2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

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VideoGameCritic
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby VideoGameCritic » April 4th, 2012, 5:02 pm

I was totally psyched about this one, but ultimately disappointed.  Even my friends (who are rabid Simpsons fans) were lukewarm on this.

Fingersdrippingink1
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby Fingersdrippingink1 » April 4th, 2012, 6:37 pm

Another arcade giant done wrong. Sigh...back to MAME!

mesk1
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby mesk1 » April 4th, 2012, 8:01 pm

I have had it with old arcade game sported to live.They screwed up Xmen and now they have messed up The Simpsons.Oh well guess I will continue to play on MAME,in fact I think I will play it now!



Leo1
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby Leo1 » April 5th, 2012, 4:24 am

The game itself sounds intact, so I'm not sure why you two think it has been done wrong.

Only negatives I saw in the review were that you can't select in-game how many credits to restrict yourself too (Hardly a huge problem) and it has an online scoreboard instead of a local. Neither strikes me as crippling problems.

And I've never played this nor have any intentions to, but a quick look on YouTube seems to contradict the review. A bit over two and a half minutes into the attract mode, arcade and XBLA, the high score table is shown.

I suspect if you guys watch it for a while that the high score table will still be there (Although watching videos, I don't see how you enter your initials at the start of a play through so I assume you do that once and it remembers them for you like something like Outrun 2006 does).

Verm1
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby Verm1 » April 5th, 2012, 8:28 am

The critic has a big aversion to online based high scores (vs local). Always has done.

JustLikeHeaven1
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby JustLikeHeaven1 » April 5th, 2012, 9:36 am

My biggest pet peeve with these games is that they always offer terrible options when it comes to the credits.  I don't mind unlimited credits.  Just force me to start at the beginning of the stage if I die.  Put some challenge into the game.  If you can just mindlessly button mash through the game with little to no effort than whats to stop you?  I know you can counter with "Just limit yourself to 10 credits", but I'm WEAK!  It's like they built the game with the game genie cheats permanently turned on and my inner 12 year old can't stop abusing it.  It's like turning on your tv and the porn channel is on for free...you don't just change the channel it might never come back on!  It's like opening up your box of cheerios and when you pour it out you are rewarded with crispy bacon in your bowl instead.  It's like............

Paul1231
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby Paul1231 » April 5th, 2012, 12:04 pm

[QUOTE=Leo]
Only negatives I saw in the review were that you can't select in-game how many credits to restrict yourself too (Hardly a huge problem)
[/QUOTE]

Aaaaaaaaaaand that's where you err.  That is probably the single change that can be made to many games that can suck the most fun out of them. 

We had an arcade in my neighborhood growing up called Wunderland.  All the games ran on nickels, which was the perfect combination of affordability and challenge, at least for me.  I used to go with a friend about once a week.  It had two floors, a ton of games, and I could easily spend all day there an not get to everything.  It was awesome. 

Then one day we went there and they had changed to an admission/all games free system.  At first we were totally excited, but after about half the normal time we were both ready to go home, and we never went back.  Without the concern of running out of nickels, there was much less incentive to put everything  you had into each game.  Sure, a couple of my absolute favorites were still fun, and there were some games that were programmed properly to be challenging no matter what, but for the most part, alot of the thrill was gone.

A big part of it is that in arcade games, you tend to continue EXACTLY where you left off because the game sat there frozen in time until you inserted another coin.  A game like Ninja Gaiden on the NES can have unlimited continues and still be challenging because it forces your back to the beginning of the stage.  Added incentive, big difference.

Just knowing the Simpsons game does not have an appropriate continue system set up makes me have no desire to get it, because I remember the game and how monotonous and dull it would be after a while a button mashing without having to worry about how many hits I took or how many lives I lost.

Leo1
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby Leo1 » April 5th, 2012, 10:38 pm

You can still limit yourself. Heck, break out something like 50 cents in nickels and put them in front of you and remove one each time you insert another credit to bring back that nostalgia. Simply don't insert another one when you run out of nickels and let the timer count down. So while I can see room for criticism here, I still stand by what I said. It's easily handled by the gamer if you want to limit yourself to 1, 5, or 10 credits or whatever amount you prefer.

I've yet to encounter something that automatically will insert another credit for you and hit continue. Now that's a significant problem if that was the case.

And different opinions again, but I want the arcade experience replicated at home. If the arcade original doesn't do it, I don't want it. So as a rule, if this let you start off where you died in the arcades, that's how I personally want to see a home conversion that is trying to provide the arcade original do it as well.

Number1Star1
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby Number1Star1 » April 6th, 2012, 1:06 am

Unlimited credits ruin beat em ups. This game was overrated to begin with due to nostalgia most people have for it.

Paul1231
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2012/4/4: Xbox 360: The Simpsons Arcade Game

Postby Paul1231 » April 6th, 2012, 2:45 am

While what you said would seem to make sense to the casual observer, I have tried many versions of what you suggested, many times, and it is simply not the same.  I can't explain why.... it just doesn't do it.  Maybe that's just for me, though.  I'd be interested to know if anybody else is able to get the same kind of satisfaction out of an unlimited-continue-type game by creating pretend mental limitations on yourself....


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