App Review No. 6 The Simpsons Tapped Out

Strong Points:

Lots of content including some of your favourite Simpson characters and buildings

All characters have jobs that relate to their character on The Simpsons

Lots of updates

Lots of quests

Great storyline

Lots of levels and when you get to the highest one you can gain doughnuts (premium currency) for levelling up until the level cap is raised

Characters walk around Springfield making it seem more than just empty buildings

Outside jobs have good animations and can be quite funny

Addictive

Weak Points:

Not all characters have voice acting

When you have so many characters you have to spend about ten minutes on the game to set it up

Buggy

Some premium characters are very expensive

Quests can get repetitive

In-depth Review:

Release Dates:

Europe: February 29, 2012

North America: March 1, 2012

Controls:

Touch to build buildings and click characters

The Simpsons... Da da da da da da da da da da da da. Well you all know the rest. Yes, the hit animated sitcom has decided to make an app. Hooray! Now I know that most TV/ movie/ book tie in games are rubbish but let me tell you first that this is not. 

The setup for the plot is that Homer created a nuclear meltdown at the plant where he works. He did this by ignoring the warning signs (like usual) and by playing a parody of the popular Smurf Village build-em-up game. After spending $1000 on some useless elf berries the plant explodes. 

Everyone is blown out of Springfield, everyone except Homer that is. It is now your job to rebuild Springfield as the Magical Finger from the Sky. As you rebuild famous and not so famous landmarks from the TV show characters start returning. So very soon your Springfield will be teeming with the likes of Marge, Lisa, Bart, Chief Wiggum, Millhouse, Krusty, Apu and... Herman?

The gameplay is very similar to other build-em-up games as explained by Homer in the introductory video. You point and tap and point and tap. The grind money is dollars and the premium currency is donuts. With dollars, you can buy buildings and decorations like normal. With donuts, which you pay for with real life money, you can speed up jobs and builds, buy premium characters, buildings and decorations and you can transfer them into grind money. 

One different thing with Tapped Out is events such as Christmas and 4th of July. These events can last from a week to a month and involve either special quests, costumes or buildings. For some of them you can also get special currency on which you can buy special buildings (Santa Coins) or gather enough to get rewards (Snakes).

In most build-em-up games you use buildings to get money and resources. Tapped Out is different. In Tapped Out you use characters to do jobs and get money. Some buildings such as Cletus's farm do jobs but that is about it. This is good but due to the characters walking around it can take a long time to find them. Also, quests are activated by clicking on the character they relate to rather than automatically activated. This is a problem due to the fact that they can't be tapped if they are doing a job. This drags out the game unnecessarily and requires you to wait or the job to finish in order to start a new quest.

However, there are some bugs with the Origin account meaning you could lose some of your progress or doughnuts. So be wary as this happened to me and I had to make a new Origin account.

Overall this game is great but is one of the slowest build 'em up games I've played. But with the amount of famous faces expect a game of spot the character to ensue.


Rating: 82%

Goodbye for now, Harry

Update:
Up to level 40.
Many characters.
Many buildings.
Many quests.
Many themed updates.
(All in all, a lot of content!)

Update:
Up to level 41
Lots of characters
Lots of buildings
Lots of quests
Lots of themed updates
And 
A new raiding feature
(All in all, even more content than last time!)

Update:
Lots of themed updates, characters and buildings.

Update:
Lots more themed updates, characters and buildings.

Update:
The Sideshow Bob family have come to town and they've brought new buildings, characters, decorations and quest-lines with them! But are they worth dying for?

Updates:
Tap Ball buildings, characters, decorations and quest lines
Springfield Heights - 10+ buildings, 20+ decorations, 50+ new squares of land and a new luxurious beach
A Monorail themed event - with trains, tracks, decorations and buildings
A Halloween themed event - with spooky campfire stories that come to life, new costumes, new Daily Challenges and much more
A Christmas themed event - with upgradeable buildings, gifts, a Holiday storyline, a decorative duel and an ancient Holiday surprise!
Many more levels and characters