Krusty's Super Fun House

The Good
The first Simpsons game to appear under the acclaim label, ‘Bart versus the space mutants’, was a decidedly dire first outing to say the least. Of course more followed with kids favourite, Bart, taking centre stage, ‘Bart Simpsons escape from Kamp deadly’, ‘Bart versus the world’, ‘Virtual Bart’, et all, and why not, as they were all initially targeted for the lucrative Nintendo market. Admittedly these titles started showing some improvement in design, with probably Virtual Bart being the most interesting, sporting more variety in play than had previously been seen in past titles.

To this day, I have always had the feeling the designers of Simpsons games aimed a bit more towards a younger audience, which is fine of course, but even with the likes of more modern titles like Vivendi’s ‘Simpsons Hit & Run’ for me at least, still came off as overly simplistic and lacked character, and subsequently felt like just another kiddies game, and it seems developers can’t see their way to shaking this off.

So, what’s all this got to do with ‘Krusty’s super fun house’, not a great deal really, but there’s nothing like a good rant to get the juices flowing. Anyway, moving right along, this is a Simpsons game from the early nineties of course NOT to have Bart Simpson in the limelight, (though he is still present here), and it is one of the better Simpsons games out there, and it was playing on my mind lately, so here I am with some humble words about a game which centres around everyone’s favourite blue haired clown.

Upon firing the game up, the first thing you see is a nice colourful title, and ‘press start’ flashing on the lower part of the display, and this is the first telling sign of console shovel-ware, since on the Amiga there is only a single fire button. Perhaps a little too accurate a conversion one might think. Interestingly enough, the programmers of this game, Audiogenic, had previously been developing games for Amiga since 1988, which I just think is kind of interesting since this game isn’t a native Amiga game originally.

When initially starting the game, I remember my first thoughts off the bat were of Flair’s ‘Trolls’, which was incidentally released the previous year on Amiga. To begin with, you guide Krusty around a section of the fun house, and you can run and jump about the place, and there is a series of doors which separates all the levels of a single section, whereby you can enter any level in any order you like. Upon conquering a level, a pad lock is placed on the door to indicate this. Once you finish all the levels, a special exit will become accessible, and you will be kindly given a password for the next section.

The basic premise is Krustys’ fun house has been overrun by marauding rats, so Krusty has enlisted the help of two Simpsons, of course Bart as I mentioned earlier, and also Homer, as well as some of his show pals Sideshow Mel, and Corporal Punishment, all of which will be operating a sophisticated rat trap at one point or another, where by you (Krusty) must lead the pesky rats to their impending doom.

So, in essence this side of things is basically as for Lemmings, instead here you have a bunch of rats that come out of a home-base, here what can only be a mouse hole, and they will march about platform laden levels, climbing anything shorter than they are. Your most basic implements for intervention are blocks, which can be found about the play area, and collected by simply standing on and pressing down on the stick, and it will be added to your inventory, which is limited to one item at any given time. Other objects which can be found are pipe fragments which can be used to complete a junction, or change the flow of direction.

To place the block somewhere else, you again press down on the stick to relinquish it, and by doing this you can manipulate the path of movement of the rats to lead them to the required destination. That’s not the end of the story however, and there will be other factors to consider like vacuum tubes that can suck up the rats and move them great distances, and other propelling devices that shoot them about the place, and these things can prove to help or hinder your goal.

As well as clearing a level of rats, you also have to gather any and all collectable bits and bobs, which can be found exposed, or inside of breakable cubes, e.g. grapes, burgers, jewels, and other things you normally find in this type of cutesy fodder. When your exploring the environments you’ll also have to contend with some nasties, in the form of snakes, laser gun wielding aliens, moving sentry turrets, and the like. You’re not totally defenceless however, and you can also pick up weapons like Danish pastries you can whip at the nasties, and also ball bearings which bounce around the environment in a kinetic sort of manner.

There are some Super Mario Bros style bonus rooms included here also, but the catch is you MUST collect the full quota of the trinkets and other collectables in the given time, or else you will have to start from scratch to beat the level.

In terms of visuals, Krusty himself is animated well enough, and his hair bounces charismatically as he runs and leaps about, and if you leave him idle he will do a little dance for you. The tiled backdrops are nicely enough detailed, often with colourful checkered patterns and there are often posters peppered about the levels relating to various characters from the Simpsons universe, such as Kent Brockman’s news show, Otto’s bus tours, and Barney’s Bowl -O- Rama, to name but a few. There is some nice shadow play on the platforms, and other decals, which brings a subtle level of realism to the designs. There are also some more industrial looking levels, with many girders and much metallic tubing. Occasional holes in the walls present some cylindrical arrangements in the background that creates an interesting parallax effect.

The music here is what you would tend to associate with clowns, and it chugs along here in a jolly old fashion, and works well with the pace of the play. There is an assortment of sound samples here, from the charismatic “Hi, Kids!” at the intro sequence, his trademark laughs at the conclusion of a level, and some other familiar sounds like a honking clown nose, and various other pings, pongs, fizzles and pops which are all in order.

The Bad
While the graphics here are pleasant enough, they certainly don’t make full use of the machines capabilities, as is so common among console conversions. The sprites here a sort of dinky, but they remain functional, moreover I think bigger more animated characters would have brought some extra pizzaz to the proceedings.

The Bottom Line
The combination of puzzle solving and conventional platform type action makes for an interesting play style that works surprisingly well, and strikes a balance that can appeal to a neutral audience. There isn’t very much to distinguish this from other versions of the game, barring a slightly better resolution and more vibrant colours, but it remains a solid fun game, with some suitably vexing puzzles, and some tricky platform elements which require deftly reflexes and coordination, proving this to be decently addictive, while also offering some good long term value to boot.

The Good
This was a demo on the very first issue of PC Gamer back in December 1993. I must have completed the demo countless times before buying the full game on eBay a year ago and having a go at the full game.

What's immediately clear, is the very colourful and bright graphics that really capture the Simpsons look. Back then, the Simpsons wasn't on TV here (Belgium) yet so I had no idea who Krusty the Clown was. To be honest, I still don't have a single clue why Krusty would be hunting for rats! I have a sneaky suspicion that this game wasn't really made with the Simpsons in mind at first.

Still, that doesn't matter. What matters is that this is a fine puzzle game with some friendly combat where you have to solve room after room, whacking rats left and right (with Bart Simpson controlling the rat whacking machine).

The Bad
The game is so simple, there isn't much to dislike about. The only annoying thing I found, is that Krusty can't be controlled when he's falling. So if you jump too far, you can't correct your jump which often ends you taking damage you'd rather have avoided.

Also, it's a sad thing that this game lacks a save function or even passcodes. This would be a great game to complete the occasional room now and then, but because of this, you have to either replay the same rooms over and over, or complete it in one long go.

The Bottom Line
This is a great game to load in Dosbox and show to your little nephew or niece. It's simple yet fun and does make them think a little to find ways to get the rats to the whacking machine. It's not incredibly deep or complicated, but it does the job.