Fortnite Simpsons collab divides players with its cramped map, suggesting Small Map Syndrome is spreading through the air: "It feels like Reload, I want it to feel like Battle Royale"
Homer, Bart, Lisa, Marge and Maggie have descended on Fortnite in a new collaboration featuring The Simpsons. With them comes the whole town of Springfield as the playable map, and much as it's fun to snipe someone from atop the Kwik-E-Mart, some would like a little more legroom.
The finer details are on point, with all sorts of references to the beloved show, but a condensed play area is frustrating players. Despite being for 80-person battle royale, it feels a lot closer to the Reload mode, made for 40 people and snappier play overall.
"It feels exactly like the same size as the Halloween Reload map, maybe just slightly bigger than that," one person points out on Twitter. "It's cool but I don’t really like the size of the new map. It feels like Reload. I want it to feel like Battle Royale," adds another.
Encounters are more frenzied than usual, leading to swifter kills, potentially ending your round before it even really starts. Handling multiple foes is particularly tough. "If you get into a fight with someone you are going to find a third party 80% of the time that will eventually kill you if you can't heal yourself quick enough," says a player on Twitter.
Some are having a more mixed experience as a result. "On one hand it's definitely a lot more engaging throughout the match keeping me on my toes," says a Twitter user. "I’ve died in situations that I couldn't have played better no matter how hard I tried due to no fast healing items."
These design choices beg comparisons to previous maps, where the island was altered in more specific ways. "The Star Wars season was a point of interest on the map. Why on earth didn't they do that for this season? Are they planning on making all future maps mini?" a Redditor asks.
Every season and collaboration has its own requirements, and it seems The Simpsons might have some lessons for the devs. They're more likely to listen than Mayor Quimby or Mr Burns, anyway.
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more

Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.


