Kevin Costner's Waterworld Simpsons
Image: Macaw45

The Simpsons has produced some amazing parodies over the decades, and some of those have focused on the world of video games. Remember when Sonic and Mario tried to tempt Bart to buy a violent game? Or Leo Carvallo's Putting Challenge?

That last example is one worth keeping in mind, because in 2020, someone actually turned it into a proper, functioning video game – and the same trick has been pulled recently, with Kevin Costner's Waterworld being the 'game' in question.

Inspired by the scene in season 8 of the show which features the Waterworld arcade game (fun is poked at the expensive nature of the movie; the game costs 40 quarters to play, and after taking a single step you must then must deposit forty more quarters), this interactive recreation is the work of Twitch streamer @Macaw45. You can download it right here.

Incredibly, the concept has been expanded into a full adventure, which covers the atoll, ocean, oil tanker Deez and more. You can even use items, fight enemies and find secrets. It's an amazing undertaking, especially when you consider the parody played by Millhouse in The Simpsons lasts all of 10 seconds.

Speaking about the project, Macaw45 says:

I've always been fascinated by the fake videogames that were occasionally seen in The Simpsons, and the Waterworld one always stuck out to me as a kid. Of course it's just a short joke poking fun at how expensive the production of the movie was at the time, but this fake game itself with its gigantic Kevin Costner character on the screen who takes a single step before the machine asks for more quarters always made me so eager to know 'what would be beyond that one screen you see in the show...'

This project was born from that interest, and while originally planned to only be a short game, it quickly developed further and I sunk tremendous amounts of effort into it to the point where it ended up becoming a fully fleshed out game of much greater scope than I ever expected. I hope you enjoy it!

Released in 1995, Waterworld was the most expensive film of its time, costing around $172–175 million to produce. Its production was beset by problems, but it eventually turned a profit, taking $264.2 million at the box office alone; it was a success on home media formats, too. Despite this, it is still considered one of the most notable box office bombs in history.

There was actually a Waterworld video game for home consoles of the period, including the Virtual Boy – that version is so bad our friends over at Nintendo Life gave it 1/10. Maybe we should stick with Macaw45's version?