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Game Play/App Functionality
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Graphics Interface
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Replayability/Options/Add-ons
Homer accidentally caused a meltdown that wiped out Springfield and it’s up to you to rebuild it from scratch. The game is filled with endless mini-quests and objectives and all of the characters and places from the long-running FOX animated series.
App Name: The Simpsons: Tapped Out
Developer: EA Games
Cost: Free
Market: Google Play
The Simpsons: Tapped Out is a fun, fantasy, SimCity-type of game where you can build Springfield to your likeness. Playing The Simpsons: Tapped Out is like watching an episode of the show on television with inclusions of iconic places from the series such as Lard Lad Donuts and Krustyland. The game breaks down the fourth wall with the characters’ dialogue the characters being aware of the fact that they are in the game.
Tapped Out is filled with multiple missions and objectives created to upgrade your city, earn more cash, donuts and experience points to level up and buy more special items and buildings. You are awarded cash and points by doing mundane tasks from building a house to getting Lisa to sit and read. The game play is very slow at first with what seems to be an endless number of tutorials, but once you play through level 5, you will be off and running.
From time-to-time (beginning in level 5), you might want to check your “Conform-O-Meter”. The Conform-O-Meter is essentially your town’s overall rating based on eight factors: indolence, consumerism, tree-hugging, vanity, obedience, gluttony, righteousness and socialism. This is a very useful feature in the game to check on the state of your town and to give you hints and tips on how to improve and what you can add to Springfield. Loyal players can benefit more from this game and can gain more money by earning daily progressive rewards.
My issues with the game lie within the app’s reliance on data signal and/or Wi-Fi usage. Sadly, there is no offline mode for this game and the only way you can play is if you have Internet access on your mobile device. This might pose an issue for people who may have used up their data plan for the month or simply don’t have it. In this game, playing online should be an option and not a voluntary feature. The app is only 53MB large; however, with the added updates, it’s over 246MB and you need a Wi-Fi to download it to preserve your data plan. It will also take a while for the game to download all of the updates when first opening the app.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out requires a lot of in-game maintenance and a lot of work like any other open-ended, city building game, game always keeps you busy with endless tasks. As I have previously stated, the only improvements I would make is created an offline mode to accompany the online mode and make it more of a social game by having the ability to visit other players’ maps, similar to the World’s Biggest PAC-MAN Website. The HD graphics run smoothly and there is no limit to how large you can make Springfield.
