Simpsons: Tapped Out (Android iOS)

Monday to Friday my alarm goes off at 6:45... Way too early if you ask me, especially if you have been up until 1 am playing games or usually watching Family Guy (Damn you BBC3 for changing the times for your shows!!)

I have created a bit of a ritual for myself to wake up my brain from the fuzz. I play with my phone for a bit, check my facebook and email. Usually by the time I delete the last junk email (the only kind of email that seems to arrive to my email inbox) I am ready to get up and face the world.

The games I play on my phone change quite frequently (mainly because I get bored of them!) - at the moment I waste a few minutes everyday of my life building a little Springfield in the latest EA game made for smartphones and Ipads called Tapped Out.

Now before I go any further, let me just say that I do play other than building games and no I am not a EA fan, it's simply a coincidence, I didn't realize Tapped out was a EA game until just now, when I started writing about it.

So let's talk about the game a bit.
It's again one of those "here are your tools, build a road, add a house" kind of games.
The player is tasked to rebuild Springfield through a number of missions that involve various characters from The Simpsons cast. At first you only have Homer but as you progress further you unlock more characters and places you recognize from the show.
To build a new house or unlock a new character takes absolutely forever (24h on average) so it really does feel like a massive waste of time. However, I seem to be weirdly addicted to seeing what I can get once I build the Springfield Elementary School, Moe's Tavern, Kwik-E-Mart... and when do I get to see Marge? What about Reverend Lovejoy? There are also some funny things (which you would expect from a Simpson's game) here and there that has made me chuckle occasionally.

The game is free to download from the Android shop (I assume it's the same for Iphones) but as with all free to play, time management games there is the option to speed up the progress and buy additional items by purchasing donuts with real life money.
(I was actually reading from Metro this morning how some kid had spent £1000 on donuts in that game...). Personally I wouldn't bother with it, just because you choose to waste your time on this game doesn't mean you should waste also your money!!!

Verdict: If you are a massive Simpsons fan, go ahead and download it to your phone, I am sure you will enjoy it. It has original voice actors (!!) and from all the free to play, build a town games for your phone, this probably is the best one I have played so far.
Sadly....
EA doesn't seem to have a very good month, because Tapped Out, just like SimCity which I reviewed few days ago has had massive server issues. You have to always connect to the internet to be able to build your Springfield and more often than none I have received this on my screen: