The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants

The Good
Bart vs the Space Mutants is the first major Simpsons videogame licensee that I know of, and as expected with most licensed cash-ins the game was simply a clone of the most popular genre at the time with the particular licensee's characters and locations slapped on... or was it??

Well, yeah it was. But thanks to a series of interesting design choices the game remains an oddity in the world of NES-generation platform games. You see, the evil space mutants (those giant green monsters from space that have become a fixture in the series) have crafted a sinister plot to take over the earth, and good 'ol Bart Simpson is the only one who knows about it and since no one believes him, the only one able to stop the aliens. One would think since this is "one of those games" that Bart's quest involved nothing but having you jump around Springfield while hitting/avoiding the alien freaks lurking around town and collecting coins and similar standard-issue items in your eternal quest to get to the next level... Right? Wrong. The developers while still making a game that appealed to the most kid-friendly genre at the time (a fact worth mentioning considering that the Simpson's fanbase was still pretty young in those days) also managed to inject a series of somewhat deeper gameplay concepts that included collecting evidence to help gather the help of the many familiar Simpsons characters, and also by including the interesting idea of having to foil the alien's plan indirectly.

What does that mean? That you aren't going to win if you kill every baddie around as in most games of these type, what you have to do is defeat the enemy's source of power, which is misteriously related to the color purple. What this means is that you have to explore the levels in detail hunting down these purple blotches and nullify them someway. Sometimes they are obvious and a dose of your trusty spray-can will do the trick, but sometimes they require you to think a little and solve a small jumping puzzle or do some sort of small deduction work in order to find out just how to cover that purple billboard or clean that purple dog...

All in all a challenging and fun twist on a tried and true concept that doesn't boggle the young minds craving for jump-n-run action and which uses the basic control scheme used since Mario Bros to introduce such concepts as inventory and money management (used to buy new and better weapons), to form a nice cocktail between the two.

The Bad
The NES version really didn't do this game justice. Sure, the controls and design seemed fit for the system but the graphics and sounds seemed like crap to me at the time seeing as how the game featured such many large sprites and complex backgrounds that were clearly out of the NES's league. Nowadays, looking at the screenshots of the other versions it becomes quite clear just how much were all of us stuck on the NES missing... Boy just look at those Amiga graphics...

The Bottom Line
A typical platform game based on a lucrative license that nonetheless manages to avoid the usual pitfalls of these adaptations and even manages to include some clever touches that make it worth noticing in the sea of cloned platformers that was the gaming industry in those days. Worth picking up, but while the NES version is playable why neglect the eye candy you can get from any of the other, more powerful versions like the Amiga or Genesis one?

The Good
The animated intro sequence is a welcome addition. The style is done in a thoughtful way in regards to how the show was done at the time, with good use of shadows and different lighting to generate mood and atmosphere. Titles and credits are also done nicely, with good touches from the show.

I liked the idea of being able to interact with the game world, the ability to enter shops and buy items with money that you collect. The way in which you go about this is also made simple, and uncomplicated by only using the joystick and fire button, so this aspect of the game is well implemented.

X-ray specs to see which pedestrians are mutants are an interesting inclusion, and the subsequent visual contrast when used is also effective.

Some decent voice samples, such as the famous “eat my shorts”.

The Bad
Sprites are small, and ill-defined and while various character’s are recognisable, fails to capture the Simpson's flavour quite correctly in my opinion. Animation wise, no better or worse than the NES original, but minimal nonetheless. Backdrops are too flat, and lack depth, making for a detached feeling of being in the Simpson’s universe. Definition and colours are the only real improvement, and that isn’t saying much. The isometric Simpson’s game which was in development for home micros’ that was ultimately scrapped in favour of this hastily settled on conversion, looked and sounded much more interesting than this game.

Music is a rendition of the classic theme by Danny Elfman, which sound’s okay, but should have been much better given the Amiga sound hardware. Uninspired sound effects are dodgy, and don’t improve on the original.

Basic game-play consists of guiding Bart left to right, avoiding mutants that bounce up and down on the spot in varying degrees of height and speed, and by spray painting, or by some other means of disguising objects of a specific colour, because some mutants can use things of that colour for the dastardly purpose of creating a weapon worthy of conquering the world. Play is slow and boring, and Bart’s movements are a bit too stiff, particularly jumping. Learning all the routines of the nasties is simply tedious, and some times they are arranged in such a way where you can’t get by without enduring some damage which is naff. Very unremarkable stuff, and I couldn’t find the motivation to stay with this one for any extended period of time.

The Bottom Line
My overall feeling is Bart versus the space mutants is a dull game, with strictly average audio visuals’ thanks to very little enhancement, and similarly average game-play, with little redeeming features. But don’t take my word for it, any ardent Simpson’s fan should at least go out and try it, and who knows, you might feel differently, but I don’t think this will be everyone’s cup of tea.

The Good
The Simpsons is one of the longest running television shows in the history of television. If you were growing up during the early 1990s you probably caught the Simpsons bug and, to their credit, the folks at Acclaim clearly had some good intentions in bringing the PG13 animated world to the G-rated NES world.

The Bad
It is a side-scrolling action game with little action involved because you simply do not attack anything in a level other then space aliens hiding in humans or the various bosses. You can collect some cool items and perform a few rebellious acts, but they are all designed to collect enough objects (i.e. hats) in a level to meet the boss.

Most of the time, success in each level involves making precise jumps and avoiding space aliens and other oddities like shoes. Bosses are defeated by jumping on them, in the precise place, or figuring out how to collect enough letters to spell a family members name, who provide some help with the boss.

Bart can only withstand two direct hits before he loses a life and there are no continues or passwords. Your health is only restored when you complete a level and you can only earn nine extra lives. The game comes off as being boring and unreasonable difficult.

The Bottom Line
The Simpsons: Bart vs. the Space Mutants attempts to capture the look of the tv series, with some success. However, Bart is a bit wimpy in the game and their is something a bit odd about being able to collect rockets and cherry bombs, but not actually use them for anything other then to collect something like hats.

In contrast, the arcade Simpsons game is not especially creative in the game play department but it was alot more fun to play then this game.