THE SIMPSONS: BART'S NIGHTMARE (SNES)
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Publisher: Acclaim.
Developer: Sculptured Software. Released: 1993. Genre: Action/Adventure. Other versions: SMD. Posted 23rd December 2013. By Chris Weatherley © 2013 |
It’s common knowledge that when a successful media franchise gets too large, the producers will milk it as much as possible, usually to the point of p!ssing off loyal fans in their masses. This is normally mirrored in a decline in quality of both the original medium and associated spin-off products. Star Wars is a high profile example, and just like the random nature of its video game tie-ins, The Simpsons suffers from the same affliction. The very first Simpsons game, The Simpsons Arcade was applauded, but bear in mind this was during the show’s golden age. Whilst the series has vastly diminished in script quality, the games have been a mixture of highs and lows, some of which being grave disappointments. Early 8-bit games enjoyed success, such as Bart vs The Space Mutants, so the leap to 16-bit had people expecting entertaining games giving justice to the original show. The first effort, Bartman Meets Radioactive Man was met with a tepid reception, so the next game had to deliver. Bart’s Nightmare was the outcome. Although an improvement, true to form it didn’t give the fans the full Simpsonian delight they hankered for, and much less for the average gamer.
The story goes thus; Bart falls asleep whilst studying, and his completed homework gets blown out of an open window. Tumbling out after them, he enters a dream-world whereas he has to battle and outwit the inhabitants of Springfield to retrieve his homework. The more papers collected by the time he wakes up, the better grade he will receive. Walking down his home street, which represents his REM sleep, he has to avoid bullies, mailboxes, grannies and other recognisable Simpsons characters and props. During this he has to collect blue Z’s to stay asleep and hunt down the missing pages scattered in the road. When a page is jumped on, he enters a mini-game nightmare dreamscape, and has to complete the task to win the page of work. Five themes are available for the mini-games, with a couple split into two stages. This creates individual unique gameplay for each, which switches between being erratic, trying and non-rewarding to half-enjoyable romps that raise a small grin. This mixture of characteristics is exemplified by the Evergreen Terrace main screen, as parts can be amusing at first and others unbelievably irritating. For instance, riding on a skateboard gains you lots of Z’s and is a blast to perform jumps and swerves, but in stark reflection, when an endless succession of Jebediah Springfield heads come your way, it becomes a merciless rapid jump bore that goes on for ages with no reward at the end. If the game was merely this alone, I doubt it would have got to retail, it’s far too mixed and empty, with few enthusing parts. Also, the gags start to repeat quickly after the initial rib-tickle, and just become ignored thereafter.
Barney steals a citizen from Futurama
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Bart falls for the wrong type, again
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"Who painted the fridge GREEN?!"
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As expected, the game starts like the show with the title emerging from the clouds followed by a somewhat unstructured cartoon jingle. Not the excellent main theme music. It’s not impressive as I know the SNES is capable of better cartoon styled graphics. This just looks rough around the edges, as do all the cut-scenes save for the Mode 7-enhanced window falling intro. The in-game visuals do fare better; in fact the primary Evergreen Terrace screen is very pretty, colourful and perfectly in theme whilst containing the unbalanced gameplay. The HUD could be larger, but generally everything is distinct and workable, maybe a little too busy at times. This is only one part of the game of course; the mini-games tend to vary in visual appeal. The Itchy & Scratchy game is, ironically, a finely rendered cartoon look much more akin to the show. Why the hell the cut-scenes aren’t in this satisfying semblance is anyone’s mystery. Other games like Bartman, Bloodstream and Temple of Maggie are rather good in the main, but the Bartzilla stage looks downright ugly, untidy and flat. Very reminiscent of the scrappily drawn Ultraman: Towards the Future. Far and away the worst looking, playing and sounding part of Bart’s Nightmare, it would be very favourable if this rubbish was missing from the whole game. Overall however, the game is colourful and fun, but ropey and inconsistent in places which would have been avoidable given the Super Nintendo’s abilities.
