Collision detection is important to fighting games – this game hardly has any. Every other strike (if you’re lucky) will wind up hitting the opponent and many attacks just go straight through the polygon model. If you can’t hit your opponent, you might as well just make up and be friends.

Versatile attacks make for good fighting games. While the Simpsons characters have creative and funny attacks, you have to wait for your attack meter to go up before you can perform them. Players have a choice of low, medium, and high attacks. As each attack is performed the attack meter lowers. So if you’ve unleashed your fury on another opponent, the time it takes for the meter to build back up becomes a dodging game between both opponents -yeah, it’s as boring as it sounds. What’s worse is that when a character jumps the attack meter also falls. Making a player wait to attack in a fighting game makes no sense and the attack meter should have been thrown out in the development process immediately.

There are some pretty cheap moves that become really annoying in Simpsons Wrestling. Many of the high attacks are heat-seeking attacks that follow the other opponent for a long period of time. For example, Smithers can flop out a three-eyed fish that’ll knock another opponent down endlessly. Of course, when you’re trying to dodge the heat-seeking attack by jumping, you’re attack meter keeps falling and you can’t retaliate.

Players can taunt opponents by picking up letters that appear randomly in the wrestling ring. Big Heals also appear randomly in the ring, and whichever opponent happens to catch it first receives a major health boost, making some fights more long and frustrating then they need to be.

Now for the good stuff. The voice acting for each character is done by the same talent as the television show. Characters even have specific quotes when they’re up against certain opponents. The quotes are at times hilarious as are some of the moves created for each character. Apu has a flying slap that’s fun to watch, and Marge has a big hair whip attack.

Watching your favorite Simpsons characters battle it out is fun, but even die-hard fans will have a problem liking the horrid gameplay that comes with it.