Fortnite developer Epic Games has said it will adjust an image within its newly-launched The Simpsons season that depicts shopkeeper Apu Nahasapeemapetilon with light-colored skin.
Fans spotted the image earlier this week on the wall of Moe’s Tavern, where a classic picture from The Simpsons depicts Apu, Barney, Homer and Principal Skinner during their tenure as barbershop quartet The Be Sharps.
Apu is erroneously shown with the same yellow skin tone as his fellow singers, though as many were quick to point out, the character is depicted correctly in other pictures within the same location.
Now, amid press reports that suggested Epic Games was somehow trying to erase the character, the developer has responded with a short statement posted to social media. “This wasn’t intentional, it’s being adjusted in our next release,” Epic Games wrote, in an update on its Fortnite Status account.
Recent years have seen Apu take more of a backseat on The Simpsons, following the release of the 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu which strongly criticised the character as a racist South Asian stereotype. Long-term The Simpsons voice actor Hank Azaria subsequently announced he would no longer portray the role — and since then, the character has only appeared without dialogue.
I’m about an hour into Whiskerwood, the new city builder from Minakata Dynamics and publishers Hooded Horse, and I’ve already made an absolute mess of my coastline. A clever and charismatic hybrid of Against The Storm, Robin Jarvis novels and the settlement of North America, Whiskerwood puts you in charge of some mice building colonies on cuboid islands. The islands are lovely so far, their Minecrafty nooks and crannies crying out to be decked with gardens and windmills and cobblestone paths. But you’ve got taxes to pay, so the first thing you do is sink a bunch of mineshafts at random, scooping out coal and copper for the literal fat cats back at court.
The Simpsons has been a television staple since 1989, spanning over 790 episodes, a theatrically released feature film, another on the way, and a ton of video game adaptations, a few of which were genuinely great. After all, The Simpsons even invented its own in-universe video games, referenced actual video games constantly, and even went to a video game convention. But as a sitcom family featuring members that mostly spent their time at work, school, or hanging around the house, making a video game out of The Simpsons was no easy task, inspiring developers to create entire Simpsons games out of things that maybe appeared in an episode once, or just make up a game idea out of thin air, leading to some truly crazy results. Here is the weird, wild history of The Simpsons video games.
Don’t have a cow, man.
Bart vs. the Space Mutants (1991)
The very first Simpsons video game is a truly bizarre one. Bart vs. The Space Mutants was incredibly ambitious and packed with great references to the show, even if it wasn’t exactly fun to play. The title screen played a chiptune version of the theme song over an 8-bit version of the iconic TV family and their beloved couch, fuzzy voice samples allowed Bart to say things like “Eat My Shorts,” and you could even prank call Moe the bartender from outside of his tavern. By the way, if you don’t like that chiptune cover of The Simpson’s theme song, tough luck, because it plays on loop for the entirety of some of its very long levels.
It being the first Simpsons video game that players could buy at a store and shove into their NES consoles made it a huge sales success, even though it was notoriously obtuse, punishingly difficult, featured unreliable and floaty platforming mechanics, and was frankly just plain odd for anyone who even had a passing familiarity with the show. Using “They Live” style glasses that Bart can wear to see invisible aliens, he’s able to traverse through the streets (while also dodging visible aliens) so he can spray paint purple objects around Springfield because the aliens… need purple objects… for intergalactic dominance… or something.
As a kid, Bart vs. the Space Mutants was probably the first time I realized a video game based on a TV show or movie I loved could be bad, a life lesson that the NES handed out constantly during that era. But hey, we all thought it was the coolest that Bart talked and skateboarded in the game, and we were used to pushing through brutally hard video games at the time, so we all made the best of it… even if I didn’t know a single kid who actually beat this game without using a cheat code device like the Game Genie.
Besides, in 1991 we all knew the real best Simpsons game wasn’t in our living rooms but at the arcade across town…
The Simpsons Arcade Game (1991)
Do you know how fun your video game has to be to convince a ten year old boy that he should play as a stay at home mother of three with a vacuum cleaner? Really fun, and luckily The Simpsons arcade game was an absolute blast, especially with three of your friends huddled around it after devouring two whole pizzas at a birthday party. The early ’90s arcade scene was packed with co-op sidescrolling beat ‘em up games based on things like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and the X-Men, and The Simpsons fit right in, ready and eager to devour your arcade tokens.
Not only was The Simpsons arcade game absolutely gorgeous (thanks to the brilliant artists and game developers at Konami) but it was also incredibly funny, packed with obvious and esoteric references to the show. And while its plot (rescue Maggie from Smithers because she thinks a stolen diamond is a pacifier?) didn’t make much sense, who cares? It was a great excuse to send the entire Simpsons family into the streets together to beat the crap out of bad poorly dressed henchmen, zombies, bears, gigantic Krusty the Clown balloons, and whatever else the game decides to chuck at you.