Only two of the mini-games are worthy of praise, both of which are quite fun for comedy content and interesting gameplay. Bartman is the best game; a shoot em’ up style jaunt including neat slingshot multi-shot mechanics, zany bosses, vertical/horizontal scrolling and a steadily increasing challenge. Second would be the Bloodstream stage, which is slower paced and simpler, but shares the traits of Bartman having a good sloping difficulty and comedy aspects. Both are graphically problem-free, if not spectacular. The Itchy & Scratchy game has nice visuals, but you have the same control as you would over a piece of liver in oil. It’s unreasonable, with dodgy perspective and bad hit detection. Looks fine, plays like crap, but not as bad as the Bartzilla stages. Apart from the awful appearance and jerky animation; it’s ponderous, awkward to command, lasts too long and the SFX are out of sync. Even worse, it’s split into two parts, although the skyscraper climbing section is slightly better but still not great. All these games are completable without being a superstar gamester, but then you get to the bar-altering Temple of Maggie. This is just the most randomly unfair nonsense as you attempt to jump onto stone slabs, which can collapse under you, avoiding the devils that stalk your moves. This also has a perspective issue; you cannot tell where the background is with any accuracy. This is important, because out of nowhere a dummy flies into your face, just when you think you have plotted the correct course. It’s nearly impossible to beat this without repeated attempts, which means constantly returning to the street stage, seemingly making it continual and fruitless. By this point, I usually quit and take a C or B grade, with the last two pages missing.
Only two of the mini-games are worthy of praise, both of which are quite fun for comedy content and interesting gameplay. Bartman is the best game; a shoot em’ up style jaunt including neat slingshot multi-shot mechanics, zany bosses, vertical/horizontal scrolling and a steadily increasing challenge. Second would be the Bloodstream stage, which is slower paced and simpler, but shares the traits of Bartman having a good sloping difficulty and comedy aspects. Both are graphically problem-free, if not spectacular. The Itchy & Scratchy game has nice visuals, but you have the same control as you would over a piece of liver in oil. It’s unreasonable, with dodgy perspective and bad hit detection. Looks fine, plays like crap, but not as bad as the Bartzilla stages. Apart from the awful appearance and jerky animation; it’s ponderous, awkward to command, lasts too long and the SFX are out of sync. Even worse, it’s split into two parts, although the skyscraper climbing section is slightly better but still not great. All these games are completable without being a superstar gamester, but then you get to the bar-altering Temple of Maggie. This is just the most randomly unfair nonsense as you attempt to jump onto stone slabs, which can collapse under you, avoiding the devils that stalk your moves. This also has a perspective issue; you cannot tell where the background is with any accuracy. This is important, because out of nowhere a dummy flies into your face, just when you think you have plotted the correct course. It’s nearly impossible to beat this without repeated attempts, which means constantly returning to the street stage, seemingly making it continual and fruitless. By this point, I usually quit and take a C or B grade, with the last two pages missing.
Psychonauts did something similarly awesome
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"Just taking my jacket for a walk..."
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Bart takes the power of flight in his stride
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One thing that Bart’s Nightmare can proudly boast is a decent collection of tunes, speech samples and SFX. Familiar phrases and sound bites are well reproduced and provide a lot of delight, and even distract you from the poorer aspects of the gameplay, sort of masking the mediocrity of it all. It’s a brave attempt to try something different, the base idea is solid and some of the sub-sections do work. If the whole game was based as the enjoyable shooter shown in the Bartman stage, it would have been a hell of a lot better and potentially a high-ranking Simpsons title. But this is not the case, it just seems like the developers, who by the way had a fall out while designing the game, just were not on the same page. It’s lacking evenness and suffers from no clear direction, and the end result is a mixed bag of goofs, gaffs and gags. Matt Groening devotees will eek some life out of this, but the majority of casual fans will be left disappointed by a very average novelty title. D’oh!
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VERDICT
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Visual: 6/10
Audio: 8/10 Gameplay: 5/10 Longevity: 6/10 OVERALL: 6/10 |