The arcade games like this, X-Men and Avengers were remembered and loved mostly because of the graphics and the rendering of the characters we loved into a video game format. On the original arcade it was like you were controlling an episode of the Simpsons yourself. There was no media other then the show itself that showcased the likeness of the characters at the time as well as this arcade and same goes for the other games in this genre that are fondly remembered.
0:57 Pause here to see Marge's rabbit ears. Easter egg/reference to Groening's original take on the character, before that idea was written out of the show, which connected it to his previous work, Life in Hell.
The reason why this was never ported to mainstream consoles was because acclaim held the simpsons rights there "blessing" us with such "classics" such as bart vs the space mutants, bart vs the world, bart's nightmare and so on.
I was just about to comment with this. Acclaim was happy to push out crappy licensed games left and right. It was a real shame as this game would have fit perfectly on the SNES like Turtles in Time did! It often sucked back then different companies could hold the rights to release games in the arcade, home computers and home consoles. It was one big reason why many arcade games never got ports to home consoles.
Honestly Bart's Nightmare is a bit underrated because once you get used to many trial and errors of the 8 minigames, speedrunning it should be no problem. As for the 3 on the NES, Bart VS The World is the easiest for me due to years of experience
That game is one of my top 10 favorite arcades of all time. It was phenomenon. The cabinets used to be always crowded with long lines when it debuted in malls all over the city. To this day, even after the fall of the arcade business, it is still easy to find The Simpsons cabinets in many malls. People just love this game.
There may have been both a Simpsons Arcade Game and X-Men Arcade Game port to the SNES and Sega Genesis if Acclaim didn't have the video game license to both properties for those consoles at the time.
@@FallenGemini There were various other downgrades with Turtles in Time but the SNES version is still a brilliant game. I completed it last week with a friend and then we ate pizza 🙂 Simpsons Arcade could be an equally great 16-bit game in the right hands but Acclaim had other ideas. Unfortunately, those ideas didn't turn out to be great Simpsons games.
So glad I purchased and downloaded on Xbox 360, this, TMMT 1989 Classic Arcade, X-Men Arcade and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World before they were (and sadly still) delisted.
This game, the X-men arcade game, and the Spider-Man arcade game (which I hope to see a video on some day), are my earliest arcade memories. Well more literally, they are the first arcade games I ever played.
The C64 port is an absolutely amazing technical feat and it's full of so many graphical tricks to get all the enemies and bosses in there as well as the cutscenes. I took a bunch of gameplay footage of it because it's honestly a treat to just watch.
I'm actually kinda glad they had little to work with in terms of characters-turned-enemies in the game. Cause at least they could use their imagination and create their own Simpsons-type OCs as their roster of beat-em-up thugs/bosses. Which somewhat worked well if you ask me.
Yo, I'm Chris Kewl and I'm here to say Thanks for repping me in this video, I'm glad I stayed! Sorry, this game was very 90s and I had to bust out some dope 90s rhymes.
Dreamland was a mixture of separate dreams the four had in the show. The bowling was the enemy because Marge's anger of homers love for bowling. I can't remember but there is an episode where she becomes a good bowlers also
It was inference from LJN/Acclaim. They had the Simpsons licence on consoles. That's why the arcade ports only showed up on Euro computers. Konami didn't own the proper rights in most regions/ markets.
As a somewhat interesting note, after it came out on the 360 and Playstation 3, Konami revoked the rights to the games on those platforms. Needless to say I was a Sad Panda, but I complained and got my money back but never the games. It is still available through emulation and on the pandoras box.
I grew up playing this and watching the cartoons when it first came.on fox on tje very first episode. In 2010 its finally came.on playstation store and xbox live for 9.99 al ppl mg with xmen the arcade game. Needless to say, I brought it asap lol I got both the tmnt arcade on my gamecube. You did phenomenal job with the avp, tmnt, now this. Your channel is just AWESOME in general. Loved the final fight, SOR, and fatal fury. Do you think you could try World Heroes next?
This was 1 of my suggestions,thank you Top Hat Gaming Man.also can u do future videos on the ps2 games the bouncer,& urban reign? As well as scott pilgrim vs the world?
Sadly, Acclaim had the console rights to the Simpsons, and Konami couldn’t port their arcade game to 16-bit systems. It didn’t stop me from wanting it, though. Same thing with the X-Men arcade game, too. I wasn’t the only one begging for the arcade game, either.
To my knowledge, the PS3 version requires you to have an active PlayStation Plus account in order for you to keep playing it, even if you had purchased it before they removed it from the store.
Same happed on 360. They actually black listed many games. Contra Double Dragon TMNT Golden Ax Simpsons Xmen UMK Street Fighter 2 hyper fighting all black listed.
I was lucky to get them right before they got delisted when they were having a sale on Konami and Marvel games. But I hate that alot of people didn't know about them until it was too late.
@@joncollins7730 it isn't I don't bother with all that jail break stuff as if you don't know what you're doing you end up with a bricked console and banned from PSN
I loved beat em ups like Final Fight and the Ninja Turtles arcade games as a kid. And I played the hell out of Bart vs. The Space Mutants on NES. But I never knew the Simpsons arcade game existed until playing an emulated version in the early 2000's.
