The Simpsons Board Game

Even though we now live in a computer and console dominated world my boys still love an old fashioned board game. Don't get me wrong they love their X-box but are just as happy to play monopoly, payday, cluedo and a range of the new DVD board games that are taking up space in their bedroom!

My eldest actually got this game for his birthday last year; both my boys are big fans of the Simpson's so when he saw this game advertised he wanted it. As I usually end up having to referee between them when they play these games it also needs to be a game that I would enjoy! I prefer faster paced games that are also fun and do not have to many complicated rules, not that I am thick or anything but my youngest loses interest very quickly so I need to be able to hold his attention.

So did this game tick all the boxes?

CONTENTS

The box itself is a bit different to the one shown in the picture and is very colourful with a picture of a load of Simpson's residents watching the telly in the Simpson's house. The actual game board is very colourful and looks busy, it folds into 4 to fit in the box. You then have 6 pop out character cards, these you then fix into a little plastic holder so they can stand up, you can either be Homer, Marge, Lisa, Bart, Maggie or grandpa.

There is also a dice, number spinner, a pack of Moe's tavern cards and principal Skinners IQ test cards and lot's of pop out small tokens with different pictures on them these are slightly bigger than a penny so I would keep them away from little monsters as they could be easily swallowed.

SETTING UP

One of the great things about this game is there is very little to set up, I can't stand those games where it takes longer to set then the game actually lasts! You just chose who you want to be, or if you are in my house argue for 10 minutes because both the boys want to be Bart! Then after we have sorted that out you each have your tokens that represent your character:

Bart has skateboard tokens
Lisa has saxophone tokens
Marge has string of pearl tokens
Homer has duff beer tokens
Maggie has dummy tokens and
Grandpa has glasses tokens

You then place your character on the Simpson's sofa in the middle of the board and you are then ready to play!

HOW TO WIN

Basically the winner is whoever gets the most of their tokens to fill up the Simpson's front room in the middle of the board; there are 36 squares to fill up. To do this you have to play 2 games, first you move around the inner square with the usual dice and carry out the instruction of the square you land on, this can be anything from getting a token or putting another player back on the settee! Or you can be sent to play one of the mini games, which are on the outside of the board, there are 6 different mini games you can end up in. Pending on which square you land on in the inner square is which of the mini games you play.

THE NUCLEAR POWER PLANT

This is just like snakes and ladders except you go up plutonium rods and down 3-eyed fish! You can also pick up a few tokens here which is good.

FIELD TRIP

This is a betting game and you need the number spinner, you just bet on which number you want the spinner to land on using however many tokens you have accumulated, you don't have to use them all. The higher the number you bet on the more tokens you can win but the sections on the spinner get smaller as the numbers increase.

MOE'S TAVERN KARAOKE

I always seem to spend most of the game in here! Every time you land on a music note you pick up a special Moe card and have to complete the task that corresponds to your character. Sounds easy but you could end up pretending you are a tap dancer and dancing for 1 minute, get 3 ice cubes and juggle them, pretend you are a secret agent until someone throws a 6 and my personal favourite sip water (or vodka if you prefer!) and gargle the national anthem!
For completing your task you receive 1 token.

ELECTED MAYOR

This is the best one to play as you get a lot of tokens and can upset the other players by moving them to other places on the board.

THE KWIK-E-MART

The worst game as most of the spaces mean you have to part with well-earned tokens.

SPRINGFIELD ELEMENTRY

This is another card game, every time you land on a question mark you have to answer a question. Just roll the dice and whichever number comes up is the question you answer, obviously someone else has to read the question as the answer is written in red. The questions are mostly about various Simpson's episodes and you need to be a big fan to be able to answer some of them, the boys usually get them right which has started to get me worried just how much they watch the Simpson's!!!

So that's more or less how you play the game, it's not complicated with lot's of rules and there is enough going on to keep the boys interested and entertained. The Moe's tavern seems to be the one that causes the most laughing, as the boys love seeing mum and occasionally dad having to do really stupid tasks but that all adds to the fun of this game.

This board game is by Winning moves, which I thought must be a new company but apparently not. They are behind some big selling games such as Top trumps which we have a draw full off! And also Sudoku and more surprisingly Monopoly!

This game is for 2-6 players and for ages 8 and over. Currently on good old Amazon the prices range from £8.74 so pretty good value.

So does it tick all the boxes?

In a word yes! It doesn't last for ages and is fast paced, most of the time we end up in fits of giggles with some of the tasks! Obviously it helps if you are a fan of the Simpson's to really enjoy this game especially for answering the questions, I would definitely recommend this game for all ages including grown up fans!