest is just spin. This is really an action game with simplistic controls, eye-piercingly-horrific animation, poor control, and a bunch of ridiculously lame "wrestling" moves that even most wrestling fans would call "fake." The game has a few modes, Practice, New Challenger Circuit, Champion Circuit, and Defender Circuit.

Players are given a weird, faux ECW Revolution-control scheme that's loose and sloppy, along with a fluid health meter, that constantly moves up and down depending on your performance, and what appears to be a momentum meter above it. New move buttons (such as Circle, Square, etc.) flash on screen indicating their availability. Players can grapple and throw, and use the ropes and set up clothes lines -- if they're lucky. Pulling of moves worthwhile moves in this game is actually totally worthless because one is no better than the other. Random power-ups and letters appear onscreen to break up the monotonous exercise in button mashing (which is all that's needed to beat the game), along with the use of the special button, to make things a little more exciting. But they're all just excuses for the lack of gameplay; the game needs much more than funny, random little power-ups to keep it from sinking.

Essentially, everything about this game stinks like old fish. There is no wrestling in this game, per say. It's all about smashing buttons and not having any skill whatsoever, versus, say, knowing moves, using timing, and using the crowd as a kind of extra move, when the going gets rough. The collision detection is horrible, the animation is choppy and ugly, the moves themselves -- such as Grounds keeper Willy's rake spin -- is almost worthless, and anything but the basic smack is a waste of energy.

But the Simpson are loveable, somehow, and this game is perhaps, maybe, possibly worth renting (maybe) if you're a diehard Simpsons fan and you're absolutely, depressingly lonely and bored. Most of the good characters can be found here, including the first selectable eight: Homer, Bart, Marge (and Maggie as part of a team), Ground Keeper Willie, Krusty, Barney, Apu, and Lisa. And then at least four others are opened up when a match is won, including characters such as Bumblebeeman. The only worthwhile aspect of the game is watching their taunts and opening lines. They're at least worth seeing once, and then it's all down hill from there.

Graphics

Creating graphics for the Simpsons should have been a piece of cake. They're already simple characters to draw, and with flat-shaded polygons, and simple design, and they could have easily, easily looked just like the characters on the TV screen. But lo and behold, these characters look absolutely terrible. They're choppy looking, the character outlines are broken up, and the collision detection makes it so that every other hit, punch, throw, or pin, especially near the ropes, presents a graphic nightmare. The game doesn't appear in any shape or form to be complete, either. The animation is absolutely schlock. And of course, even the framerate is even bad. This looks like some sloppy college kid who couldn't even draw sketched the who game out in a mad 15-minute frenzy right before deadline. It's a pathetic looking title.

Sound

In what appears to be the best part of the game, the real actors from the show were able to lend their talent to Simpsons Wrestling. The voices are great, although, it would have been nice to hear even more of them. The intro scenes, the taunts, and the victory speeches are the only valuable aspects of the game, and that's being extremely lenient. The fact is, it's more fun to simply watch and listen to an old Simpsons show than to play this so-called "game." As for the music...what can I say? Some of it sounds like disco porn, while other songs are just generic rock filler.