Another classic gem from Konami and still a great rival to capcom's awesome beat-em ups! Its funny that this game covered seasons 1 & 2 of The Simpsons when a future installment could easily cover later seasons! Imagine Homer with a Mr. Plow special move or a boss fight from The Treehouse of Horror specials?!
Or a second run with Frank Grimes Jr. and Slideshow Bob as final bosses. Also mocking both Fox and Konami IPs. Treehouse of Horror like a survival mode: One life only.
By 1991, the Simpsons were quickly becoming a pop culture mega event after it had kicked off with its own series in 1989. Mixing animation in with a classic American sitcom formula struck a chord that echoed on down into a titanic empire a quarter of a century later enabling it to become the longest running American sitcom and animated American series with a whopping 32 seasons in the can as of this writing. So when Konami swooped down in their Vic Viper to license this, it was just the start of their banquet of arcade adaptations that they would feast on later in 1992. At that point, they were still getting warmed up, but they were hitting home runs with popular beat ’em up adaptations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1989 and its sequel in 1991 sharing the year with The Simpsons’ first video game. Back then, Konami didn’t standardize its hardware the way that Capcom and SNK would try to do with the CPS-1 and Neo Geo MVS respectively. They often followed the approach that arcade hardware museum System 16 remarks as being “what CPU have we got a lot of today”. As a result, they had a varied collection of arcade boards over the years, some powering no more than two games, others being shared by a few more with tweaks. The Simpsons used the same basic board that would power the X-Men in 1992 but instead of using Motorola’s 68000 CPU, it relied on a custom variant dubbed the KONAMI running at 3 Mhz which was itself based on Motorola’s 6809 8-bit CPU. Despite that, the hardware was up to the task sharing relatively the same graphics chip setup shared by titles such as Vendetta and X-Men and featuring a few nifty tricks such as the kind of sprite scaling effects seen in Turtles in Time (which used a different board) as enemies were thrown at the screen. Like with Turtles in Time’s enhanced graphics along with Asterix and C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa in 1992, Konami’s artists continued to pay close attention in successfully translating the feeling of playing through an animated episode thanks to amazing pixel work. It didn’t try to fool anyone that it was going for the laserdisc quality on the level of a Dragon’s Lair, but Konami’s work brought it close enough to immerse the players in the spirit of the series they attempted to emulate without being as linear. The game was played using an eight-way joystick allowing for 3D movement in its side-scrolling levels (from left to right). Two buttons, one for attack and another for jumping, did all of the heavy lifting. There was no “desperation” or “super” attack performed by hitting both - just a kind of different jumping attack. But the game made up for that with a clever bit of co-op allowing two players to create combo attacks, such as Marge and Homer coming together in a cartwheel attack or Bart sitting on Homer’s shoulders and whaling on enemies with his skateboard from above. It was a hugely creative leap for a beat ’em up. The Simpsons family (and their voice actors) are involved in this crazy adventure and none of them have any particular weaknesses or strengths over the others. There’s Homer who likes to bicycle punch and kick in midair. Marge, his wife, is bringing along her vacuum cleaner for the fight. Bart, their son, gets around on his skateboard and uses it to smash the face of whoever is in his way. Lisa, his sister, uses jump rope to whip her way through foes…occasionally tangling herself in it without breaking her stride. Four player co-op (characters were determined by which stick position on the cabinet you wanted to feed coins into) turned the game into a cartoonish frenzy of flying fists, jumping vacuum attacks, and combos. At the center of all of this is baby Maggie. While taking a walk in downtown Springfield, the Simpsons bump into Mr. Smithers, the well to-do kiss ass stooge of the town’s resident oligarch, Mr. Burns. Smithers is racing out of a jewelry store where he’s just stolen a pretty big sparkler. Bumping into the Simpsons, the gem goes flying and lands in Maggie’s mouth mistaking it for a pacifier. So Smithers does the next best thing - he takes Maggie with him during his escape and the Simpsons take up the chase through eight stages of thugs, zombies, ninjas, and donuts. Yes, donuts. Stages were imaginative stuff built around famous Springfield locales ranging from downtown to Moe’s Bar and the finale at Mr. Burns’ office at his nuclear plant. There’s even a dream sequence pitting players against donuts shooting donuts, cloud sprouts shaped like Marge’s head, little Bart devils, flying saxophones, and an giant bowling ball boss. Two bonus stages also helped to break up the action Track & Field style (which Konami was also responsible for in 1983) with alternating button mashing: a balloon inflating contest and the other to slap your chosen Simpson awake after having that nightmare. A fantastic soundtrack composed by Norio Hanzawa (Bucky O’Hare, Guardian Heroes, Gunstar Heroes ) easily complimented the action. There were also a lot of throwables ranging from rocks and mailboxes to mutant, three-eyed fish. Food, such as hamburgers and hot dogs, were often delivered by other characters but also sometimes found lying around. There were even occasional weapons like slingshots and hammers. The Japanese version also had miniature, tossable nukes. Action-wise, the game was fast paced and with a fine variety of enemies with cameos by many of The Simpsons’ major characters such as Professor Werner von Brawn who acts as the boss encounter at the end of the first stage. Enemies didn’t have health gauges (Konami didn’t really seem to be big on those for TMNT, either) but most of the trash mobs were easily dispatched. Instead, the bosses would begin flashing red whenever they were nearing their end or in the giant bowling ball’s case, right before it became even meaner. And they could be tough to take down especially when Mecha Burns shows up at the end. The game also had a lot of little touches. Hitting apple trees for health-restoring apples too often makes a rabbit (from Groening’s Life in Hell comic strips who also shows up as an enemy in the game) appear from the branches with a drop sign telling the player that there’s nothing left. Taking too long prompts the game to flash a big hand on the right of the screen to tell you to get moving - and then if you still take too long, comes over and flicks your character to make its point. Standing idle will also elicit each of The Simpsons to say or do something such as Bart breaking the fourth wall by looking at the screen and asking “Who the hell are you?”