Inside the home of America's favorite cartoon family. © Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

D'oh!
No town is perfect, though, and Virtual Springfield is no exception. While the software has game-like elements, it is lacking the depth of a true game. The individual objectives to get into each location are very easy to achieve.

Once you've been around town a few times, traveling in real time between locations starts to get a bit long. If we could quickly jump from spot to spot without having to walk the streets every time, gameplay would be enhanced as there wouldn't be as much down time between locations. Plus, even though there are 17 great locations to visit, once you've been to them several times, the novelty starts to wear off. The 17 locations become familiar, and you feel as though you have seen everything.

Virtual Springfield would have benefited from having a better gaming element incorporated into it, slowly revealing more locations around town and introducing the characters one by one to extend playing time and add an extra layer of depth.

Virtual Springfield offers Simpsons fans a chance to explore the uncharted depths of Bart's room. © Twentieth Century Fox Home Entertainment.

A Final Thought
All in all, if you are a die-hard Simpsons fanatic, Virtual Springfield is a must. You'll enjoy every frame of new animation and finding props from all of your favorite episodes. For the occasional Simpsons viewer or younger fans looking for an interactive Simpsons experience, Virtual Springfield may not be what they are looking for. I recommend they try Fox Interactive's title The Simpson's Cartoon Studio where they can direct the Simpsons in a custom cartoon. The action is a little more fast-paced, and it doesn't require as much knowledge of the show to understand the humor.

The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield is available now on CD-ROM for Windows 95 and Power Macintosh at a retail price of $29.98.

Joe Toledo is executive producer at North Communications, an Internet kiosk developer based in Marina del Rey, California.

Also in this issue: A virtual tour of the life size replica of the Simpsons' home in Nevada which includes Quicktime movies of the house!