Unfortunately you can’t purchase this game and play it on modern video game platforms, although it was ported to consoles in 2013 before being delisted for good. You can, however, spend hundreds of dollars on a recreated Arcade 1-UP version, a thing I’ve been tempted to do dozens of times in my adult life and somehow been able to resist. 34 years later, The Simpsons arcade game is still one of the best Simpsons video games ever made, and a completely kickass beat ‘em up in its own right. I really hope Konami decides to re-release it so more people can experience this absolute classic.
Bart Simpson’s Escape from Camp Deadly (1991)
Meanwhile that same year, in my back pocket, the AA battery-devouring machine known as the Nintendo Game Boy got its own exclusive Simpsons game called Escape from Camp Deadly. It was once again way more difficult than it had any right to be. Compared to the NES game, though, Bart’s character sprite was at least more than seven pixels tall, even if the Game Boy’s limited palette made his eyes look like he was perpetually stoned.
Escape from Camp Deadly, as the name suggests, is about Bart fleeing a deranged and dangerous summer camp where people throw knives and forks during cafeteria food fights and guys that look like undercover cops try to beat you to death in a forest. And you thought summer school sucked. This game wasn’t great by any stretch, but it was satisfying enough and also had the benefit of being a portable game you could suffer through anywhere you went, from the school bus to your own terrible summer camp. And if you make it to the ending you even get to see Camp Deadly get shut down and a skunk joins your family celebration, because why not.
Bart vs. the World (1991)
Acclaim’s second Simpson’s NES game in the same year was Bart vs. the World, a game about Bart winning a contest that puts him on a global scavenger hunt, which is mostly just a thin excuse to drop him in international locations that have no bearing on reality, like a huge boat in China where people shoot fireworks at kids, and the North Pole’s frozen river – a dream vacation of every child wearing a t-shirt and shorts.
Bart vs. the World plays like much more of a standard platforming game than vs. the Space Mutants did, and the end result is a slightly-better-but-still-not-great game. But hey, you at least can turn into Bartman and fly around, there are minigames to break things up between levels, Moe the Bartender tries to kill you with beers, and you can throw pies in the faces of Smithers and Mr. Burns for an uncomfortably long stretch of time.
Bart’s House of Weirdness (1991)
Somehow the fifth Simpsons video game released in 1991, Bart’s House of Weirdness brings Konami back into the picture for an MS-DOS game (and if you know what that means, you should schedule a colonoscopy) that once again pits Bart against a bunch of stuff in Springfield that is trying to kill him. Or should I say “uncool” him, since the game’s health bar is actually a cool meter that goes down depending on how much you get hurt.
Despite being named Bart’s House of Weirdness, most of the game is actually spent outside of Bart’s house doing the usual Simpson’s video game stuff like fighting aliens or looking at long, awkward poses on loading screens. Overall it’s a pretty good looking game and use of the license in general (although the theme song cover here is completely unhinged) even if it’s nowhere near the same level of quality as Konami’s other Simpson’s game that year.
Bart vs. The Juggernauts (1992)
The year 1992 brought us a trio of new Simpsons games, the most unhinged of them being Bart vs. The Juggernauts, a parody of the hit late ’80s/early ’90s competitive strongman show, American Gladiators, now set in Springfield. Oh, and it’s hosted by resident surly news anchor Kent Brockman and local therapist Marvin Monroe, both of which assume no legal responsibility for the public beating that Bart is about to endure. Bart Simpson – canonically a fourth grader – takes on numerous Juggernauts, hulking behemoths who want to pulverize him for cash and prizes. So yes, exactly the kind of lawsuit factory that infamous Simpsons lawyer Lionel Hutz would’ve loved.
While the premise is deranged, the writing is genuinely witty and sharp, with all of the adults fully aware that this televised tournament is a reckless and dangerous thing to throw kids into, especially the level where Bart has to punch and jump kick a grown woman at Moe’s Tavern, a dive bar full of cheering alcoholics. Oh, and that’s when he’s not jousting against a different grown up to see who can push their opponent into a pit of toxic sludge down at Mr. Burns’ power plant, which is exactly how The Joker once became a thing. Bart vs. The Juggernauts is essentially a minigame collection strung loosely together lby cutscenes, and while the game as a whole can feel kind of hit or miss, it’s a unique take on the source material. Plus, it ends with Bart winning his very own Truckasaurus for his family to drive home with, and really, how can anyone be mad at that?
