Woo-Hoo! ‘The Simpsons Arcade Game’ Released On Home Consoles For the First Time [REVIEW]

There was a good stretch of time between the 80's and 2000's where every hit arcade game made it's way to a home version. For some reason, The Simpsons Arcade Game was one that missed the boat on being playable at home - until now. For the first time since it's original release in 1991, Konami has released The Simpsons Arcade Game to the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 with plenty to "Woo-Hoo!" about.

The game, itself, is your basic four player simultaneous, side scrolling beat'em up that was one of the most popular genre for it's time. Not that this game needs a plot, but just to give it one, Mr. Smithers steals Maggie Simpson who accidentally had her pacifier swapped out for a diamond. So instead of taking the diamond back, they just stole Maggie. Sounds like the plot of a Simpsons episode to us.

To bring you back to the arcade, this game is set up to make it look like you're playing the old arcade game. This is because the game wasn't built for widescreen. There is an option to remove the arcade 'wallpaper' to just use a black background. There are several other options that you didn't have access to at the arcade such as difficulty level, the option of sharp or smooth sprites for a cleaner look on your home TV and plenty of unlockables that include sound and music tests, stage selections and classic flyers and posters that were made for the original 1991 game.

This game is best played with three other friends. Fortunately, if you don't have three other players handy you can play this game online complete with online scoreboards. A major "D'oh!' with playing online is that there is some major lag time. A good full second of response time from when you hit your button to when they react on the game. I even noticed a few times where the game would just stall as if it were paused for a second. But, this game is a beat'em up so if you have your basic battle plan, which is to just keep walking and pound your enemies, you can struggle through it.

Another thing you have to keep in mind is that it's based on the old arcade game so it will take you about 30-40 minutes from start to end to complete this game. But, for less than $10, we think it's a worthwhile investment to have to your collection.

The Simpsons™ Arcade Game is now available for download on the Xbox LIVE Marketplace for Xbox 360 for 800 Microsoft Points, and for the PlayStation®Network for $9.99.