. The Simpsons is one of Konami’s best beat ’em up efforts and probably one of the very best in their beat ’em up lineup - at least as far as the arcades go - easily holding its own with both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cabs and even Gaiapolis’ mix of high fantasy and sci-fi. Their creative team outdid themselves with the sheer variety of enemies in the game, takes on each stage, and combo co-op attacks that make it a unique experience. While it might not be as flashy or as explosive as a typical Capcom beat ’em up, it’s another brilliant adaptation of a popular cartoon series into a formula that anyone can party with. Unfortunately, unlike TMNT, it never got a sequel in the arcade, but it did get a number of ports to other systems such as the Commodore 64 and an MS-DOS PCs in the same year that the arcade game arrived (1991). 21 years later, it would finally land on consoles in 2012 when a downloadable version hit Xbox Live Arcade and PSN. After The Simpsons’ digital debut, the series continued on to have a long and varied history on consoles and handhelds where new games continued to add more gems to its media crown. Even so, not all of them were quite as polished as their first outing which still holds up as one of the best, and most creative, adaptations that Konami had ever made for the arcade.
The Simpsons Arcade is timeless and a time capsule all in one. Homer is the strongest power and health with least rage, Marge is slow decent health but has tons of rage, Bart is the fastest with good range average hp while Lisa is the balanced character. The mobile version was made by EA I really didn't finish it because I play it casually and it has microtransactions for lives.
Long time follower. Glad you are still at it and couldn't miss this one, as I had seen this game beaten in full from start to finish several times in my youth. I used to be the one persuading other kids to come join in order to finish it with their quarters.
This was a great game indeed. I loved to play this and X-Men. There was always a line at the pizza parlors, arcades, and at the occasional Laundromats around town. I thought that the inspiration for the game was based on concept ideas before there was a show, which is why Bart’s shirt is blue and Marge has bunny ears when shocked. Great content though, I enjoy your bits of gaming information and have learned quiet a lot from your knowledge, research, and having actual passion on your hunt for more...
the game has so much going on that its simply a visual feast. i swear i never knew about the team up moves. most brawlers condition the gamer to stay away from the other players to avoid hitting friendlies.
Hey, Top Hat Gaming Man. You should do a video on Battle Circuit. It is Capcom's last beat 'em up game for the arcade. It will be cool to do a video of it.
I always associate this game with the state fair, because that's where I first played it, and would always play it at least once every year if it was there. They had a whole tent on the midway dedicated to arcade games and it was an absolute delight.
I'd love it if they would do a HALLOWEEN so ripped directly from this game, ripped into 3 stories, all in which the Simpson's get to fight in a setting based on this game.
I have to say, forgotten might be a misnomer. Obscure or unknown entirely fits better. I mean, not even an acquaintance of mine who collects C64 things knew about that port.
My school had a party at the roller rink each year. And each year, we crowded around this cabinet, hoping someone was rich enough to have the quarters needed for those final bosses.
I was always surprised to find out this game got ported to the C64 but then Konami did have ports of so many of their games from both the NES and Arcade ported to the system not found anywhere else. Castlevania and Metal Gear as well as the TMNT NES game are all quite reasonable conversions for the time and just looking at ports like that on the C64 more into the 90s can really surprise people what came out on the system.
I remember this game fondly The Simpsons arcade game was a pretty good one for its time I remember playing this game with my cousins so this game really brings back a lot of memories for me so thank you for that.
It really is a classic game, like Turtles I don’t know how much money my parents fed into the machine in Woolacombe to brute force my brother and I to the end of the game but it was great fun and also like Turtles it felt like playing an episode of the cartoon. I agree the game is very much a time capsule of the early days of the Simpsons, including Barney having blonde hair and Bart appearing as Bartman when he loses a life. It’s like a double helping of nostalgia. I always wondered who that boss in Moe’s Tavern was meant to be too. He kind of looks like Moe but meaner, I always thought he was Moe’s brother. He does remind me a little bit of Herman (the one armed army vet), maybe they based it on him and then changed their minds? I guess the reason we never got home ports on the SNES or Megadrive is because Acclaim had the rights, so we ended up with tripe like Space Mutants, Bart’s Nightmare, Virtual Bart, etc. They really milked the licence, it’s a shame they didn’t do a deal with Konami for the arcade game though. I think the SNES could have pulled off the scaling effects using Mode 7. Oh and Wazzo Jugs is the best Patreon backer name ever! 😂
Oh my days Dreamland in Margate, that was a place, went there again just under 10 years ago and it has been neglected. Themepark is gone. You can go in but nothing is there (literally the wooden roller coaster was there and it was a ghost town I was the only one there) sad to see really. I too played a lot of arcade games for the first time there.