Krusty’s Fun House (1992)
After several Simpsons games starring Bart were released back to back (with many, many more to come) it was time to send in the clowns and give Krusty his own video game. Well, sort of. Krusty’s Fun House was technically a reskin of an Amiga game called Rat Trap that Acclaim decided to throw Krusty and some other Simpsons sprites into, sort of like how Super Mario characters took over the Japanese game Doki Doki Panic when it was released in the US. If you’ve ever played Lemmings or the Mario vs Donkey Kong games, you’ll quickly recognize that Krusty’s Fun House plays similarly but with a slightly darker outcome for the tiny herdlings: that’s because the player has to lure them into large machines where they’ll be smashed to bits. So probably not quite what you’d expect from a Krusty the Clown game but at the same time exactly the kind of thing you’d expect Krusty the Clown to do in his free time, so hey, why not.
Bartman Meets Radioactive Man (1992)
While Krusty was dealing with diseased vermin infestations, Bart was busy tackling other potentially deadly health code violations in 1992’s Bartman Meets Radioactive Man, which finally features Bart’s superhero alter-ego Bartman as a permanently playable character rather than a temporary power-up. Unfortunately, it’s marred by the same floaty platforming that plagued the previous Acclaim Simpsons games, and while the Bartman flying levels mix up the pacing a bit, it mostly lands in the middle of that all-too-common licensed NES game ditch of way too hard and not very fun.
The entirety of Bartman Meets Radioactive Man is set in locations that have nothing to do with any Simpsons episodes and feature little to no Simpsons references or characters at all, so it’s not even like it’s worth pushing through if you’re a Simpsons fan. In hindsight it’s pretty crazy how much Bartman stuff was out there by 1992 considering that character didn’t exactly have a huge presence on the show at the time, and I say that as someone who once successfully begged his parents to buy him a Bartman action figure. God I loved that thing. The Bartman video game, not so much.
Bart’s Nightmare (1993)
On to the year 1993, where Bart Simpson is once again starring in an absolute fever dream of a Simpsons game, although this time that’s finally a deliberate choice. Bart’s Nightmare opens with Bart passing out face first into his homework and waking up in an imaginary hellscape where all of the pages have flown out of his bedroom window and on to a chaotic fantasy version of the streets of Springfield. While dodging obstacles with a jumping sound effect that sounds like a sick cat about to retch, Bart must collect his missing homework pages, triggering one of several random doors that lead to even crazier nightmares.
Behind one door there’s a Godzilla-inspired stage where Bart has to dodge a version of Mothra that looks like his mom (Margethra, I guess?) Behind another, a side-scrolling shoot ‘em up style level where Bartman takes down missiles and Krusty balloons with his trusty slingshot. There’s even a stage where Itchy and Scratchy try to kill Bart with hammers and bazookas while sentient vacuum cleaners tear across the carpet. Does any of this make any sense? No, and nightmares seldom do, so hey, just roll with it and try to get an A+ as your final score so the whole family can stare in awe at your hard work and dedication (although it’s not entirely clear if Bart didn’t just write that grade on the paper himself.)
Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness (1993)
Hey, it’s about time that Itchy & Scratchy – The Simpsons’ ultra-violent parody of Tom & Jerry – got their very own video game, although a side-scrolling mini golf game was probably not exactly what most fans expected at the time. Still, Itchy & Scratchy in Miniature Golf Madness manages to be ultra-violent, which is especially funny for a Game Boy game rated “E for everyone.”
It’s Scratchy’s job to whack the ball over various obstacles and into the hole while managing challenging platforming sequences and collecting weapons he can use to blow up, maim, and straight up chop in half his resident nuisance animal, Itchy, who repeatedly makes it a point to annoy and harm him. Somehow this is all Krusty’s fault for reasons that are never clearly explained and ultimately don’t matter, because the end result was unique, especially when you consider your typical minigolf game at the time didn’t involve throwing knives or hitting a mouse so hard his eyeballs fly off of his face and into the 18th hole.
Bart & the Beanstalk (1994)
Okay, I promise this is the last Acclaim-developed Simpsons game for the original Nintendo Game Boy. I swear. 1994 was when The Simpsons was right in the middle of its peak of popularity, so obviously the best place to set the next video game starring ‘90s cool kid Bart Simpson was the 1700’s royalty-free British fairy tale, Jack and the Beanstalk. Wait, what? Acclaim, a publisher clearly set on riding The Simpsons license until the wagon wheels fell off, once again gave Bart a short and floaty platforming game for the Nintendo Game Boy, this time a retelling of the classic story of a poor kid selling his family’s cow to make money and then spending said money on a magical bean that grows into a towering beanstalk leading to a giant’s castle.
