Turns out that last week’s episode was not the Halloween special. Instead, it came out last night. Irate Gamer celebrates the holiday with… The Simpsons? Okay sure, Treehouse of Horror is a Halloween staple but really?
No, he’s not looking at the NES games like he promised all those years ago. Instead he’ll be looking at the THQ published Game Boy Color exclusive “Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror”.
For some reason, the video title has him listing the Game Boy Advance even though it’s a GBC game. Sure, the GBA can play all Game Boy software, but it seems pointless to bring it up in the title.
The thumbnail has Donut-head Homer from Treehouse IV, Raven Bart from Treehouse I and IG dressed like Dracula with some really terrible looking fake teeth. Did he buy them from the dollar store?
14 minutes long, ready yourself.
The video opens with Irate Gamer rising up like Dracula and welcoming us. He points out today’s video is about The Simpsons Treehouse of Horror game, and remarks that he didn’t know it even existed. Most don’t. Then he makes a “joke” about “Luigi’s Pumpkin Carving Simulator” … What?
Theme song, a slight remix of last week’s cover. No credit to Lame Genie though. Did they not work on it this time? Or is Chris back to denying credit to other people.
No sponsorship either (real or fake).
We return with IG telling us about the Treehouse of Horror episodes. He shows a clip from Treehouse III’s “Dial Z for Zombies”. Does he want to make any money from this?
Mentions how it’s annual, then he follows with a clip from Treehouse IV’s “Terror at 5 ½ Feet”. The part where Bart tells Otto there’s a “Gremlin” on the side of the bus, and he sees Hans Moleman in an AMC Gremlin. Oh, come on, that’s not even the best part of the joke!
We cut back to him standing behind a bunch of Simpsons figures because Chris always has to show off his toys. He notes how other shows weren’t doing Halloween episodes (not true, every successful sitcom had one or two) and its part of the reason it became a big hit “later in its life cycle”. The Simpsons started as a big hit, and the Treehouse episodes were only a tiny reason why.
Then a clip from Treehouse V’s “The Shinning”. Is this to make up for your lack of humor?
He gives an anecdote about wanting to watch Treehouse II, as it was the “second year” and he was already a big fan. Third season Chris, you even established that the first Treehouse was in Season 2. Do you ever proofread what you write?
Anyway, he tried to record it with his VCR because he went on a camping trip but found the tape only contained the first 10 minutes. Followed by a clip from the end of Treehouse II.
But then he just goes on and on about the episodes all while showing clips. It’s rather boring…
He shows his pile of Simpsons games, picks up the one he’ll be talking about, and puts it in his GBA SP. Do you think that’s charged or is it another prop?
He praises the intro, calling it “pretty fun”. Not really, it’s just the family on the couch (with Bart in his blue shirt for some reason) and the lights go out. That’s it. Seems pretty lame to me.
He starts with the level based on Bad Dream House (the very first Treehouse segment) where Bart has to go in and find Santa’s Little Helper. He notes how at the end, he’s not with the family so he’s still in the house. But then he’s confused because the segment ended with the house imploding.
“We’re going to have to suspend belief” That’s disbelief, you suspend disbelief. How did you mix the two?
“I know this game is going to be epic!” … No.
“…after playing it for five minutes, my excitement for it bursts open wider than a wet fart on a wooden chair” Followed by a fart sound. Wait, that doesn’t make sense. Bursting with excitement is a good thing. It’s a positive feeling. Did you mean your expectations? This line really doesn’t make sense. Felt like he wanted to put in a fart joke at any cost.
He blames THQ for making the game a scavenger hunt rather than a basic sidescroller. Why do you expect everything to be a sidescroller? Here’s your problem Chris, you go in into games expecting them to play a certain way and get mad when they don’t. That’s not how you approach reviewing games.
Also, THQ was only the publisher. The developer was British studio Software Creations, who were acquired by Acclaim and died off in 2004. Just three years after this game came out. What a shame…
Then he gets mad because he hates scavenger hunts, and yells “Fuck”, with a giant black and yellow “Fuck” on screen. But then he remembers it’s Halloween and delivers a “Fuck” in a deeper voice with white text dripping blood. My god the cringe… do the fans find putting the text on screen so hilarious? He did this joke before.
