Krusty's Super Funhouse (Genesis) review "Ratty Behavior"

A house has been invaded by an influx of rats, wandering every nook and cranny without a care in the world. It couldn't have happened to a more modest person, either: Krusty the Clown! With the help of Homer and Bart Simpson, Sideshow Mel, and of course Corporal Punishment, Krusty has the daunting task of getting rid of this infestation.

But it's going to take a moment in this side-scrolling puzzler, because his fun house happens to be a large mansion with five areas, each featuring between 8 to 12 rooms. Once Krusty enters a room, the rats come strolling out a hole, and they will either get stuck right away or go on an adventure. These rats have zero survival instincts, only able to climb up one block tile, will turn around if they hit a wall of two block tiles, or nonchalantly fall off a ledge. As the one controlling the clown, your objective is to successfully guide them to the rat trap machine, with each area showcasing a comically gruesome way of extermination; from getting smashed with a giant glove by Bart to being shredded through a grater, there's no holding back.

You'd figure a clown would have a bunch of tricks up his sleeve, but Krusty's "abilities" include jumping, picking up blocks, and throwing pies; for the latter, his pies can only hurt other living hazards, such as flying pigs, snakes, and aliens with lasers, but the rats are invincible. Suffice it to say, there's a lot of suspension of disbelief to make this puzzler function the way it does. Basically, you'll need to use the blocks to actually move the rats anywhere within a room and the game will purposely give you a small set to work with. Additionally, the game only permits you to place one block in your inventory at a time.

Success comes down to planning and timing, especially with the majority of the rooms having labyrinth-like structures to overcome. Usually you'll only have three-to-four blocks to work with, sometimes even less, so you need to move fast. For instance, in one room the rats must traverse across a surface with a series of pipes in the ground; if they fall into any of them, the pipes will send them back to their starting point. The goal in this situation is to carefully plan which pipes to cover first with blocks, so that you have time to remove the ones further back and place them over holes up ahead.



Also, having a ton of blocks to work with in specific rooms isn't a sign of an easy time, but quite the opposite, especially if special blocks are involved. One such special is the "air" block, which will launch rats towards the indicated direction. In specific rooms, for example, you're tasked with using these air blocks to fling the rats into the sky, then, as they come falling down, "catch" them on the edge of a higher platform with the use of a normal block. There are even rooms where you have to carefully use your blocks to create floating stairs to reach previously unreachable locations. Be careful: if the stairs are too high and you accidentally fall off, you're screwed.

At its core, KSFH delivers a mostly-entertaining time consumption of a puzzler if you're going through it for the first time. And not unlike Lemmings, lots of patience is needed during many a trial and error run, as you'll have to contend with both the lax pacing of the rats and the many mistakes that will undo your progress within a room. Interestingly, this seems contrast to the game's aggressively fast-paced, festive soundtrack constantly pounding away in the background; each theme plays on loop not per room, but per area, so you're either gonna get used to it quickly or put it on mute.

But then there's the way the game handles difficulty escalation. KSFH approaches it by prolonging with "gotcha" tricks. This is where the game loses quality points. You can spend a hefty amount of time successfully getting the rats through a lengthy and bumpy map, exit the room, and then have the game indicate that the room hasn't been completed. One of the solutions? You have to find a secret room, which are usually optional, in order to advance. Worse? The game doesn't tell you this needs to be done, so you'll potentially spend an absurd amount of time replaying the room.



Other such gotcha moments include not being able to undo push block puzzles because they get stuck in place and then there's the act of being trapped inside a location. For that latter, some rooms literally have spots you can't climb your way out of, and they're designed in such a way where you won't know until you leap in. What's annoying about these gotchas is that they're intentionally draining your lives, so if you die enough times or lose a life by conceding defeat within a room, it's game over. A password system is in place, but there's a catch: all your progress within an area is undone, so if you've completed six, nine, or so many rooms, you have to redo everything.

The "upside" about these specific rooms is how they're mostly regulated to the latter part of the game. At the very least, they're appropriately placed and not scattered around throughout. It doesn't change the fact that some of them lack actual critical thinking and that they're based around knowing the solution after being punished, in many cases being punished severely. It's cheap. If you play Krusty's Super Fun House, know that the majority of rooms will still be fair challenges, but know full well that you'll get a ton of push back in the final two areas. They're doable and beatable, but the process will be frustrating.

Community review by dementedhut (December 11, 2025) Happy New Year!