Aside from one-on-one fighting games, another genre that was popular in arcades during the early to mid-90’s was the side scrolling beat ‘em up. Games like Golden Axe, Final Fight, Double Dragon and many others ate up many a gamer’s token back then. One particular standout title was The Simpsons Arcade, which, along with a look and animation that did its source material justice, brought some cool new mechanics to the table and was genuinely fun to play.
Now, EA’s Simpsons Arcade Mobile, available by way of Smart Mobile Games isn’t a direct port of Konami’s arcade classic, but it does its best to capture the overall look and feel of the game it tries pays homage to. The premise is simple, yet quirky: A cabal of major personalities in Springfield come up with a plan to steal Springfield’s natural resources and embed the plans into a flash disk inside a doughnut. Along comes Homer Simpson, thinking the doughnut must be something really special, so he decides to fight his way through hordes of agents and other Simpsons characters to get a hold of the donut.
The game’s control’s are pretty simple. You use the outlying numerical keys (1-9 with the exception of 5) to move Homer around and 5 to attack. Yes, you only control Homer this time around. Don’t worry, the other Simpson family members appear, but only as unique power-ups. For example, picking up the Bart power-up results in Homer carrying him on his shoulders while Bart continuously fires away with his slingshot.
The enemies you encounter here include thugs and agents with varying attacks along with bosses at the end of each level. You can kick, punch, grab, and use items to dispatch enemies. Sadly, there’s not jump button here so aerial attacks are out of the question. The boss battles are also fun since each one has its own unique twist, like any beat ‘em up worth its salt normally has.
In the end, The Simpsons Arcade Mobile is a satisfying, yet slightly limited throwback to that 4-player side scroller we all enjoyed as kids in arcades about roughly two decades ago. It doesn’t carry everything from that old game over, but it does what it can to pay to justify lifting its title from the arcade classic.
