Krustys Fun House

The Simpsons in 1992 were a phenomenon. Everyone wanted a piece of the action — from t-shirts to lunch boxes to video game licenses that multiplied faster than Homer devours donuts. Krusty's Fun House by Audiogenic Software was one of them.

The game draws from The Simpsons universe, but it doesn't focus on the family from Springfield — the spotlight belongs to Krusty the Clown. His amusement park has been infested with rats, and your mission is straightforward: trap them. That's the whole story. Nobody expected Shakespeare from a TV series licensed game back then, so it passes the test.

It's a platformer with puzzle elements — at least that's how it was marketed. In practice, this means you jump across platforms, collect items, and figure out the right way to get those dumb rats where you want them. The PC controls are functional, but I could never get used to how Krusty reacts at platform edges. A few pixels off and you're falling, even though you could swear you jumped perfectly. The console versions — especially on SNES and Megadrive — handled this noticeably better. The PC port is honestly just average.

What I remember most vividly is the graphics. Colorful, the characters are recognizable, Krusty looks like Krusty. For 1992 and on PC, it was solid. The music did what you'd expect from a Sound Blaster card — no miracles, but at least rhythm that didn't get too annoying while playing. The game has aged acceptably in the sense that visually you can still tell what's going on. It's aged poorly in that the difficulty feels tuned as if the developers didn't like you — not for the sake of challenge, but because of the imprecisions I'd now call bugs.

Today, mainly those looking for a complete memory of the era when every TV license got a game regardless of whether it was a good idea will play it. Simpsons fans won't find a deep experience of their favorite show here — they'll find a decent average platformer with Krusty on the box. If that's enough for you and you fire it up in a browser via DOSBox emulation, you'll have a pleasant afternoon with it. Just don't expect it to let you past without grinding your teeth a bit.