There is no logical explanation for why any Simpson would be doing any of this unless some ‘90s video game executive heard Bart’s oft-repeated “don’t have a cow, man” line and decided a fable about a family selling their cow was a perfect fit. That’s the best I can do here. Let me know if you’ve got a better idea. Bart & the Beanstalk is once again a strange fit for the license and, outside of the giant looking like Homer and a cloud shaped boss looking like Mr. Burns, there’s not much here for Simpsons fans… although it does finally bring closure to Acclaim’s prolific and peculiar run of Game Boy exclusive Simpsons games. Rest in peace.
Virtual Bart (1994)
It doesn’t really get any more 1990s than Homer voice actor Dan Castellaneta yelling “Virtual Bart” over the intro of a 16-bit video game. See, in 1994 virtual reality seemed like the coolest concept in the world, even if nobody really knew what it meant and it was a label thrown around for anything from video games to just… being on the internet and doing virtual stuff like reading websites. The idea of putting on a futuristic helmet or special glasses and suddenly being whisked away to a simulated 3D world was every kid’s dream, and with very early VR experiences starting to trickle out in arcades, and movies like Demolition Man and the Lawnmower man showing their various uses, combining VR and Bart Simpson made a ton of sense if you were a marketing guy trying to get a kid to buy a video game. That said, Virtual Bart is mostly a randomized mini-game collection where Bart does various things every kid thought was cool, like watersliding, dirt bike riding, throwing eggs at teachers, and uhh, turning into a pig and escaping a canned ham factory. Yeah, that kind of stuff. Cool stuff kids love. Virtual stuff. Cool.
The Itchy & Scratchy Game (1995)
Back for another ultra violent action platforming game (this time without any pesky mini-golf to get in the way) 1995’s The Itchy & Scratchy Game lets you play as Itchy to exact revenge on that horrible cat who is always trying to kill you. The Itchy & Scratchy Game feels like someone said “What if we made a much slower and much worse Sonic the Hedgehog game with horrendous controls and level design and we gave it a soundtrack that sounded like people hitting loose floorboards with hammers the whole time. That would suck, right? Who cares, kids won’t know it sucks, just ship it.”
Well, we did know. We knew then and we know now and this game was so bad that nobody made another Itchy & Scratchy game for nearly 15 years after this. More on that later, but until then, it’s time we say goodbye to Acclaim’s seemingly endless run of mostly-not-great Simpsons video games and kick the license over to a bunch of new publishers. Thank for your service Acclaim, you may go away now.
The Simpsons Cartoon Studio (1996)
Watching Simpsons cartoons is great, but have you ever wanted to make your own? Turns out it’s really hard but still very funny if you got silly, creative, or weird enough with it, which was pretty much a given in The Simpsons Cartoon Studio for PC and Mac. Hot off the heels of “build your own cartoon” programs like Spider-Man Cartoon Maker and Felix the Cat’s Cartoon Toolbox, The Simpsons Cartoon Studio lets you layer tons of different characters, effects, and sounds over various Simpsons settings to create hilarious and surrealist short films. It’s not really a “game” in that it doesn’t have a defined ending or scoring system, since creative expression is the whole point, but it still manages to yield some very fun and stupid results. Also, I’m completely convinced that several movie directors working today cut their teeth by editing short films in these ’90s PC animation programs based on children’s cartoons. Just my theory, though. I have no proof.
The Simpsons: Virtual Springfield (1997)
The year is 1997 and while The Simpsons grip on pop culture is starting to loosen, excitement over the nebulous concept of all things “virtual” continued to climb, giving us the best-looking Simpsons game that had been released up until that time. Virtual Springfield decided to make the Simpsons home town the main character, allowing players to explore it through a device the game calls a “Virtual Reality Viewthingy,” which allows a first-person view of various Simpsons characters, settings, and gags, simply by pointing and clicking around.
But by far the greatest thing that Virtual Springfield gave the world is the promotional contest tied to it, where one lucky winner would become the owner of a real-life recreation of The Simpsons house built in Henderson, Nevada. Not only did they actually build the iconic house inside and out, but the contest winner refused the prize, accepting cash instead, and the local HOA hated its vibrant colors and decorations for looking out of place in the neighborhood, so it got stripped of all its Simpsons charm and repainted to a much more muted beiges and browns, none of which has stopped diehard Simpsons fans from traveling from around the world to visit it to this day. That story completely blew my mind, so thank you to Virtual Springfield and the adjacent Simpsons contests happening that year for bringing it all to life.