It's cuz of acclaims rights as invid said but the licensing of the Simpsons is a pain in the ass full stop. The XBOX 360 and PS3 versions are now gone forever too cuz license ran out.
They really should remake that Simpsons arcade game and also include those mini games that were at the end of each level thought that was one of the best parts of playing the game
"Did they even watch the bloody show?" They couldn't watch it: the show wouldn't premiere on Japanese TV until after it came out, so they based it all on just the promotional materials Fox sent. Hell, most of the characters outside the family are just voiced by Konami staff members.
I wish there was an HD remake of this game, with the same music remastered, and some elements adapted into actual canon of the TV series, for example, Sidekick Bob trying to kill Bart instead of carrying a fried chicken, Bart and Smithers' colors being corrected, etc.
The "Drunk Man" was a non-speaking character that only appeared like in the first 3 seasons in the background of Moe's before Lenny and Carl became major characters. In the episode where Homer steals cable, he's actually in the Simpsons' home. Really, it's a shame this game didn't really have a direct arcade sequel, unless you count The Simpsons Bowling, and the two ticket machines. One also being released early in the show's run being a "cupcake" dropping thing that was like a covered skee ball. But imagine what they could have drawn from just a couple more seasons of Simpsons episodes. Sideshow Bob would be the proper villain, instead of his helpful cameo for one.
I wish Konami would've been able to obtain the rights to produce The Simpsons games for all Nintendo and Sega platforms instead of Acclaim. Who knows there might have been a direct sequel or sequels to this arcade game.
TMNT 1+ 2, Xmen, The Simpsons... Konami was on FIRE during the early 90s
Arcade Fire
Not to mention with their badass music!
Don't forget lethal enforcers 1&2 and yes konami sound tracks were the best
The arcade games like this, X-Men and Avengers were remembered and loved mostly because of the graphics and the rendering of the characters we loved into a video game format. On the original arcade it was like you were controlling an episode of the Simpsons yourself. There was no media other then the show itself that showcased the likeness of the characters at the time as well as this arcade and same goes for the other games in this genre that are fondly remembered.
It's a pity that on a gameplay point they didn't deliver. If it wasn't for the Simpsons trademark, this game would be forgotten by today.
@@yoman8027 It might be repetitious but it's still worth playing to see the background and character art.
0:57 Pause here to see Marge's rabbit ears. Easter egg/reference to Groening's original take on the character, before that idea was written out of the show, which connected it to his previous work, Life in Hell.
The reason why this was never ported to mainstream consoles was because acclaim held the simpsons rights there "blessing" us with such "classics" such as bart vs the space mutants, bart vs the world, bart's nightmare and so on.
It was on PSN for PS3 until it got delisted because of Licence crap
I was just about to comment with this. Acclaim was happy to push out crappy licensed games left and right. It was a real shame as this game would have fit perfectly on the SNES like Turtles in Time did! It often sucked back then different companies could hold the rights to release games in the arcade, home computers and home consoles. It was one big reason why many arcade games never got ports to home consoles.
Ay caramba...
Not forgetting the Gameboy game Bart vs. the Juggernauts, hard game that was.
Honestly Bart's Nightmare is a bit underrated because once you get used to many trial and errors of the 8 minigames, speedrunning it should be no problem.
As for the 3 on the NES, Bart VS The World is the easiest for me due to years of experience
That game is one of my top 10 favorite arcades of all time.
It was phenomenon. The cabinets used to be always crowded with long lines when it debuted in malls all over the city.
To this day, even after the fall of the arcade business, it is still easy to find The Simpsons cabinets in many malls. People just love this game.
same!!! def too 10 arcade games of all time
There may have been both a Simpsons Arcade Game and X-Men Arcade Game port to the SNES and Sega Genesis if Acclaim didn't have the video game license to both properties for those consoles at the time.
Man, I remember wanting to go to chuck e cheese specifically to play this game! Shitty pizza aside, this game was a great part of my childhood!
"First memory of the Simpsons arcade was in the Early 90s at Circus Circus In LasVegas. Watched the game the whole way through to the ending."
Anyone love seeing Marges rabbit ears when she gets Shocked (Electrified)?
I love all the Life in Hell references in the game.
Her Rabbit ears also comes out a bit on one of her attacks (when she spins the vacuum wildly).
My local Godfathers Pizza had both this Simpsons game and the Ninja Turtles arcade games. There just weren't enough quarters in the world back then.
i'd be interested in seeing a fan made homebrew version for snes
A "Beats of Rage" game is more likely to exist. I don't think a Snes homebrew could have what it takes to be as good as this game.
If a 286 can run a fun version with EGA graphics, a SNES could handle this just fine.
