Krusty's Fun House (1992)

One of several Simpsons games made around the late 80s and early 90s. This seems to be a forgotten one (probably because the Simpsons themselves only had a limited role) but in my opinion, it's by far the best of the franchise. I remember owning Bart vs the Space Mutants on the Spectrum in the early 90s which is okay, but when I played Krusty on my cousin's NES, I was hooked. Yes, it's a Lemmings clone (though I played this before Lemmings!) with some platformer thrown in, but it's done so very well.

The game was released on multiple platforms in 1992

Your basic gist is just like Lemmings. Krusty's Fun House has been infested with little purple rats who Krusty needs to solve puzzles to guide them to their doom via killing machines operated by other Simpsons characters! Brilliant in it's simplicity. By the time you get as far as level 2 though, you realise this is like all the other Simpsons games...very tough!

Bart is one of the characters helping Krusty smash some rats!

There are numerous baddies making Krusty's task tougher, from spitting snakes and pooping parrots, to lasers and robots. You only have a limited supply of ammo too, so don't dare waste it! There is usually a little cache of bonus boxes on every room, with extra lives, ammo, bouncy balls (used on some levels for breaking walls), food for power and occasionally secrets that open up other unreachable areas. But again, the further you progress in the game, the harder these often become to find.

The dreaded pipe puzzles!

Different items are introduced too as you progress in the game, and the puzzles become more and more complex. Some of the rooms on level 5 are truly painful, with that horrible combination needed of good thinking to beat tough puzzles, as well as speed to do them quickly before your rats get trapped somewhere you cant get them out of again. Having an infinite lives cheat when I played it as a kid was a godsend!

A scene from a room on level 5...you know this is going to hurt!

If you've never played it, play it now! It's better than Bart's Nightmare

Krusty's Fun House, released on Amiga, NES, DOS, Master System, Game Gear, Game Boy, and as Krusty's Super Fun House on Mega Drive and SNES in 1992