In the interest of catching up on my backlog of video games, I whipped together three to make one article because I recently rented one and completed two others a while back. Again, I didn’t have as much time and energy as I hoped for during my vacation in Florida.
I’ll start off with one that may be on many people’s short list for Christmas, The Simpsons Game which is out for all the major platforms. It’s a huge disappointment and a major exercise in futility. I doubt playing it on the latest PS3 or Xbox 360 could’ve improved the experience over my PS2. Normally anything for the Simpsons is a me-too game derived from other successful ideas but at least they’re focused. This one is all over the place making fun of all games: the cliches, the concepts, famous characters, etc. I think it’s terrible because it violates a major rule Matt Groening wanted to avoid with his creation, breaking the fourth wall and the characters know they’re in a show, or a game in this case. The times his objections were overcome, the writers gave the world a couple great episodes. On this one, Groening should’ve been adamantly against it. The premise is built around Bart finding the instructions to a game based on him and his family. So he chooses to put his new found powers as Bartman to good use alongside Homer’s ball ability, Lisa’s levitation and Marge’s mob summoning. Section by section the larger story is revealed as they’re completed through very tedious, counterintuitive solutions. Its mechanics are also over sensitive—characters fall off objects rather easily. The Onion’s review said it best, this game should’ve be scrapped during its beta stages.
Now if you’re looking for a sure stocking stuffer or whichever holiday is appropriate, Lego Star Wars II is a great time killer. The player just runs through the story lines of the first (and better) trilogy in Lego form: defeating the Empire, collecting bricks, building equipment needed to solve certain stages and watching funny little movies bridging the sequences together—the characters never speak, they use a series of grunts and mumbling. It may be designed for little kids because the player never runs out of lives but it’s great fun at any age. Once the story lines are over, you can go back and replay all the sections with different characters instead; Darth Vader trying to escape from the Tantive IV was highly amusing. It has some puzzle elements involving doors which only open for those wearing Stormtrooper helmets or you have to be a droid. My favorite part is the segue movie of Vader explaining how he’s Luke’s father by holding up Polaroid pictures of Padme and Anakin. It’s a solid game for everybody and with it at the new $20 price point, a bargain.
Finally, I defeated what has appeared to be the last title of the Sly Cooper franchise. I haven’t read anything about a fourth game like Ratchet & Clank received on the PS3. I think they predicted my complaints from Sly 2 with all the changes in 3, no more redundant recon missions, taking pictures, so on. Instead the story begins with Sly infiltrating the grand vault of his family. Currently it’s guarded by a mad scientist primate and as Sly is about to be devoured by a giant minion, the game jumps into a flashback of how Sly, Bentley and Murray got into this mess with their new, larger gang. When the 2 ended, it was on a sour note; the trio defeated the new Clockwerk but at the price of Bentley being paralyzed from the waist down. Murray blamed himself for Bentley’s injury so he quit the gang as the exposition shows. Sly and Bentley then travel to Venice to convince Murray to rejoin them if they defeat the local opera-singing villain. It carries on with the trio globetrotting to recruit additional experts Sly will need to defeat the Cooper Vault’s security measures. Two of these missions involve turning former foes from Sly 1 and 2 into partners. It also has the player solving stages as all of these characters at specific points due to their unique powers so it has expanded beyond the original trio. The developer also got rid of the annoying bottle collecting to unlock secret moves which I always found extraneous (I solved both predecessors without needing them). It had some fun touches they did keep from 2 such as hitting certain button combos to make Bentley sing in an opera competition or Sly saying different insults to gain a pirate captain’s trust. Lastly there’s a mini-game inside of Sly commanding a warship against other pirates for points or coins. Overall, it was a relatively easy game to solve and probably will only interest those who played the prequels.