The Simpson's Video Games is the video game that has used some of the characters from the well known animated television serial "The Simpsons". The Simpson's animated show has been one of the longest running television series of all time. It is a rare example of an animated series that appealed to both kids and adults. The show revolves around the potbellied, beer chugging, chronically lazy "papa" Homer Simpson and his dysfunctional family.
Such was the popularity of the jagged haired, jaundiced complexioned toons, it didn't take the video game industry too long to realize that it was sitting on a virtual goldmine and soon these television characters were packaged into several action packed video games. While critics weren't too happy with the first few video games, most Simpsons video games have been commercially very successful.
The Simpson's video games feature some of craziest and most hilarious story lines to have ever been written. The Simpson's video games have crossed all kinds of video games systems and genres that include Bart Vs the Juggemauts, Simpson's Skateboarding, The Simpson's Road Rage, The Simpson's Hit & Run, Krust's Super Fun House and Virtual Springfield. The present generation has been rather more traditional by the general public beginning with the Simpson's Road Rage which was actually based on the Crazy Taxi.
The first Simpsons game was designed and released by Konami in 1991 and was called "The Simpsons". It's based on the "beat' em up" genre of arcade games and is based on the same gaming engine as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade game. In the game the Simpsons family must stop the billionaire Mr Burns and his gay-lant sidekick, Smithers from stealing the giant diamond from Springfield jewelers.
Again in the same year, Acclaim released another Simpsons based video game - The Simpsons: Bart Vs. the Space Mutants, was released. In this single player game, Bart being the only kid on this planet who knows the secret of the Aliens must do every thing in his power, which means collecting points, weird objects like purple hats and radio active rods before he meets and fights the Boss at the end of each level.
The arcade games were good solid fun, but the Simpsons video games came into their own when they were designed for the advanced gaming consoles.
The Simpsons Hit & Run video game which was released in the 2003 for such advanced consoles like the Xbox, Nintendo GameCube and the PS2, belonged to the action adventure genre. The game is based on the sand box format in which, instead of the restricting the player with strict goals he is given the liberty to explore the city of Springfield and find his own adventures. In order to make the game more realistic, the story and the dialogues were written the writers of the show itself.
In 2007, EA Mobile released The Simpsons: Minutes to Meltdown, a 3D action adventure games for mobile phones. In this game Homer Simpson has to save the world from being destroyed by a nuclear meltdown. It's another thoroughly enjoyable game that that has been loved the critics and gamers alike.
