I know it's silly.

This is the 4th time I've returned to this game. Idk, it haunts me. I love the show, and this is clearly the best Simpsons game ever made, and I have such sweet memories playing through it. So I just couldn't let go.

That's a good thing though. In my previous three attempts I only played through the early chapters of the game, up to the Lard Lad boss fight. This time I played it to completion, which illuminated several things to me:

1. I stand by all my previous criticisms of the gameplay. It's ridiculous just how janky and poorly thought-out it is. But kinda what I realized in my current playthrough is that this game is not about platforming or combat. It's not even about puzzles really. It's about creating situations and making the Simpsons characters (and the player) work together to solve them. The frustration it causes is part of the experience. I don't know whether this was intentional or not, but I suspect it is. The Simpsons were designed as flawed characters and this might be a way of reaffirming that, when even with superpowers they're still kinda incompetent. It might also be trying to convey something about how difficulties and frustrations in life (especially family life) can lead to a more rewarding outcome. The game is structured like an adventure with a huge variety of tasks, seemingly designed specifically to be memorable rather than fun. Upon completion levels truly feel like obstacles that you've overcome.

2. This game is so ridiculously meta. Everything in it, from the story to the mechanics and presentation. It literally has the comic book guy tell you how everything in it is a cliche. Which, to further add to my previous point, the Simpsons as super-powered video game characters might just be one big parody. The game constantly pokes fun at itself, including its gameplay, structure, story, developers and publisher (EA), as well as the player.

3. It has a lot of commentary on the nature of video games as a medium. It talks about the ephemeral present state of video games and the importance of their preservation; how games have evolved and how priorities of players and developers have changed; the ethics of commercialization/licensing; and it includes a lot of mini-games that ape/satirize important games throughout history. Overall it feels like a love-letter to the medium, perhaps even more so than a love-letter to the Simpsons (even though it does have a lot of references to the show, which are nice to see).

That being said, I still can't rate it higher than this. No matter how meta and intentional the flawed gameplay is, it's still flawed. Also, despite having a generally well-written and fun story with several memorable locations from the show, I feel like it gets too crazy and fantastical. The original show is very grounded and mostly tackles issues of everyday life: family, school, work, etc. This whole game feels like a huge epic Treehouse of Horror episode, except it's not horror-themed.

One thing I can finally say is I think I've resolved my inner conflict of wanting to love this game and being unable to. I think I've come to accept it for what it is and made my peace with it.

This was one of seven games that kept haunting me. I've been meaning to rethink my approach because I couldn't reconcile my feelings with my direct experiences. I think this playthrough gave me a new framework through which to analyze those or at least attempt to see them from a new angle and try to identify what keeps bringing me back to them.