The Simpsons video games

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A collage of The Simpsons video games

A screenshot of Konami's arcade game The Simpsons

The Simpsons video games are a line of video games that use the characters from the animated television show The Simpsons.

With the popularity of The Simpsons, especially amongst children, it was only natural for the video game industry to turn to the characters and world of Springfield. While critical and public reaction has been mixed, several of the Simpsons games did very well commercially, most notably Konami's arcade game The Simpsons and Acclaim Entertainment's The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants.

Simpsons video games have spanned all sorts of video game genres and systems, including The Simpsons Hit & Run, The Simpsons Road Rage, Simpsons Skateboarding, Virtual Springfield, Bart vs. The Juggernauts and Krusty's Super Fun House. Other than the classic arcade game, most Simpsons video games were reviled by critics for their poor workmanship^{[citation needed]}, and many felt that, as with many licenced computer games, the games were rather average basic games with The Simpsons shoe-horned in, selling more on the Simpsons name than of the actual quality of the game.

The recent generation has been somewhat more well-received by the general public, starting with The Simpsons Road Rage (based on Crazy Taxi): While not widely considered an excellent game, Road Rage was generally conceded to be an improvement on previous games using the license. Perhaps the most well-regarded Simpsons game is another vehicle-based game (also released very close in time to ‘‘Road Rage’’) The Simpsons Hit & Run, which incorporated the free-roaming environment made popular by the Grand Theft Auto series as well as the involvement of The Simpsons writing staff, creating an authentic, interactive Springfield that was praised by critics and the fanbase alike.

The Simpsons Hit & Run cover

There are at least two Simpsons pinball games; one released after the first season, and the other still available.

Vivendi Universal Games, the publisher of recent Simpsons games, announced shortly after the release of The Simpsons Hit & Run that there was a sequel in the works. However, no news or any development has been announced since then. The plans by Vivendi to create a sequel were no doubt cancelled when Electronic Arts announced in November 2005, that they would purchase the exclusive licensing rights to publish future Simpsons video game titles, perhaps as a tie-in to the upcoming Simpsons feature film, as Electronic Arts has successfully overseen many film-to-video game projects. EA are expecting The Simpsons Movie video game to be the best seller of 2007.^[1] The new Simpsons games are supposed to be on next-generation game systems like the Wii, Xbox 360, Nintendo DS, PlayStation Portable and PlayStation 3.