The Simpsons Bowling (2000)
Welcome to the year 2000! You successfully survived the Y2K bug hysteria and your reward is a trackball arcade bowling game starring The Simpsons. It’s a bit odd that it took nine years of Simpsons video games to get one based on bowling, considering how much of a presence bowling has the show (in Homer’s life, specifically, much to Marge’s chagrin.) And while seeing low-poly 3D modeled Simpsons characters is slightly disturbing, the game itself is fun enough. Like the original Konami Simpsons Arcade Game, The Simpsons Bowling lives on in the recreated 1-Up Arcade Simpsons cabinet (which I’m once again trying to talk myself out of buying) so if you’re eager to track one down or get lucky enough to find one in the game room of a real bowling alley out there, you can experience it all over again.
The Simpsons Wrestling (2001)
Finally, PlayStation owners get their first Simpsons game ever and it’s a… wrestling simulator? Uh, ok. If you thought the 3D graphics in Simpsons Bowling were jarring, get a look at this thing. Yikes. At the time, 3D wrestling games like WWF Smackdown and No Mercy were huge hits, while Simpsons popularity and general episode quality definitely started to dip a bit, so The Simpsons Wrestling may have been some kind of hail mary hopeful situation for the franchise. Players and critics alike almost universally hated it, with IGN calling it “the most horrific demolition of a license ever.” But hey, you get to punch Flanders in the face, so at least Homer probably loved it.
The Simpsons: Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror (2001)
Oh, you thought we were done with Game Boy Simpsons games developed by a video game publisher that once filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy, only to return years later when their company trademarks were purchased and repurposed by investment groups? Well, THQ says “Hold my Duff Beer.” The Simpsons: Night of the Living Treehouse of Horror is a Game Boy Color action platformer inspired by The Simpsons’ tradition of annual spooky Halloween time episodes, and somehow it’s actually a pretty fun game and solid proof that The Simpsons worked better as pixel art in the early 2000s. And hey, you can even play as robot Homer as a nod to the Simpsons 1991 Frankenstein meets Wizard of Oz parody “If I Only Had a Brain.”
The Simpsons Road Rage (2001)
Finally, a Simpsons driving simulator, or “What if they made a whole video game of that part in The Simpsons show intro where Homer drives recklessly around Springfield?” The Simpsons Road Rage is basically The Simpsons meets Crazy Taxi, a comparison that Sega found so striking that it actually sued EA and FOX over it before settling out of court. Developer Radical Entertainment would go on to make a much better game where you wreak havoc and destruction around Springfield a few years later, but if you could push past the frequent loading screens and unreliable hit detection, The Simpsons Road Rage was decent enough fun at the time.
The Simpsons Skateboarding (2002)
Once again a bit behind the times on video game trend chasing, The Simpsons Skateboarding in 2002 attempted to take on the four Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater games that had already been released at the time (the fourth just a month earlier) and sadly, it was no contest. Despite having nine playable characters and decent enough visuals, the gameplay was atrocious and The Simpsons sound bytes being played on repeat hundreds of times per stage were maddening enough to make you want to break a skateboard in half.
But don’t worry, things are about to get a whole lot better.
The Simpsons: Hit and Run (2003)
The year was 2003, and if you were playing video games at the time you might not have realized it but you were about to get what is arguably the greatest Simpsons game of all time. Around the same time, the Grand Theft Auto franchise was firing on all cylinders between GTA: Vice City and the soon to be released GTA: San Andreas, so the creators of The Simpsons Road Rage decided to expand many of the foundations they had previously built and created The Simpsons: Hit & Run. A GTA inspired open-world Simpsons game, Hit & Run let you steal cars, cause chaos, and explore Springfield to unlock collectibles and meet and/or beat all of your favorite Simpsons characters. This combination of GTA and the Simpsons went together like peanut butter and chocolate, and while it totally sucks that a sequel was pitched, planned, and then ultimately canceled, Hit and Run totally holds up today and has a passionate and dedicated speedrunning community collaborating to finish it as fast as humanly possible over and over again.
The Simpsons: Minutes to Meltdown (2007)
When The Simpsons Movie arrived in theaters in 2007, Electronic Arts published a pair of games to ride off of the hopeful success of the film, banking on nostalgia from longtime fans and newcomers alike. The first Simpsons Movie tie-in game was Minutes to Meltdown, a top-down mobile game played in 30 minute sessions, the same length of time it takes to watch an episode of The Simpsons with commercials. The art style is great, looking like a long-lost isometric Sega Genesis Simpsons game, once again proving that The Simpsons often works well in pixel art. But with only three levels and some very basic puzzles, most fans bounced off this one pretty quickly. Either way, Minutes to Meltdown is officially in the abandonware category, as you can no longer legally purchase it or play it. But hey, at least now you know it once existed.