@@FallenGemini There were various other downgrades with Turtles in Time but the SNES version is still a brilliant game. I completed it last week with a friend and then we ate pizza 🙂 Simpsons Arcade could be an equally great 16-bit game in the right hands but Acclaim had other ideas. Unfortunately, those ideas didn't turn out to be great Simpsons games.
So glad I purchased and downloaded on Xbox 360, this, TMMT 1989 Classic Arcade, X-Men Arcade and Scott Pilgrim Vs The World before they were (and sadly still) delisted.
This game, the X-men arcade game, and the Spider-Man arcade game (which I hope to see a video on some day), are my earliest arcade memories. Well more literally, they are the first arcade games I ever played.
The goons in suits look like evil versions of Troy McClure (who hadnt debuted yet).
A sequel to this would be interesting with all the source material available now.
This game is an all time arcade classic. Makes you wonder what marvel they could do with all the Simpsons lore available now.
The C64 port is an absolutely amazing technical feat and it's full of so many graphical tricks to get all the enemies and bosses in there as well as the cutscenes. I took a bunch of gameplay footage of it because it's honestly a treat to just watch.
Matt Groening's last name is pronounced so that it rhymes with "raining", not "groaning". :D
I'm actually kinda glad they had little to work with in terms of characters-turned-enemies in the game.
Cause at least they could use their imagination and create their own Simpsons-type OCs as their roster of beat-em-up thugs/bosses. Which somewhat worked well if you ask me.
If it was made now Sideshow Bob Snake and Fat Tony would be bosses
Yo, I'm Chris Kewl and I'm here to say Thanks for repping me in this video, I'm glad I stayed!
Sorry, this game was very 90s and I had to bust out some dope 90s rhymes.
I still play this to this day, never gets old. :)
Who remembers playing this at the rock n' roll macdonalds in downtown Chicago back in the day?
Dreamland was a mixture of separate dreams the four had in the show. The bowling was the enemy because Marge's anger of homers love for bowling. I can't remember but there is an episode where she becomes a good bowlers also
How strange! I never knew there were a Commodore 64 and a DOS version, but posts were absent from other systems.
This was a great arcade game. We had it across the road at the local shops. Many 20 cents spent.
How about Golden Axe Revenge of Death Adder next please.
Its now part if the arcade 1up series
This is why I own a Pandora’s box 4S. It has obscure arcade exclusive Roms which were never released.
Hence why emulation is needed overall
Imho the greatest beat em up of all time.
It was inference from LJN/Acclaim. They had the Simpsons licence on consoles. That's why the arcade ports only showed up on Euro computers. Konami didn't own the proper rights in most regions/ markets.
This makes me want to time travel to the old arcade era 😶
Not a 90s kid, huh? 😥
As a somewhat interesting note, after it came out on the 360 and Playstation 3, Konami revoked the rights to the games on those platforms. Needless to say I was a Sad Panda, but I complained and got my money back but never the games. It is still available through emulation and on the pandoras box.
I loved playing this in the arcade growing up.
Three-eyed fish has a name. It's Blinky.
I grew up playing this and watching the cartoons when it first came.on fox on tje very first episode. In 2010 its finally came.on playstation store and xbox live for 9.99 al ppl mg with xmen the arcade game. Needless to say, I brought it asap lol I got both the tmnt arcade on my gamecube. You did phenomenal job with the avp, tmnt, now this. Your channel is just AWESOME in general. Loved the final fight, SOR, and fatal fury. Do you think you could try World Heroes next?
6:16 "Hired goons...?"
This was 1 of my suggestions,thank you Top Hat Gaming Man.also can u do future videos on the ps2 games the bouncer,& urban reign? As well as scott pilgrim vs the world?
Sadly, Acclaim had the console rights to the Simpsons, and Konami couldn’t port their arcade game to 16-bit systems. It didn’t stop me from wanting it, though. Same thing with the X-Men arcade game, too. I wasn’t the only one begging for the arcade game, either.
To my knowledge, the PS3 version requires you to have an active PlayStation Plus account in order for you to keep playing it, even if you had purchased it before they removed it from the store.
Pissed me off how I didn't know this was on PS3 until it had already been delisted
Same happed on 360. They actually black listed many games. Contra Double Dragon TMNT Golden Ax Simpsons Xmen UMK Street Fighter 2 hyper fighting all black listed.
@@joselombana8381 yeah this is why I like physical games over digital downloads
I was lucky to get them right before they got delisted when they were having a sale on Konami and Marvel games. But I hate that alot of people didn't know about them until it was too late.
@@markpugh6808 I totally agree, but if your ps3 is hacked then you can still get it.
@@joncollins7730 it isn't I don't bother with all that jail break stuff as if you don't know what you're doing you end up with a bricked console and banned from PSN
I loved beat em ups like Final Fight and the Ninja Turtles arcade games as a kid. And I played the hell out of Bart vs. The Space Mutants on NES. But I never knew the Simpsons arcade game existed until playing an emulated version in the early 2000's.
Another classic gem from Konami and still a great rival to capcom's awesome beat-em ups! Its funny that this game covered seasons 1 & 2 of The Simpsons when a future installment could easily cover later seasons! Imagine Homer with a Mr. Plow special move or a boss fight from The Treehouse of Horror specials?!
