The long-awaited “Simpsons Wrestling” (Activision) was released this week and in the words of Bart Simpson (episode 5F07, “Miracle on Evergreen Terrace”) ... “It’s crap-tacular.”

As a fan of both The Simpsons and wrestling, this was truly the perfect combo. However, after almost a year of waiting for this game, it is a major disappointment to say the least.

First and honestly ... it’s like playing a game from your old Nintendo system. For PSX, the graphics are very poor--with, while during combat, characters that occasionally transparently overlap each other. Didn’t we see this type of glitches in old Commodore games? As for the characters themselves, the graphics are choppy and uneven with Groundskeeper Willy looking the worst of the lot.

The game-play is also quite bad. Controlling your given resident of Springfield is a hard task and making contact with your opponent can sometimes be worse--occasionally, opponents will simply move into a dead space in the ring and start swinging at air. Again, didn’t we see this back in the 80s?

This should actually be called “Simpsons Fighting” because it is anything but wrestling. Actually, the name “Wrestling” in the title was probably just a way to cash-in on wrestling’s current popularity.

Barney swings beer mugs, Krusty wields a giant hammer, Marge has a frying pan while Kent Brockman, almost unheard over the sound effects and music, does occasional commentary. But overall, the moves are pretty basic and boring. The game is also void of a referee; "wrestlers" themselves make the count when they go for a pin attempt.

And being The Simpsons, most fans would expect a great deal of humor--nope. While the taunts are, at times, remotely humorous, the game simply lacks humor that you would generally expect with any Simpsons product. The funniest aspect of the game is when you face Marge--she instantly releases Maggie who runs and clings to your leg, slowing you down. Yes ... this is the funniest aspect of the game.

Bottom line ... Simpsons and wrestling fans alike will hate this game. To paraphrase The Comic Book Guy: “Worst Game Ever!”