He goes over how the game works, how you need to find fuses to work the fuse box and keys to get in the attic and if you don’t fix the power the lights go out. He lists off some of the enemies like vacuum cleaners, books, and broomsticks. He calls them out for ripping off “Mickey Mouse cartoons” You mean Fantasia?
Then he wonders why there’s no bleeding walls or monsters like in the original segment. Pssst, it’s a game for kids. I know it’s easy to forget but The Simpsons isn’t really a series for children. Sometimes they have to tone things down, like how Homer in Lego Dimensions only drinks Buzz Cola not Duff Beer.
Also, what monsters? Bad Dream House didn’t really have those. It had an evil house on top of an Indian Burial Ground that made the walls bleed, had a portal to Hell, and made the Simpsons try to kill each other.
Then he sees hands rising from the ground, which he lets slide because it’s like the zombie episode.
He complains that the health bar is pointless because the enemies take a lot of life if you’re hit. Then what do you prefer? 1 hit kills? No wait, he wants to not die. No challenge!
He calls Bart’s slingshot useless because it doesn’t work on the ground-hands. Pretty sure you’re not meant to kill them. They’re stage hazards like spikes. You don’t go into Mega Man trying to kill the spike floors. This is worse as in the footage following, it has Bart clearly killing a rat. Your points and the footage do not match!
He complains that the enemies include rats and spiders and refers to it as a “Master Splinter infestation” and photoshops Splinter standing in front of The Simpsons as they watch the house implode. … What’s the joke? Also, they had to take liberties somehow! It would make sense for an old spooky mansion to have vermin anyway.
He complains about the slingshot some more, saying that it fires off in angles that trigonometry can’t figure out. … It’s an arch. Also, it’s clear from the footage you’re not trying. He also fumbles the word “trajectory”. Sounding more like “tra-jec-tury”.
Then a clip of Professor Frink from Homer³ because… math.
Then he points out that going “Mario on his ass” (with sound effect) doesn’t work. Gee you think? Also, that’s not half your health bar. Come on.
He gets to the basement, which is full of “precision platforming”. Though in the first clip he purposely dies. Aftewards, it shows a montage where Bart goes through the platforms. That’s not really precision, that’s just bad design.
He references the Springfield Gorge scene because… Simpsons
He also points out the Indian Burial Ground is throughout the level and plays the clip.
He collects the fuses and keys and complains that this first level, which should have only taken five minutes, took him 40. Sounds like a “you” problem.
Then he calls it a “FrankenFuck” with the same bleeding text. Blaaaaah.
Calls it a Fantasia rip-off and finishes up.
He moves onto the next part where you play as Maggie with the body of a fly. He wonders what “Jeff Goldblum shit” this is and edits the poster for The Fly to include Maggie. Do you not know about Treehouse VIII’s “Fly vs Fly”, which is an open parody of the 1986 movie with Bart becoming a fly due to a matter transporter mishap?
Oh… he does know. Because he brings it up after showing the edited poster. Including the fact that it was Bart that turned into a fly. He calls it “ridiculous” that it’s Maggie instead. Probably a demand from the license holders to include Maggie in some way. Happens with a lot of shitty licensed games.
He compares this level to Chip ‘n Dale Rescue Rangers on NES. … I don’t see it. Especially since you don’t fly in that game.
He says that one enemy should be in Super Mario Bros. Mario doesn’t hold exclusive rights to using Venus flytraps!
He points out some of the references like Mr. Sparkle, Blinky the three-eyed fish (doesn’t say his name) and jars of Krusty Beans, which he doesn’t recall from the show. They don’t exist in the show proper but remember that Krusty puts his name on any product no matter how pointless or terrible. Of course he would put his name on beans. Critical thinking is important.
Collect the microchips and take them to the transporter, which IG confuses with Homer’s time-traveling toaster from Treehouse V’s “Time and Punishment”. It’s not the toaster, it’s the matter transporter.
And yes, he plays a clip.
