There are plenty of other options from a dozen to a “Boatload” of 2,400. It takes me a few months to earn 50 Donuts the hard way, but EA will happily sell me a tray of 132 for $11.99 (in Canadian dollars). While you are never forced to spend real cash to buy them, it can be awfully tempting. As befits a game centered around the antics of Homer Simpson, the in-game currency is donuts. Of course if EA is hauling in the cash like that on a free game, then it’s obviously a “freemium” game. In its first year (when the game was only available for Apple devices), it had spent all but 12 days on the Top 20 list of top grossing iPhone games in the United States and generated over $100 million in revenue for EA. What you're left with is a parody that's far too close to the real thing for comfort.The Simpsons: Tapped Out is one of the most successful mobile games both in terms of downloads and profitability, and one of those titles that inspires game developers to keep chasing the lucrative iOS and Android market. Much like Homer at the start of the game, all you're doing is tapping on the screen, and deciding whether or not to spend your hard-earned snacks on speeding things up. It barks at you for attention, rewarding constant play but charging you to reap the benefits if you miss a day.Īnd when it comes to the gameplay, there just isn't enough variety to keep you entertained. In the end, though, it all feels a bit too cloying. The Simpsons: Tapped Out wants to let you create and manage your own little Springfield, filling it up with characters you know and love. Most of these are poking fun at you for being conned out of your money by the freemium model, and more often than not they feel mean-spirited rather than satirical. Gameplay is punctuated by occasional jokes from the cast of the show. You'll need to have an Origin account to access the online features, though. You get to earn cash there, too, and your friends can do the same in your version of the town. Once a day you can visit alternate Springfields - either the one the game provides, or one that a friend has created. The same goes for building new structures, which earn you cash and XP in the form of taxation. Tap on one and you'll get a little snatch of not-too-pithy dialogue before that character sets off on his merry way to perform whatever menial task you've set for him.Ĭompleting these tasks can take hours, but - unsurprisingly - adding a liberal dollop of donuts to the mix will speed things up. Quests appear as exclamation marks hanging over characters' heads. If you want the show's big guns, you'll have to spend donuts. Donuts are as rare as a witty turn of phrase, but you can buy them for real life monies.Ĭash buys bog-standard items - the sort of stuff you'll need to make a thriving community full of second-rate characters who aren't that interesting. It's your job to rebuild the fair city however you see fit.Ī tutorial walks you through the ins and outs of town-planning, teaching you how to buy houses, complete quests, and earn the game's two currencies: cash and donuts. There are some jokes, and then a nuclear explosion wipes Springfield from the face of the Earth. The game starts with Homer at work, jabbing at an iPad-like device and commenting about how boring the FarmVille clone he's playing is. The result isn't terrible, if nagging time-sinks are your bag, but it continues the thread of underwhelming games built around one of the biggest names in the entertainment industry. So it's no surprise to see EA hedging its bets with The Simpsons: Tapped Out, a FarmVille clone built around a freemium model that's using its licence as much as its gameplay to drag in the punters. Despite the cartoon family's rampant televisual success, the show's brand of humour has never quite worked in an interactive setting. The Simpsons haven't had the best of luck when it comes to video games.
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