For the last few weeks, Homer Simpson bellowing out the words “better them than me” has been following me everywhere. These little outbursts take place at the most inconvenient times – on the bus, in the queue for a pint of milk, even in the uni library, but why is Tapped Out such an addictive game?

Photo: Chris Murphy (via Flickr)

Whilst writing this, Tapped Out is the 32nd most popular free game on the Android marketplace, with over 10 million downloads, the description says ‘THIS GAME IS LIFE RUININGLY FUN!’ (It’s not lying either).

The app is free and allows you to complete a short tutorial, in which you begin to make your very own Springfield. As you gain more experience on the game, you unlock new buildings (including Springfield Elementary, the Power Plant and Krustyland), with some of these, come new characters that are favourites from the show.

Once you’ve started collecting people and buildings, the game gives you little challenges to complete, sending Lisa to do next weeks homework, or Homer to eat at the Krusty Burger. Tasks and builds vary in length, but unfortunately happen in real time, so a four hour task really is that long. If you’re too impatient to wait, you can speed the process up by spending doughnuts, or save the sweet treats up for a new location.

You can also add your friends on it, visiting their town to graffiti Moe’s Tavern or steal virtual money from their buildings.

The best part is definitely the seasonal updates though, following the recent Halloween theme that brought us graveyards and zombies, we’re now graced with a Thanksgiving theme, with many turkey related tasks. And we’re now looking forward to finding out what the Christmas update has to offer.

You can get this app on iPhone or Android, trust us, you won’t regret it.