The Three Stooges

The Three Stooges is a video game originally released by Cinemaware in 1987 for the Amiga, based on the comedy act of the same name. In the game, players control Stooges Moe, Larry and Curly in minigames based on classic Stooges films with the aim of raising enough money to save an orphanage. The game was later ported for different systems including the Apple IIGS, NES and Game Boy Advance. A remake of the game was also released for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS. While the game has been praised as a faithful adaptation of the Stooges films, it has been criticized for repetitive gameplay and limited replay value.

Gameplay
Game designer John Cutter designed the game as a kind of board game. The Three Stooges must rescue an old woman's orphanage by earning money in various minigames based on various Three Stooges films. These include cracker-eating contests (based on the Stooges short Dutiful But Dumb) and boxing contests (based on the short Punch Drunks). Players select minigames by timing a button press as a hand randomly points to various symbols representing in-game events, including non-interactive events that can increase the Stooges' cash total. Each event takes up one in-game day - players have thirty in-game days to earn as much money as they can.

Several different game endings are received depending on the amount of money the player has earned after the thirty days, the best of which has the Stooges not only saving but renovating the orphanage and marrying the orphanage owner's three daughters.

Ports to other systems
The game was later ported to the NES and Commodore 64 and released by Activision. Versions for the Game Boy Advance and PlayStation were developed by Metro3D, Inc. and released in 2002. The game was also updated for release on Microsoft Windows and Apple Macintosh as one of Cinemaware's "Digitally Remastered" editions.

Reception
The Amiga version of the game received mixed reviews, with the game's graphics and digital voices receiving most of the praise. Mark Patterson of Commodore User gave the game an 8 out of 10, citing positive impressions of the game's humor, writing that the game was "probably the only game that has intentionally set out to make people laugh, and worked." However, Commodore Computing International criticized the game's limited replay value and long loading times. The publication also criticized the game's lack of a "common theme" and called the game "a little disjointed." The Games Machine offered similar criticism, stating that while the game is "a masterpiece in FX and presentation", the gameplay is "disappointingly shallow."