The Simpsons Game (2007)
Meanwhile, The Simpsons Game was a much bigger and more ambitious swing, launching on nearly every console and handheld in 2007 and giving The Simpsons a big, fun action platformer to coincide with the release of the film. The game is broken up into 16 episodes, with each family member appearing as a playable character and a specific set of goals. The writing was fantastic and funny thanks to the direct contributions of The Simpsons writing staff, the cel shaded polygonal art style was a perfect fit, and each stage was packed with tons of nods to gaming, like references to Grand Theft Auto, The Sims creator Will Wright, Frogger, Space Invaders, and more. Unfortunately the camera was a bit hard to control and the overall game length left much to be desired. A sequel was originally planned but ultimately scrapped, so here’s hoping we see something new when the second Simpsons movie comes out in 2027, 20 years after the release of the first film.
The Simpsons: Itchy & Scratchy Land (2009)
A year later, EA Games published another isometric pixel art Simpsons game for mobile phones called Itchy & Scratchy Land, which despite its title, doesn’t actually let you play as Itchy or Scratchy. Instead, the Simpsons family does their best to survive their local theme park, which is now overrun with deadly Itchy & Scratchy robots along with a plethora of traps and hazards designed to kill them. While managing to be a bit deeper than EA’s previous Simpsons mobile game, it’s still a fairly simplistic offering that you also can’t download on your phone these days since support for it ended long ago.
The Simpsons Arcade (2009)
Remember the 1991 Simpsons Arcade game I praised near the start of this list? Well, in 2009 EA made a mobile exclusive tribute to it, or really, a spiritual successor that was missing lots of spirit. EA’s take on The Simpsons Arcade was still a side-scrolling beat ‘em up where players pulverized various goons and Simpsons characters across Springfield, but with no local multiplayer and only Homer featured as a playable character, it missed out on much of what made the original so fun. Still, since Konami had never (and still hasn’t) ported the original arcade game to mobile, it was fun having a new take on it on the go, even if it wasn’t nearly as great.
The Simpsons: Tapped Out (2012)
As you’ve seen by now, numerous Simpsons games let you explore Springfield, but The Simpsons: Tapped Out let you design and build it yourself to your own liking, and the results were shockingly fun for a mobile game, even if it was occasionally plagued by the usual microtransaction nonsense. Checking in daily to unlock new building, reorganize your town layout, and go through your large pile of Simpsons villager requests was an obsession of mine while waiting for a bus or train to arrive on my morning commute, so much so that I once figured out how to build gigantic 8-bit Nintendo sprites of Super Mario and the Legend of Zelda’s Link made entirely out of Simpsons washing machines, bushes, and mailboxes. Sadly after 12 years of steady updates and content drops, the game’s support officially ended recently and it’s since been delisted from mobile stores, meaning it’s a bit tricky if you want to try and play it for the first time this year. But man, when it was at its best it was really cool to carry around my own personal version of Springfield in my pocket.
LEGO Dimensions (2015)
Between amiibo, Skylanders, and more, the “toys-to-life” genre of real life physical collectibles you could scan into digital games were all the craze in 2015, and LEGO decided to get in on it big time. LEGO Dimensions played like your typical LEGO game at the time, combining co-op action platforming and light puzzles, but instead of focusing on one franchise they decided to combine tons of them, including the Ghostbusters, DC Comics, The Goonies, Beetlejuice, and of course, The Simpsons.
Real life LEGO sets corresponding to each franchise could be purchased, built, and scanned into the game to unlock in-game characters and rewards, giving us a trio of Simpsons “fun packs” featuring Homer, Bart, and Krusty. You probably already guessed, but this meant absolute hell for both collectors and anyone trying to 100% the game since it required the purchase of tons of different LEGO sets to complete it all. By 2017 the toys to life genre was completely oversaturated, sales fell short for LEGO Dimensions, and future additions were cancelled. Still, it’s pretty cool that this is the only Simpsons game on this list to give us new toys to go with it, and you can still regularly find them for pretty cheap these days, in case you’ve always wanted a tiny LEGO Homer car to put on your shelf.
And there you have it, a complete history of every Simpsons video game so far, spanning several decades, consoles, handhelds, PC, and more. But with The Simpsons getting added to the immensely popular multiplayer game Fortnite, the show still ongoing with no plans to stop, and a Simpsons movie sequel coming in 2027, I have a feeling we’ll be getting new Simpsons games for years to come. So what’s your favorite Simpsons game of all time? Got a personal memory of getting a Simpsons game and bringing it home to play for the first time? Let us know in the comments below, and rank your favorite Simpsons game in the tier list below.
