Krusty's Fun House

Last updated
Krusty's Fun House
NES Krusty's Fun House.jpg
North American NES box art
Developer Audiogenic
Publishers Acclaim Entertainment [a] (Console versions)
Virgin Games (Home computer versions)
Designer Fox Williams
Artist Patrick Fox
Composers Nu Romantic Productions
Bigmouth Studios (Console versions)
David Whittaker (sound programming
Dave Lowe (MS-DOS sound programming)
Series The Simpsons
Platforms NES, SNES, Game Boy, Master System, Game Gear, Genesis/Mega Drive, Amiga, MS-DOS
Release
1992
  • MS-DOS
    Genesis
    • NA: 1992
    • EU: December 17, 1992 [1]
    SNES
    • NA: June 1992
    • EU: December 10, 1992
    • JP: January 29, 1993
    NES
    Game Boy
    • NA: January 1993
    Game Gear
    Master System
Genres Puzzle, platform
Mode Single-player

Krusty's Fun House, also known as Krusty's Super Fun House is a 1992 puzzle video game based on the animated sitcom The Simpsons . It was developed by Audiogenic and published by Acclaim Entertainment for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES), Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES), Sega Genesis, Master System, Game Gear, and Game Boy; versions for the Amiga and MS-DOS computers were released by Virgin Games. In the game, players control Krusty the Clown as they attempt to exterminate all rats in the various levels, using objects to create a path for the rats towards the machine.

Contents

Krusty's Fun House was reskinned from the 1991 puzzle game Rat Trap, developed by Patrick Fox and Scott Williams for the Atari ST, Amiga, and Commodore 64. After releasing it, Audiogenic approached Acclaim, who agreed to release the game with The Simpsons license. Krusty's Fun House received generally favorable reviews upon release.

Gameplay

The player directs small rats to an extermination area through complicated maze-like levels. The player controls Krusty the Clown, who must navigate through his Krusty Brand Fun House. Each level is a puzzle in which a number of rats must be exterminated. Using different objects and obstacles, Krusty must create a path for the rats to follow and guide them towards an extermination device. Other creatures such as snakes, Martians, flying pigs and birds attempt to hinder Krusty's progress by injuring him; he must throw pies in order to defeat them.

In each stage the extermination devices are run by a different character, including Bart, Homer, Corporal Punishment and Sideshow Mel.

Development

Acclaim Entertainment had the rights to The Simpsons brand and, starting with The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants , released several games. Between 1991 and 1993, there were over nine video games based on the series, among them Krusty's Fun House. [4]

The game's developer was Audiogenic, a company that was developing a game for home computers that was very similar to what Krusty's Fun House would become. The original game was Rat Trap developed by Patrick Fox and Scott Williams, featuring a big-headed pink-haired boy who guided rats around a stage towards a machine by placing blocks in certain places to exterminate them and was released in 1991 for the Atari ST, Amiga, and Commodore 64 computers. [4]

The sole programmer for Krusty's Super Fun House was Douglas Hare. Hare was working as a freelancer on a potential original game for Audiogenic for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. Audiogenic had sold the idea of reformatting Rat Trap as a The Simpsons-based game which then led to Acclaim getting Hare to port the game. [4] The games feature nearly the same background as Rat Trap. Douglas said that the differences between the game were mostly limited to the addition of elements from The Simpsons, such as posters for Duff Beer in the background, while the Rats were designed to more closely match the style of Simpsons creator Matt Groening. [5] Hare only worked on the Super NES version of the game. [6]

Release

The game was released in 1992 for the Amiga, NES, IBM PC compatibles, Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy, Super NES and Mega Drive/Genesis. Acclaim published the console versions and sub-licensed the home computer versions to Virgin. The 16-bit versions on the Super NES and the Mega Drive/Genesis were entitled Krusty's Super Fun House, as were the Amiga and DOS versions.

There are two revisions of the Super NES and Genesis games. Version 1.1 has completely different music for the second and fourth world.

Reception

Super Play magazine gave the SNES version of Krusty a 79 percent rating and wrote "it's actually pretty good fun to play, although perhaps more of a Younger Player-oriented game than anything else. Not one to set your heart on fire, but a good solid game nevertheless." [9] Computer Gaming World in April 1994 said that the computer version "is an above average arcade/strategy game that is ideal to burn away half an hour or so". [16] In 1995, Total! ranked the game 75th on their Top 100 SNES Games summarizing: "A sort of reverse Lemmings in which you have to kill the little on-screen characters." [17]

Notes

  1. Released under the Flying Edge brand name on Sega systems.

References

  1. "Official Sega Product Coming Your Way" (PDF). Computer Trade Weekly. No. 414. Opportunity Publishing. 23 November 1992. p. 18. Retrieved 16 January 2026.
  2. "NES Games" (PDF). Nintendo of America. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 11, 2014. Retrieved August 9, 2015.
  3. 1 2 "ProReview: Krusty's Fun House". Sega Pro . Paragon Publishing. June 1993. pp. 54–55. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  4. 1 2 3 Barnes, p. 59.
  5. Barnes, pp. 59–60.
  6. Barnes, p. 60.
  7. Julian Rignall; Rob Bright (August 1992). "Krusty's Super Fun House". Mean Machines . No. 23. pp. 72–73. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  8. Julian Rignall; Radion Automatic (August 1992). "Krusty's Super Fun House". Mean Machines . No. 23. pp. 74–75. Retrieved December 12, 2024.
  9. 1 2 "Krusty's Super Fun-House (SNES) review". Super Play . November 1992.
  10. "The Latest Videogames Reviewed". EW.com. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  11. Rand, Paul; Anglin, Paul (August 1993). Go! . No. 22. pp. 6–7.{{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  12. "Krusty's Fun House". N-Force . Vol. 2, no. 1. July 1993. p. 23.
  13. "Krusty's Fun House". Nintendo Magazine System . No. 4. July 1993. pp. 24–25.
  14. "Mega Library". 20 May 1993.
  15. "Nintendo Power Awards" (46). March 1993: 99. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved November 12, 2015.{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  16. Matthews, Robin (April 1994). "Sequel Syndrome Strikes Again". Over There. Computer Gaming World. pp. 124, 126.
  17. "Top 100 SNES Games". Total! (43): 47. July 1995. Retrieved February 26, 2022.

Sources