Early hype for The Simpsons Game promised it would be a clever, Simpsons-style satire-from-within about the game industry. Instead, it's blunt, dumb, ridiculous, and almost never funny. Never mind that this action platformer is buggy, dull, and handles like wet cardboard, or that the faces look like they were drawn on an Etch-A-Sketch. A weak game could pass, if only it had some good laughs.
On television, The Simpsons appeals to all ages: 2-year-olds can dig the slapstick while their great-grandparents catch jokes about the Hoover era. Yet The Simpsons Game aims for the preteens, with aliens probing anuses, stock character dialogue (Lisa "likes homework"), and tired pop-culture references, like a movie marquee announcing Siskel And Ebert: The Movie. (Who'd play Siskel?) The characters admit the story makes no sense, which doesn't give it a pass, and the running gag about "videogame clichés" doesn't excuse designers for leaning hard on every one of them. It's hard to laugh your way through a disaster if your jokes aren't funny, and when even Ralph Wiggum can't get a good line, you know they should have killed this turkey at beta.