Bart vs. The Space Mutants (NES)

Difficulty: ***1/2

Controls: ***

Sound: ***1/2

Graphics: ***

Overall: 13 stars out of 20

You play as the "underachiever and proud of it" Bart Simpson. Space Mutants have landed in Springfield and Bart and the rest of the Simpsons are the town's only hope! Cool huh?

What makes this game difficult is how Bart jumps. Learning and mastering the jump and super jumps will determine if you can beat this game or not. Doing a super jump in the mall level for example (jumping from candy bar to candy bar) needs precise timing.

There are five levels in the game and you start with only 3 lives. Fortunately, there are plenty of ways to earn extra lives (Krusty symbols). Also by killing various enemies you earn letters that summon that particular Simpson to help you in that stages boss fight. And trust me, they help!

Moving Bart around seems a bit off. And like what was mentioned above the jumping isn't so tight. Doing a super jump will often having you slide off whatever platform you were jumping to. Which leads to plenty of lost lives and frustration. Also pausing the game is a bit of an annoyance. You have to scroll through your inventory screen to select it. But those are just minor problems.

You get the classical Simpsons theme which is great to listen to. There is plenty of variety in the music department (really just a variation of the original theme). There are plenty of voice synthesizers in the game (Bart yells "cool man" and "eat my shorts" very clearly!) The other sound effects sound nice (spray painting, meeting a goal, collecting the various letters).

Nice intro at the beginning with the Simpson clan gathered around the TV! The Space Mutants land and there is some great detail there. Most of the sprites in game are fairly simple, but colourful. The Springfield, Krusty Land and Museum levels look great (especially that T-Rex!) Having to use your X-Ray glasses to see if people are aliens is a really nice touch! I wish more games would incorporate that.

For their first foray into the video game biz, Bart vs. The Space Mutants is a good game. The jumping parts of the game are challenging (and will have you d'oh-ing for hours on end!) The controls are decent but the slide after the super jump is very unforgiving. The various music and voice synthesizers from Bart are superb. The graphics while plain, are colourful and fun. Go get this game, its the best of the 3. If not, you can eat my shorts!