Yeah and Sideshow Bob being a boss fight as he was a Villain and not the good guy he is portrayed as in this game
Or a second run with Frank Grimes Jr. and Slideshow Bob as final bosses. Also mocking both Fox and Konami IPs.
Treehouse of Horror like a survival mode: One life only.
By 1991, the Simpsons were quickly becoming a pop culture mega event after it had kicked off with its own series in 1989. Mixing animation in with a classic American sitcom formula struck a chord that echoed on down into a titanic empire a quarter of a century later enabling it to become the longest running American sitcom and animated American series with a whopping 32 seasons in the can as of this writing.
So when Konami swooped down in their Vic Viper to license this, it was just the start of their banquet of arcade adaptations that they would feast on later in 1992. At that point, they were still getting warmed up, but they were hitting home runs with popular beat ’em up adaptations of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1989 and its sequel in 1991 sharing the year with The Simpsons’ first video game.
Back then, Konami didn’t standardize its hardware the way that Capcom and SNK would try to do with the CPS-1 and Neo Geo MVS respectively. They often followed the approach that arcade hardware museum System 16 remarks as being “what CPU have we got a lot of today”. As a result, they had a varied collection of arcade boards over the years, some powering no more than two games, others being shared by a few more with tweaks.
The Simpsons used the same basic board that would power the X-Men in 1992 but instead of using Motorola’s 68000 CPU, it relied on a custom variant dubbed the KONAMI running at 3 Mhz which was itself based on Motorola’s 6809 8-bit CPU. Despite that, the hardware was up to the task sharing relatively the same graphics chip setup shared by titles such as Vendetta and X-Men and featuring a few nifty tricks such as the kind of sprite scaling effects seen in Turtles in Time (which used a different board) as enemies were thrown at the screen.
Like with Turtles in Time’s enhanced graphics along with Asterix and C.O.W. Boys of Moo Mesa in 1992, Konami’s artists continued to pay close attention in successfully translating the feeling of playing through an animated episode thanks to amazing pixel work. It didn’t try to fool anyone that it was going for the laserdisc quality on the level of a Dragon’s Lair, but Konami’s work brought it close enough to immerse the players in the spirit of the series they attempted to emulate without being as linear.
The game was played using an eight-way joystick allowing for 3D movement in its side-scrolling levels (from left to right). Two buttons, one for attack and another for jumping, did all of the heavy lifting. There was no “desperation” or “super” attack performed by hitting both - just a kind of different jumping attack. But the game made up for that with a clever bit of co-op allowing two players to create combo attacks, such as Marge and Homer coming together in a cartwheel attack or Bart sitting on Homer’s shoulders and whaling on enemies with his skateboard from above. It was a hugely creative leap for a beat ’em up.
The Simpsons family (and their voice actors) are involved in this crazy adventure and none of them have any particular weaknesses or strengths over the others. There’s Homer who likes to bicycle punch and kick in midair. Marge, his wife, is bringing along her vacuum cleaner for the fight. Bart, their son, gets around on his skateboard and uses it to smash the face of whoever is in his way. Lisa, his sister, uses jump rope to whip her way through foes…occasionally tangling herself in it without breaking her stride. Four player co-op (characters were determined by which stick position on the cabinet you wanted to feed coins into) turned the game into a cartoonish frenzy of flying fists, jumping vacuum attacks, and combos.
At the center of all of this is baby Maggie. While taking a walk in downtown Springfield, the Simpsons bump into Mr. Smithers, the well to-do kiss ass stooge of the town’s resident oligarch, Mr. Burns. Smithers is racing out of a jewelry store where he’s just stolen a pretty big sparkler. Bumping into the Simpsons, the gem goes flying and lands in Maggie’s mouth mistaking it for a pacifier. So Smithers does the next best thing - he takes Maggie with him during his escape and the Simpsons take up the chase through eight stages of thugs, zombies, ninjas, and donuts. Yes, donuts.
Stages were imaginative stuff built around famous Springfield locales ranging from downtown to Moe’s Bar and the finale at Mr. Burns’ office at his nuclear plant. There’s even a dream sequence pitting players against donuts shooting donuts, cloud sprouts shaped like Marge’s head, little Bart devils, flying saxophones, and an giant bowling ball boss. Two bonus stages also helped to break up the action Track & Field style (which Konami was also responsible for in 1983) with alternating button mashing: a balloon inflating contest and the other to slap your chosen Simpson awake after having that nightmare. A fantastic soundtrack composed by Norio Hanzawa (Bucky O’Hare, Guardian Heroes, Gunstar Heroes ) easily complimented the action.
There were also a lot of throwables ranging from rocks and mailboxes to mutant, three-eyed fish. Food, such as hamburgers and hot dogs, were often delivered by other characters but also sometimes found lying around. There were even occasional weapons like slingshots and hammers. The Japanese version also had miniature, tossable nukes.
Action-wise, the game was fast paced and with a fine variety of enemies with cameos by many of The Simpsons’ major characters such as Professor Werner von Brawn who acts as the boss encounter at the end of the first stage. Enemies didn’t have health gauges (Konami didn’t really seem to be big on those for TMNT, either) but most of the trash mobs were easily dispatched. Instead, the bosses would begin flashing red whenever they were nearing their end or in the giant bowling ball’s case, right before it became even meaner. And they could be tough to take down especially when Mecha Burns shows up at the end.
