The Simpsons: Tapped Out

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on November 30, 2012

The Simpsons have become ingrained in our culture since they first premiered on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987 (we're showing our age here), so it seems fitting that they move to the 21st century by appearing in an iOS game. Sadly, though, for such a funny and entertaining television show, The Simpsons Tapped Out is one of the more boring iOS game apps we've tested.

When we started The Simpsons Tapped Out, we had to wait about five minutes for 28 updates to download. But once it started, we were greeted with a short scene of Homer at work in the nuclear power plant just as it suffered a meltdown and took out Springfield. As Homer, it's your job to rebuild the city. We couldn't find any kind of directions to help us start out on the right foot, so we just tapped around until a menu came up. Our first task was to "rebuild" our house, which consisted of selecting it from a menu and placing it where it told us to. That's it. After that, we had to keep tapping our screen to read a conversation between Homer and Lisa that went on way too long. Our next task was to build a road in front of our house, which, again, involved selecting it from a menu and placing it where it told us to. The game does include other building choices, but they were all locked. And here's the crazy thing: you can buy donuts for Homer (though we're still not sure how they benefitted him), but they'll cost you - literally. If you want a Boatload of 2400 Donuts, it'll set you back $99.99 - and that's real money, not Simpsons money. We were too nervous to tap around too much out of fear that we'd tap the wrong thing and get charged for it. One more thing: don't let your phone fall asleep or you'll have to wait about 30 seconds for it to load up again, and a few times, we had to start the game over because it wouldn't go back to our current spot.

We like a good building game as much as anyone, but they only work well when you have a choice in design and placement. The Simpsons Tapped Out left us bored and tapped out of patience. We recommend you skip this dud.