As the long-suffering significant other of Gene Simmons, Shannon Tweed-Simmons knows a thing or two about the danger determined groupies can pose to a committed relationship. The actress and one-time Playboy Playmate’s experiences with backstage bimbos have inspired a new video-game app called Shannon Tweed’s Attack of the Groupiesthat’s available now for the iPad and iPhone.
“It’s a sort of tongue-in-cheek attack of all the girls who’ve been the bane of my existence for the last 30 years,” Shannon tells ABC News Radio.
Attack of the Groupies came about after a chance meeting Tweed-Simmons had with Gogii Games president George Donovan, who liked her off-the-cuff idea for a game that would feature her killing groupies.
“It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, is just take something and just blow ‘em away, and this is a chance to do that without actually hurting someone,” she declares.
Attack of the Groupies features the animated likenesses of Tweed-Simmons and her daughter, Sophie, as they try to keep a variety of obsessed female fans away from Gene.
“Each groupie has their own sort of special powers or they might be able to leap over a weapon, so the players will select the weapons and use them to repel the oncoming hordes,” Shannon explains about the game.
As for the types of groupie characters features, Tweed-Simmons says, “There’s a crazy cheerleader type, who will keep going forward no matter what, and then there’s the ones where they’ve been groupies for a million years and they are not as attractive as they used to be.” Regarding, the latter variety, Shannon notes that “when we throw weapons that take off their makeup or ruin their hair, they run screaming away, and it’s just funny because they weren’t that great looking in the first place.”
Tweed-Simmons and her daughter both did voice-overs for the game, as did Shannon’s sister Tracy, who sometimes can be seen with the Simmons clan in their A&E reality series Gene Simmons Family Jewels. Gene, meanwhile, can be seen lurking “in the shadows” while his wife and daughter try to “protect” him from the attacks.
Attack of the Groupies can be downloaded for free at iTunes, while a more in-depth version and an extra level featuring Tracy Tweed costs an additional 99 cents.