Arc Raiders‘ first proper patch, assuming you’re a member of the honourable sect who don’t count hotfixes as patches, has arrived. It’s relatively small, but it does set up three new map conditions that’ll be unleashed in the shooter this weekend, as well as fixing some pesky bugs.
Square Enix has laid out plans to automate 70% of QA and debugging tasks with generative AI by 2027.
This comes via a progress report on the company’s ‘Square Enix Reboots and Awakens’ business plan (thanks, VGC) in which it hopes to turn its fortunes around and become a true industry leader. It states that it has initiated a partnership with the Matsuo-Iwasawa Laboratory at the University of Tokyo, aimed at “improving the efficiency of game development processes through AI technologies”
Suri: The Seventh Note is a rhythm-action platformer and our love letter to the games we grew up playing and adore.
Set in a magical world, it features music-infused platforming gameplay, unlockable movement abilities, and dramatic escape sequences set and synchronised to an epic soundtrack.
You can check it out for yourself in our first-ever official gameplay trailer right here. Use headphones for the best experience.
If you like what you saw (and listened) you can wishlist it right now. Doing so helps us immensely. Why?
Adding the game to your wishlist helps bring attention to indie projects like this. If you still need more convincing? We got you covered.
So, what is Suri: The Seventh Note all about?
Set on the mystical island of Suri, the story follows Ajira, a brave young girl racing against time to save her mother’s life. Her only hope lies in finding a magical fruit that blooms deep within the heart of a land torn apart by a mysterious, corrupting rhythm.
A dark force has taken hold, warping its melodies into something sinister. To overcome it, Ajira must learn to master the rhythm, channel its power, and fight back through a world that shifts and reacts to every beat.
And there’s more…
Welcome to the Rhythm Haptics Engine powered by the DualSense controller
We’re building Suri: The Seventh Note to be a multi-sensory rhythm experience with a system we call the Rhythm Haptics Engine. This lets us transform any track into three distinct yet equally important entities:
You hear the beat,
You see the beat,
You feel the beat.
Suri and our Rhythm Haptics Engine wouldn’t be possible without the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller haptic feedback. You’ll feel every nuance, from the flow of a soft melody to the impact of a corrupted downbeat. It’s our way of heightening immersion while traipsing through the world of Suri: The Seventh Note.
Backed by the PlayStation India Hero Project
Suri: The Seventh Note is a part of PlayStation India Hero Project. We grew up playing on PlayStation consoles and they have a special place in our hearts. We’re excited to bring our own game to consoles that were integral to our childhood.
Working with PlayStation has been an incredible learning experience. The team helped us with our Rhythm Haptic Engine which allowed us to use DualSense controller haptic feedback in interesting ways. They’re absolute superheroes. With that in mind — and the reason you made it this far…
Wishlist now
Wishlisting Suri: The Seventh Note on PlayStation Store helps us in more ways than you might imagine. It tells the world there’s a real appetite for fresh gameplay experiences where music and mastery are at the forefront.
So if what we’re building intrigues you and if you believe in rhythm as the language of storytelling, and want to experience a game that feels and sounds unlike anything else then please wishlist now on PS Store for PS5.
Fired Rockstar Games staff have protested outside the UK offices of parent company Take-Two and developer Rockstar North, denying accusations of leaking company secrets and calling for their reinstatement.
Clips of the protests published to social media show heavy criticism of Take-Two and Rockstar’s actions, with fired staff holding signs and reading prepared statements calling for their reinstatement and back pay compensation.
Rockstar: tries to bust unions🦹♀️
Us: Hold my controller 🎮🔥🔥
We’re fighting back 💥💥 IWGB organized a protest in front of the @RockstarGames parent company Take-Two Interactive in London today
Last week, the Grand Theft Auto 6 studio reportedly fired between 30 and 40 employees in a move that the IWGB claimed was “blatant” and “ruthless” union busting. At the time, Rockstar parent company Take-Two issued a statement insisting the firings were for “gross misconduct, and for no other reason.”
According to Bloomberg, the fired workers were all UK and Canadian employees who were also part of a private trade union chat group on Discord, and were either union members themselves or trying to organize a union within Rockstar. The IWGB claimed the staff were fired explicitly due to union activities.
A new Bloomberg report carried a fresh statement from Take-Two, in which the company insisted the fired staff had leaked company secrets in a “public forum.”
“Last week, we took action against a small number of individuals who were found to be distributing and discussing confidential information in a public forum, a violation of our company policies,” the Take-Two statement read. “This was in no way related to people’s right to join a union or engage in union activities.”
