When it comes to four-player cooperative arcade games, few were as memorable as The Simpsons Arcade Game. It managed to not only capture the charm of the television show it was based on, but did so with fantastic gameplay that still serves as inspiration for all beat-em-up developers. But unless you live near an arcade, there aren't many ways to still play the classic game with friends.
According to the Australian Ratings Board, that might be changing sooner than later.
The Board has rated an Xbox Live Arcade release for the beloved beat-em-up, and it's listing Konami as the publisher and Backbone Entertainment as the developer. Neither of these companies have had their hands in recent Simpsons games, which actually adds even more validity to the rumor. Konami published the original game back when it was released in 1991 (when the show was fairly new - think about that for a second), so it makes sense that they would be involved in this new version, and Backbone's credits include a number of Xbox Live Arcade games and ports, including the X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade games, making them the obvious choice for bringing Simpsons Arcade back to life on Xbox Live. Like, seriously, there's no one else in the world more qualified than them.
And if they do as good of a job with this that they did with those games we're really in for a treat. We're really looking forward to beating up henchmen with skateboards and vacuum cleaners while trying to save Maggie. Come on, Backbone, don't let us down.