The game also had a lot of little touches. Hitting apple trees for health-restoring apples too often makes a rabbit (from Groening’s Life in Hell comic strips who also shows up as an enemy in the game) appear from the branches with a drop sign telling the player that there’s nothing left. Taking too long prompts the game to flash a big hand on the right of the screen to tell you to get moving - and then if you still take too long, comes over and flicks your character to make its point. Standing idle will also elicit each of The Simpsons to say or do something such as Bart breaking the fourth wall by looking at the screen and asking “Who the hell are you?”.
The Simpsons is one of Konami’s best beat ’em up efforts and probably one of the very best in their beat ’em up lineup - at least as far as the arcades go - easily holding its own with both Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle cabs and even Gaiapolis’ mix of high fantasy and sci-fi. Their creative team outdid themselves with the sheer variety of enemies in the game, takes on each stage, and combo co-op attacks that make it a unique experience. While it might not be as flashy or as explosive as a typical Capcom beat ’em up, it’s another brilliant adaptation of a popular cartoon series into a formula that anyone can party with.
Unfortunately, unlike TMNT, it never got a sequel in the arcade, but it did get a number of ports to other systems such as the Commodore 64 and an MS-DOS PCs in the same year that the arcade game arrived (1991). 21 years later, it would finally land on consoles in 2012 when a downloadable version hit Xbox Live Arcade and PSN.
After The Simpsons’ digital debut, the series continued on to have a long and varied history on consoles and handhelds where new games continued to add more gems to its media crown. Even so, not all of them were quite as polished as their first outing which still holds up as one of the best, and most creative, adaptations that Konami had ever made for the arcade.
This was one of the weirdest games ever made with the Simpsons, but yeah, they only had one or two seasons to really draw from.
The Simpsons Arcade is timeless and a time capsule all in one. Homer is the strongest power and health with least rage, Marge is slow decent health but has tons of rage, Bart is the fastest with good range average hp while Lisa is the balanced character. The mobile version was made by EA I really didn't finish it because I play it casually and it has microtransactions for lives.
Apparently i bought this game on the ps3 when i was going through my download list lol never played it though
Long time follower. Glad you are still at it and couldn't miss this one, as I had seen this game beaten in full from start to finish several times in my youth. I used to be the one persuading other kids to come join in order to finish it with their quarters.
This game was SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! And so well designed too!
Man, I remember being amazed when first seeing this in arcades! I couldn't get enough of it!
I saw leaks that The Simpsons was getting an Arcade1UP release. Judging by the control deck, it might also include Simpsons Bowling
I used to visit the arcades just to play this game! I work in Margate and drive past Dreamland every day
I loved that a continue resulted in: Super Homer, Super Marge, Super Lisa and... BARTMAN.
This was Brilliant! memories of my caravan holidays at wales
This shit was so good. Konami and Capcom just knew how to make good games.
the bear's from the episode where they go camping
When I went to my local pizza hut back in the day they use to have Mortal Kombat and The Simpsons arcade game. Waiting for pizza was so fun.
This was a great game indeed. I loved to play this and X-Men. There was always a line at the pizza parlors, arcades, and at the occasional Laundromats around town. I thought that the inspiration for the game was based on concept ideas before there was a show, which is why Bart’s shirt is blue and Marge has bunny ears when shocked. Great content though, I enjoy your bits of gaming information and have learned quiet a lot from your knowledge, research, and having actual passion on your hunt for more...
the game has so much going on that its simply a visual feast. i swear i never knew about the team up moves. most brawlers condition the gamer to stay away from the other players to avoid hitting friendlies.
Nor did I. That's quite a neat surprise.
Hey, Top Hat Gaming Man. You should do a video on Battle Circuit. It is Capcom's last beat 'em up game for the arcade. It will be cool to do a video of it.
Dope video!
I always associate this game with the state fair, because that's where I first played it, and would always play it at least once every year if it was there. They had a whole tent on the midway dedicated to arcade games and it was an absolute delight.
Not that it matters, but as Matt puts it, Groening rhymes with complaining.
I'd love it if they would do a HALLOWEEN so ripped directly from this game, ripped into 3 stories, all in which the Simpson's get to fight in a setting based on this game.
I have to say, forgotten might be a misnomer. Obscure or unknown entirely fits better. I mean, not even an acquaintance of mine who collects C64 things knew about that port.
I played this game all the time on MAME when i was 7.
My favorite Simpson's game is hit and run on ps2 I'd never seen this before interesting and good video Mr monopoly
My school had a party at the roller rink each year. And each year, we crowded around this cabinet, hoping someone was rich enough to have the quarters needed for those final bosses.
yeah, my brother and I spent about 20 bucks in quarters beating this game at a huge arcade in Virginia Beach, VA....
I was always surprised to find out this game got ported to the C64 but then Konami did have ports of so many of their games from both the NES and Arcade ported to the system not found anywhere else. Castlevania and Metal Gear as well as the TMNT NES game are all quite reasonable conversions for the time and just looking at ports like that on the C64 more into the 90s can really surprise people what came out on the system.