According to the IWGB, the only non-Rockstar people inside the private union Discord were union organizers. IWGB boss Alex Marshall issued IGN the following statement:
“Rockstar continue to deflect from the real reason for these dismissals: they are afraid of hard working staff privately discussing exercising their rights for a fairer workplace and a collective voice. Management are showing they don’t care about delays to GTA 6, and that they’re prioritising union busting by targeting the very people who make the game.
“In recent years, Rockstar executives have benefited from £443 million in tax relief, while showing total disregard for the law or the livelihoods of their staff. At every turn, they’ve chosen profits over both workers and fans of their games.
“The only non Rockstar employees in the union Discord channel were union organisers.”
One fired member of staff protesting today said what had happened to them was “deeply unfair,” claiming they were dismissed “without warning, without evidence, and without a chance to speak for myself.”
The fired staff member continued: “All because I talked with colleagues in a private union chat. We weren’t leaking anything or trying to harm the company. We were supporting each other, trying to understand our workplace and make it better. To lose my job for that is deeply unfair. No-one should be punished for being part of a union or for speaking honestly about their work.”
Ross Greer, co-leader of the Scottish Greens political party and MSP for the West of Scotland, took to social media to back the protests, saying: “Reinstate them now, then get around the table and give your staff the pay and conditions they deserve for making you billions.”
The @scottishgreens stand with the dozens of workers sacked by @RockstarGames for exercising their right to organise a union.
Reinstate them now, then get around the table and give your staff the pay and conditions they deserve for making you billions. pic.twitter.com/jENH89QNYg
The protests come ahead of the expected release of GTA 6 in May next year. While limiting its pre-release marketing to just two trailers and a series of screenshots so far, Rockstar has put a focus on security after suffering a massive leak of the in-development GTA 6 in 2022, and the day-early release of GTA 6 Trailer 1 the following year. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick called the 2022 leak “terribly unfortunate… and we take those sorts of incidents very seriously indeed.”
He added: “There’s no evidence that any material assets were taken, which is a good thing, and certainly the leak won’t have any influence on development or anything of the sort, but it is terribly disappointing and causes us to be ever more vigilant on matters relating to cybersecurity.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Last week, GTA 6 developers Rockstar Games suddenly fired around 30 UK-based workers on a charge of “gross misconduct”. According to the UK’s IWGB Game Workers Union, the firings are in fact retaliation against staff for attempting to unionise, as is their right under UK law. They called it “the most blatant and ruthless act of union busting in the history of the games industry.”
This week, Rockstar pushed back against these claims in a new statement to Bloomberg, accusing the fired employees of sharing “confidential information on a public forum”. The IWGB insist, however, that the “public forum” alluded to was just a private Discord channel for IWGB members and Rockstar developers to discuss working conditions and unionisation efforts, and that no confidential information was shared. The IWGB have also organised gatherings across the UK to show solidarity for the affected Rockstar staff. This morning, I attended one such gathering – a protest outside Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive’s offices in London.
Warner Bros. Discovery has announced a new Gremlins movie, due out in 2027.
During a financial call, David Zaslav, CEO and President of Warner Bros. Discovery, said the new Gremlins movie will launch on November 19, 2027, with Steven Spielberg involved as an executive producer.
Original Gremlins writer Chris Columbus returns to both direct and executive prodiuce this new entry in the series. Plot details and cast information remain under wraps.
Gremlins is a much-loved 1984 comedy horror movie written by Columbus and starring Zach Galligan, Phoebe Cates, and Hoyt Axton. It tells the story of Billy Peltzer, who receives Gizmo the Mogwai as a pet as a Christmas present from his father. After getting wet, Gizmo spawns more Gremlins who go on to terrorize the fictional, snowy American town of Kingston Falls, Pennsylvania.
Gremlins 2: The New Batch followed in 1990, with Zach Galligan and Phoebe Cates reprising their roles, this time with the Gremlins causing havoc in New York.
And that’s where the Gremlins movie series ends, with a prequel animated series coming out in 2023. Season 1, Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, is set in 1920s Shanghai, China, and tells the story of how 10-year-old Sam Wing met Gizmo. Season 2, Gremlins: The Wild Batch, came out last year.
Photo by Frederic J. BROWN / AFP.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Battlefield 6‘s Infantry Fighting Vehicle, which google reliably informs me is a vehicle that’s supposed to carry fighting infantry, rather than fight infantry itself, has had its lock-on missiles taken away for the next little bit. Some problems with countermeasures have rendered them far too effective at their job of blowing stuff up.
