The concept of the game is simple: someone has kidnapped baby Maggie. The family teams up to hunt her down. An easy day's adventure, right? Not quite. You're faced with all the Simpsons' worst nightmares, from Homer's boss to the principal, to, horrors of all horrors, Lisa's saxophone! Luckily, you have more than you're bare arms to work with. Bart has his skateboard, Lisa her jump-rope, and Marge, her vacuum. Also, along the trial you can pick up all sorts of items, ranging from slingshots to tin cans.
You're characters have a cross between the "life's blood" and multiple-dudes life system. You can choose any one of the four Simpsons' family members, each with three 'lives'. Each time you're hit, you loose some strength. No problem, it can be replenished by food found sitting around in places ranging from a bar to a trash can. Some enemies do more danger than the other. It really smarts to see Bart yell "I'm toast, man" a couple of times while facing a fire breathing monster. But you need not worry about having to start over. You can keep on pumping tokens into the machine into you're dry.
Each level ends with a killer monster. These range from fire breathing monsters to 'bowling balls'. They require multiple hits to eliminate, and some even change forms to come back and haunt you. Once you complete a couple of levels you get to the prized bonus round. Calling back all the button pressing agility you mastered in "Track and Field", you wait for the go, and just start whaping those buttons as fast as you can. Then it's right back to the regular activities.
The Simpsons employs the standard scrolling scream, battle-to-the-end-of-the- level method found in many other games. What sets it apart is the graphics and sounds - it's just a blast to watch on play. A great way to invest your quarters.