I absolutely detested this poor excuse for a game back then and not much has happened to change my mind now!
With a collective IQ equivalent to a squashed moldy cucumber (except Lisa who seems to be their only hope) this family have more than just bills to worry about. Now thanks to the Flying Edge they grace the Mega Drive with their presence. Have they been worth the wait, well.....
Bart vs the Space Mutants is an Amiga conversion as you may know as well as a Nintendo title. It involves everybody's favourite Simpson, Bart trying to save the world from intergalactic scum who make ET look like a sex symbol. They have already started on their evil plan and no one but Bart suspects a thing. Bart recently bought a pair of X-Ray glasses from a mail order comic company and was looking out at night to see what he couid find, when the aliens landed. He discovered their plot by listening in to their horrible conversation. Now he must go out and do his country proud (and hopefully get in the local newspaper).
Each round has Bart doing different tasks in order to foil the aliens plan. This includes spray-painting over everything that's coloured purple, knocking off people's hats and returning nuclear power rods to the reactor. Luckily the aliens tell you throughout the game what their next move is, but you'll have to overcome some pretty tricky challenges if you want to complete even the first round.
I should point out here that the game is not really a platform adventure or shooter, but is set instead in the same style as Alex Kidd in High Tech World. The game itself just involves moving items around and finding secrets to make progress through the game. The key element here being problem solving rather than trigger shooting, which is I think what more kids would have wanted. The game itself is rather smartly done but I personally think that it doesn't suit Bart at all (only because you have problems using your brain - Ed).
The graphics are done well with a fairly good starting sequence which unfortunately didn't quite run out as well as the Amiga version, but suits the game fine. Sound is simple but good with a digitised phrase or two tossed in. Bart telling the aliens to "eat my shorts man!" sounds brill, it's just a pity you get to hear it when you die.
I seem to be really down on this game, but it really is very decent fun. On the positive side you-have a game that won't be completed overnight as well as a good looking game with smart gameplay. But again the down side to me is that you have no aliens to blast or exciting cycle chases, but that may be personal preference. But the thing that is a real worry, especially on such a tough one as this is that there's no password save feature (aaaarrrghhh!!).
Have a good look at Bart vs the Space Mutants though as there is a good game here with a few laughs and lots of tricky gameplay. Don't despair if you don't like it though as you can always wait for Krusty's Super Fun House which kicks butt! But the verdict is that the Bart and the Sirnpsons are worth a looking.
Brian Costelloe
As printed in Megazone magazine Oct/ Nov ‘92
NOTE: This review was controversially altered after I originally submitted it for publishing. The powers that be back then in Sega Ozisoft had a lot of money riding on this game and suppressed my critical powers in the process. I stormed the editors office and demanded that if my articles were to be altered in future then don’t put my name to them at all!
I absolutely detested this poor excuse for a game back then and not much has happened to change my mind now!