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Krusty's Fun House

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Krusty's Fun House
North American NES box art
Developer(s)Audiogenic
Publisher(s)Acclaim Entertainment[a] (Console versions)
Virgin Games (Home computer versions)
Designer(s)Fox Williams
Artist(s)Patrick Fox
Composer(s)Nu Romantic Productions
Bigmouth Studios (Console versions)
David Whittaker (sound programming
Dave Lowe (MS-DOS sound programming)
Platform(s)NES, SNES, Game Boy, Master System, Game Gear, Genesis, Amiga, MS-DOS
ReleaseMS-DOS
Game Boy
  • NA: January 1993
Game Gear
  • NA: May 1992
Genesis
  • NA: May 19, 1992[1]
  • EU: December 1992
NES
  • NA: September 1992
  • EU: 1992
SNES
  • NA: June 1992
  • EU: December 10, 1992
  • JP: January 29, 1993
Master System
Genre(s)Puzzle, Platform
Mode(s)Single-player

Krusty's Fun House is a puzzle video game based on the animated sitcom The Simpsons.

Gameplay

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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

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Acclaim Entertainment had the rights to The Simpsons brand and starting with the release of The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants releasing several games. Between 1991 and 1993 there were over nine video games based on the series and among them was Krusty's Fun House.[3]

The games developer was Audiogenic, a company who 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 and Amiga and Commodore 64 computers.[3]

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 The Simpsons-based game which then led to Acclaim getting Hare to port the game.[3] The games feature nearly the same background as Rat Trap. Douglas said that the game was basically added Simpsons elements, such as posters for Duff Beer in the background and the Rats were designed more to match the style of Simpsons artists Matt Groening.[4] Hare only worked on the Super Nintendo version of the game.[5]

Release

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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.

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

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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."[10] 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".[13] 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."[14]

References

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  1. ^ "Press release: 1992-05-19: ACCLAIM BEGINS SHIPMENT OF SEGA SOFTWARE". Sega Retro. 2016-06-10. Retrieved 2023-05-06.
  2. ^ "Prodates" (PDF). Sega Pro. Paragon Publishing. June 1993. p. 20. Retrieved 24 September 2024.
  3. ^ a b c Barnes, p. 59.
  4. ^ Barnes, pp. 59–60.
  5. ^ Barnes, p. 60.
  6. ^ "The Latest Videogames Reviewed". EW.com. Retrieved 2018-11-03.
  7. ^ Rand, Paul; Anglin, Paul (August 1993). Go!. No. 22. pp. 6–7. {{cite magazine}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ^ "Krusty's Fun House". N-Force. Vol. 2, no. 1. July 1993. p. 23.
  9. ^ "Krusty's Fun House". Nintendo Magazine System. No. 4. July 1993. pp. 24–25.
  10. ^ a b "Krusty's Super Fun-House (SNES) review". Super Play. November 1992.
  11. ^ "Nintendo Power Awards" (46). March 1993: 99. Retrieved November 12, 2015. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  12. ^ "Mega Library". 20 May 1993.
  13. ^ Matthews, Robin (April 1994). "Sequel Syndrome Strikes Again". Over There. Computer Gaming World. pp. 124, 126.
  14. ^ "Top 100 SNES Games". Total! (43): 47. July 1995. Retrieved February 26, 2022.

Sources

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  • Barnes, Adam. "The Making of Krusty's Fun House". Retro Gamer. No. 186.


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