The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World review

Game: The Simpsons: Bart vs. the World
Platform: NES
Genre: Action (Platformer)
Developer: Imagineering Inc.

Reader review by ratking

July 29, 2002

Videogames coming off television shows usually are short and with little replay value with them. However the one that stands above those rules is The Simpsons: Bart vs the World (here on known as S:BVTW). This is easily the only really good Simpsons game in my mind, although it is really an above average game. Sure it has it's technical problems, but it has alot of moments among it.

STORY (5/5): For an NES game this has not that bad of a story. You are Bart and you won this false contest, and Mr. Burns wants to have you killed. He hires his reletives living across the world to try and kill Bart. However Bart will foil Mr. Burns plots with his quick movements, and a little bit of help from his family and friends.

GRAPHICS (11/15): S:BVTW had fairly interesting graphics for the characters and the enemies. They look detailed and give a little bit of a feel for each of them. Also the objects like the ice cracking, although not that realisticly, it shows what is going on. However, where are the backgrounds??? There are really none at all, and that is definitely a weakness.

SOUND (3/10): Honestly the music is really not too Simpson-like. The music just does not do the job at all. However that is sadly the stronger point of the sound category. The sound effects are horrible. They hurt your ears with their cackling noises, and their irratating beeps. Definitely the weakness in S:BVTW.

GAMEPLAY (46/55): You are Bart Simpson, your mission to take your vacation through the world. You will have to pass through many levels, many with just platform jumping. This is very repetitive as you have to jump step by step, for fairly long amount of times. However you will be able to live through this, for their are some great levels too in this game. Really three stand up in my mind: There is the skateboarding level in china, where you will be forced to jump pits and avoid enemies. Then there is the ice level in Antarctica (or wherever they are) where you jump on the ice forcing it to move. Some people think this is a weakness in the game, but I thought it was the most fun part in the game. Finally in Egypt there is the moving platforms, and the climbing your way up the pyramids. These levels, although may be tricky, are entertaining and give a little bit of variety to S:BVTW.

Also at the end of each level there is a master. There is the iceman Burns, the Chinese Burns, the Hollywood Burns, and the pharoah Burns. All of them take different skills to defeat, and to move on in the game. Some will require to use shooting skills, other just jump and moving.

Now Bart just can't win by jumping from place to place, you also will need to shoot things from the little bags of powder, and more importantly you will need to become BartMan. Nothing is as entertaining is as flying through the air, trying to work your way to the top of the pyramids, or near the next one up. However this does not go on forever, for your power will fade away (poor Bartman).

There are four worlds, and a scattered amount of levels inside of them. There are minigames to play, like the slides or Simpson trivia which can earn you extra lives. This game is fairly long, about 2 hours to beat it if you do it without getting stuck. Definitely a fun game.

REPLAYABILITY (8/10): I've played through this game alot. It is a simple game where you have set lives and you have to beat in one sitting. No Continues and things like that, so you will have to stack up on lives early on. It will take many sittings to actually beat it, but once you do that is not the end. You then have to beat it while finding all of the Simpsons characters scattered one in each level to have extra fun at the end.

DIFFICULTY (5/5): This is not too difficult of a game, once you get the little things down. You must get used to Barts jumping controls, and what enemies to attack and what enemies to shoot at. Some of the levels take some time to get through, however as long as you stack up on lives in the first level (there are like 3 extra ones) you should be fairly well off.

OVERALL (78/100): For a long time S:BVTW was the best game out on the Classic Nintendo. I never really loved another game as much as this in my childhood. However sense Castlevania came about it slowly faded away from my scope. However there are many times I will just throw it in for a run through. I have definitely loved this game, and therefor I will never be selling it. Honestly, if you are a Simpsons fan this is the best one of the series to get.

Rating: 7.8/10

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