One the strangest thing was about Marge's bunny ears, hidden by the hair but can be seen when electrocuted or when stuck with the cleaner 😮.
I remember this game fondly The Simpsons arcade game was a pretty good one for its time I remember playing this game with my cousins so this game really brings back a lot of memories for me so thank you for that.
Ate so many of my quarters when I went to SHowbiz Pizza. Love it!
It really is a classic game, like Turtles I don’t know how much money my parents fed into the machine in Woolacombe to brute force my brother and I to the end of the game but it was great fun and also like Turtles it felt like playing an episode of the cartoon. I agree the game is very much a time capsule of the early days of the Simpsons, including Barney having blonde hair and Bart appearing as Bartman when he loses a life. It’s like a double helping of nostalgia.
I always wondered who that boss in Moe’s Tavern was meant to be too. He kind of looks like Moe but meaner, I always thought he was Moe’s brother. He does remind me a little bit of Herman (the one armed army vet), maybe they based it on him and then changed their minds?
I guess the reason we never got home ports on the SNES or Megadrive is because Acclaim had the rights, so we ended up with tripe like Space Mutants, Bart’s Nightmare, Virtual Bart, etc. They really milked the licence, it’s a shame they didn’t do a deal with Konami for the arcade game though. I think the SNES could have pulled off the scaling effects using Mode 7.
Oh and Wazzo Jugs is the best Patreon backer name ever! 😂
First played this gem at Celebration Station. Always got forced to playing with Marge. Lol
Marge is fighting with a vacuum cleaner, makes one wonder was she carrying one the whole time out in the town, even before Maggie got kidnapped?
The suit Mr Burns uses launches Mini Nukes so Fallout took that as an inspiration
Oh my days Dreamland in Margate, that was a place, went there again just under 10 years ago and it has been neglected. Themepark is gone. You can go in but nothing is there (literally the wooden roller coaster was there and it was a ghost town I was the only one there) sad to see really. I too played a lot of arcade games for the first time there.
It's cuz of acclaims rights as invid said but the licensing of the Simpsons is a pain in the ass full stop. The XBOX 360 and PS3 versions are now gone forever too cuz license ran out.
They really should remake that Simpsons arcade game and also include those mini games that were at the end of each level thought that was one of the best parts of playing the game
I always wondered....were the bosses ever real characters from the game?
You should do bucky o hare next
Simpsons and Xmen arcade need to come back...again!
You can see Marge was originally a Rabbit in disguise in the Simpsons in this game. Which was later changed.
I still have it saved on my Xbox 360 hard drive
"Did they even watch the bloody show?"
They couldn't watch it: the show wouldn't premiere on Japanese TV until after it came out, so they based it all on just the promotional materials Fox sent.
Hell, most of the characters outside the family are just voiced by Konami staff members.
I wish there was an HD remake of this game, with the same music remastered, and some elements adapted into actual canon of the TV series, for example, Sidekick Bob trying to kill Bart instead of carrying a fried chicken, Bart and Smithers' colors being corrected, etc.
I still have it in my ps3 along with scott pilgrim,lol. Please do a video for that simpsons arcade remake.
Konami’s The Simpsons played like 1989’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game, with up to 4 players joining in on a scrolling action story.
My favorite arcade machine
I told myself if Arcade 1up ever makes this cabinet I am buying it.
It's happening.
Man, this game was great. I really miss those days sometimes.
The "Drunk Man" was a non-speaking character that only appeared like in the first 3 seasons in the background of Moe's before Lenny and Carl became major characters. In the episode where Homer steals cable, he's actually in the Simpsons' home. Really, it's a shame this game didn't really have a direct arcade sequel, unless you count The Simpsons Bowling, and the two ticket machines. One also being released early in the show's run being a "cupcake" dropping thing that was like a covered skee ball. But imagine what they could have drawn from just a couple more seasons of Simpsons episodes. Sideshow Bob would be the proper villain, instead of his helpful cameo for one.
I do have this on my PS3, and since it's been taken down due to licensing issues, I dread the day my PS3 dies, taking Simpsons and X-Men with it.,
When I got the PS3 the games were taken down already. I wish I would of downloaded them.
I didn't know about it until it had already been delisted I would defo have gotten it but at least I have the game on an Emulator on my PC
Mame and a joystick dude...
You should be fine unless you tagged your PSN ID to another system already.
@@coreyweatherford3297 I remember having trouble getting MAME to work...
I love this game and so does my lad.. we have this on numerous handheld systems
So glad your covering this. Thanks THGM
Cover simpsons 2009 man!
awesome game then and now, always fun to play. I have the PS3 version of this and the TMNT-reloaded games.👍
I love the Simpsons
There's something hilariously strange about an evil Mr Smithers...
I wish Konami would've been able to obtain the rights to produce The Simpsons games for all Nintendo and Sega platforms instead of Acclaim. Who knows there might have been a direct sequel or sequels to this arcade game.
Luckily the game was released on PS3 and Xbox 360 but I’d still shell out the money for a Arcade 1up cabinet release.