Of course, he doesn’t get that (because he didn’t bother reading the text) and instead gets Marge running through Springfield shooting down zombies. Saying it’s “based on the Zombie Simpsons episode”. Which one? There are hundreds of Zombie Simpsons episodes. (I know he means “Dial Z for Zombie”; Zombie Simpsons has become a colloquial term for the series after Season 10 that fans use to describe the shambling mess that keeps going and going).
He praises the enemies being Springfield residents as zombies, except for Moe who is “too difficult” for him as he throws cans from a sewer three at a time.
After he kills a bunch of zombies, the boss of this part is Krusty. IG is confused by this. Did you forget the original segment? Krusty is one of the Springfield residents that turned. Sideshow Mel kills him, and he returns demanding viewers send their brains.
“It the Clown I could understand” You mean Pennywise?! Who wrote this script?
He skips to the next level with Homer in Dracula’s castle, based on Treehouse IV’s “Bart Simpson’s Dracula”. Clip of Count Burns.
He brings up how Homer’s crossbow doesn’t seem to work and says he could throw “ghost piss” and it would be just as effective. You’d love some ghost piss wouldn’t you Chris? Anything to justify the thousands of dollars you’ve wasted on your stupid ghost hunting pursuit.
He freaks out over a part where you race to the top to escape vines, references the time Homer said “Jebus” as he reaches the end.
He calls the level long, blames THQ again, and eventually reaches the boss (Burns). Calling his sprite, the “coolest in the game”. … I don’t see it.
Onto the next level, which is based on “Homer’s Nightmare” from Treehouse II. He hates this one as he rants about it. Claiming it’s a “shit sandwich” with special sauce that a McDonalds employee jerked off into. Is it now a policy to have one cum joke per video?
He complains, saying there’s nothing to do, calls it “THQ level design” (not them), blah blah blah. For some reason he asks for Lenny or Carl to show up. Why? Outside of a cameo, they’re not involved in the segment. It’s mostly Burns and Smithers playing Frankenstein and Igor, while Homer is the monster.
And yet another clip. Says the level will give you an ulcer.
Moves on to the next one, based on Treehouse V’s “Nightmare Cafeteria”. It’s another scavenger hunt, so he wants nothing to do with it. Unless Uter shows up. He does but rescuing him ends the level, so he doesn’t see him.
“Finger my ass with a monkey’s paw!” I know it’s a reference, but man does that sound forced.
For some reason he really wanted to see Uter. Why? Nobody likes Uter. Not even the writers.
Instead he moves onto the final level based on Treehouse III’s “King Homer”.
He likes this one, compares it to Rampage (only on the surface level), for some reasons references Peter Jackson and Jack Black (I know about the 2005 remake, but it seems pointless to bring it up here) and finds the planes while climbing the tower are hard to destroy and easily kill you.
He beats the game and shows the weird ending where the Simpsons fall out of the treehouse and get abducted by aliens. He complains that Kang and Kodos don’t show up in the game at all. He also calls the specials “Treehouse in Horror”. You really couldn’t do a second take on that?
Anyway, the lack of those two pisses him off so he takes the game out and bites into it, causing it to bleed. Laaame.
We get some “Happy Halloween” text, followed by the Gracie Films logo. Well this boring shit was on par with some of the worst Zombie Simpsons episodes…
We get a credit to Zachary McCallion for helping. Wait, that’s three people now. Chris has at least three different fans writing and editing for him? Does he have the money to pay them all? Are they even getting paid? I’d like to know.
But really, this was so damn dull. No amount of Simpsons clips could lift this from the dreadfully slow sludge this episode is mired in. All I got was that Bores hates scavenger hunts.
Puppet Steve still hasn’t brought up Smash Bros. Makes me wonder if Chris really did sell his Switch.
He did post an old picture on Facebook of him sitting next to Joshua Dela Cruz, the host of the recent Blue’s Clues reboot “Blue’s Clues and You!”. He offered the idea of an “Irate Gamer & Blue’s Clues crossover”. Oh yeah, let’s take the show where you constantly reference feces and jizz and have it pair up with a show for toddlers. It’s no wonder Puppet Steve is dying.
That’s all for me. I hope you have a safe, healthy, Halloween. Stay warm, wash your hands, and don’t forget to vote.