Crapshoot: Virtual Springfield reminds the Simpsons that it’s good
From 2010 to 2014 Richard Corbett Wrote Crapshoot, a column about craps to make random and obscure games reappear. This week, they will never stop “The Simpsons”-but in the mid-90s, oh, how should they stop the game. With one possible exception…
It is said that every generation is buried in a bunch of terrible, terrible licensed games, and there will be… well, a diamond is driving it. Maybe emeralds? It may be topaz. In any case, it’s not just another licensed Klapola. Encountered a game in 1997. It looked at the available technologies and thought, “Do you know? I can actually do some cool things with it.”
The Simpsons game. No matter how many you think there are, oh, I’m sure there are more. Thankfully, few of them succeeded in getting into the PC, but console gamers in the 90s faced a full-scale minefield of Bart Simpson’s face-as a result, most of them came from the early years of the show, before everyone realized that Homer was actually Is the protagonist.
Konami’s arcade game Still one of the most memorable people, with its surreal glory. Bart and the Space Mutants Very bad, but at least in an interesting way. At least, it is unique.
After that…oh boy.A lot of names like Krusty’s Happy House, And a collection of scary mini-games such as Virtual Bart with Bart’s nightmare, And things that are completely forgotten, such as Escape the deadly camp, Not to mention something that apparently no one is involved or even a little interested in. Bart and Beanstalk,anyone there?Science has objectively proven There is no reason for this game to exist.
Unfortunately, the PC was not spared, although it did escape most of the bullets. On the contrary, in the heyday of the multimedia age of “Hey, we can put a lot of nonsense on the CD”, it acquired Virtual Springfield, one of the least-known Simpsons games, but it still brought “The Simpsons” to the electronics One of the best attempts of the game.
Well, to a certain extent. Really, there are not many “games” here. Some, not much. The basic goal is to collect approximately 70 cards throughout the town. What makes it cool?Actually Wandering whole city.
For fans of the show, this is great. Of course, there has never been a “correct” map of Springfield. This is a town built on negative continuity, even before it was moved along the road by a trailer after it was buried in trash. However, Virtual Springfield offers one with mysterious street exploration, adventure game interiors, and some of the worst mini-games created by humans or beasts-but the mini-game starring The Simpsons is about five Personally, it’s still cool for a few minutes or so. This may not sound like much, but it takes about five minutes longer than most other attempts.
(Not to mention more than Dilbert’s table game.)
It works because it actually feels alive. You have no freedom of movement and can only enter the few buildings you see-obvious buildings such as The Simpson House, Nuclear Power Plant, Krusty Studios, and Moe’s Tavern-but you can wander on the street and the characters keep driving past and suddenly line up , Or do something in the background. At least, to a level that can be achieved with pre-rendered graphics.Their animation quality is Exceed Scary, but at least the voice actors are appearing to record new lines instead of just relying on dialogue torn from the old episode.
The attention to detail makes exploration interesting. Entering Kwiki-Mart, the background tune is the Muzak version of Baby On Board-this barbershop song made Homer and his colleagues world-famous about the seventh time in the show. Open the freezer at the back, the secret passage is there, and you can visit Apu’s roof garden. There are 13 mock covers on the magazine shelf, including Queen Victoria’s Secret (“What’s under that dress? Another dress!”), annoying colleague magazines, and bison lovers.
This is not a situation where every pixel hides a joke, but in Virtual Springfield’s approximately three screens, there are more of them than many other entire comedy games.
However, when you go to The Simpson House, things are indeed a bit creepy. It’s nothing public, just realizing that you are not a real family guest or anything, walking silently from room to room, prying open their things in an orderly way, reminiscent of… oh … Dexter Morgan is investigating a potential killing. Look at Maggie here. She was obviously afraid of lunatics.
This feeling will get worse when you go upstairs, when Lisa calls the Corey hotline and sends out a long “UURRRRRRRRH” satisfaction, stands quietly, or glances at it and says, “I I don’t know if I am happy or ashamed of your obvious need to dig deep into my heart…” Or realize that the criminal snake is in the bathroom. The cellmate in the forest? who knows?only shadow.
If you need to urinate yourself, it is a very bad idea to urinate in front of your PC. seriously. Electricity. You fool. However, to view the bathrooms approved by the Simpsons, you have no choice but to go to the ensuite bathrooms of Homer and Marge. You will find it on the toilet…oh my…
…
No, wait, it’s okay. It turns out it’s just a magazine like this:
Well, except…
Even with this original animation, Virtual Springfield can only squeeze so much content on its CD. Soon it will wear out what it offers, see all the jokes, and begin to yearn for an era where an open world not only allows killing on the street, but actually won’t bother in the end. If you really buy it through a real game, you will be disappointed.
Unless that game is Riven.
Nonetheless, this is a rare example of a multimedia game, and it should look up for the right reason, rather than making it easier to be chopped off and thrown into a convenient cesspit. This is also a reminder of the actually good days of the Simpsons. Those days seem to be how long ago, unless of course you are crazy or don’t have the taste of a professional firework devourer.