The biggest problem w/this game is it's slippery, unresponsive controls. That goes for, not just the NES version, but also the SEGA ports, which came out much later. Its bad controls seem to be done almost on purpose or as part of the game's challenge. If 'Bart vs the Space Mutants' had tighter controls, it would've been a lotta fun, perhaps even a classic. Instead, the game is just awful.
I was 8 when this was released. It was the talk of the playground. I loved it as a kid. Couldn’t beat it, but certainly didn’t ruin mine or any of my friends childhoods. Lol.
Despite my hatred for the game itself, I have always been morbidly curious about what brought this into being, abomination that it is. Way to shine a light on some of the lesser known heroes and villains who are responsible for this legendary flop landing in the laps of so many unsuspecting 90's gamers!
I could almost forgive this game for being awful simply by giving it the benefit of being the first of its kind. However what cannot be forgiven is the sequels Bart vs. the World and Bartman Meets Radioactive Man carrying over much of the reviled aspects of Space Mutants. This is definitely a prime of example of just because something sold very well, doesn't make it good. It's disappointing that the Simpsons brand has a long history of this with many of its video games (which I'm sure Mr. Top Hat will cover in the future) fooling people into buying them because of its much more revered source material..for the first dozen of seasons at least.
This is easily my favorite of the non-arcade 90s Simpson's games. The closest thing we ever got to a They Live video game that I know of for some insane reason as well. It was something more then a cheap platformer with the Simpson's label slapped on which was great.
I remember this game way back when... I thought it was one of the coolest concepts that I had ever experienced in a game, and I found myself making many many attempts across the years at playing it. The first level blew me away with just how much content was involved in it, and all the cool and different things you could do...and then I got to the second level. Despite feeling off from the get-go, I could never find myself capable of getting past the Wet Cement platforming segment due to the ridiculously rapidly rotating lollipops that you could only stand on when the sticks weren't vertical (they had 6 frames for positions, which rotated at about 8 frames per second) which was *extremely* difficult due to the slippery/sluggish control you had over Bart. Not to mention that it was truly the first real platforming challenge that you had to overcome in the game. All in all, decades later did I only ever figure out how the rest of the game went by looking up a full playthrough on TH-cam. Disappointing...
This is probably the most in-depth look into one of the NES's most infamous turds. Even turds can have a fascinating production history. I also remember picking up Escape From Csmp Dwadly for Game Boy as a kid. That could be a good video too.
I remember many game magazines putting this game on the cover back in 1991. Probably not because it was a good game, but only because it was The Simpsons, which were a big deal at the time.
I was 6 when I played this. Brutally difficult and cryptic but hey, that was par for the course for the average NES game. The controls were less forgivable but despite it's myriad of problems me and my friends played the heck out of it.
This was the first video game I ever played back in 1999 at my church summer school. My dad wouldn't let me play on his nes, mega drive or other consoles we had at home until the ps1 came out :( I found the first level of this game so ridiculously hard I just thought I was bad at games I hated it! Bad bad game! But when I finally completed the first section I felt like a boss everyone I showed was "like wow you're so good" permanently cementing my love for platform games. Then in the very very early 2000's I was given a second hand pc from my dad's work which had flight sim and the Simpsons Hit and Run already on it. Epic game! Epic show! Keep reviewing these old games mate!
I remember being really excited for this game, and rushed to my local mom & pop video store in my small town to rent it after it came out, and still felt cheated out of my $4.00. 🤬🤬
Dude, this post seemed almost paranormal to me. I'm currently on a nostalgia trip watching old wrestling and playing games I grew up with, and I'm currently playing this game! So weird. BTW I'm on the museum level..ugh.
All I remember was not beng able to jump over that road block and thinking "If this was just a boss battle.." but it wasn't I couldn't progress. How the FUCK was I supposed to know to use a rocket to unpaint something? Not the greatest game to come out on NES.
Bart vs The Space Mutants could have been so much better with an engine/control scheme similar to Super Mario Bros, and a pause screen inventory menu. That alone would have made this significantly more forgiving.
Had this one on the Amiga in the Cartoon Classics bundle. Unfortunately the disk was faulty and my dad, who irrationally hated the Simpsons, even though we had never seen a single episode of it (no Sky TV in our house) he refused to have it replaced, and so I never got to play it. Was I in fact spared from the horror of this game? Did my dad perhaps commit an act of kindness unknowingly?
I remember beating Barts Nightmare as a kid. Took me all night on a weekend and I was dreaming myself trying to beat the game. Finally beat it like 5 in the morning.
@@michaelfields7088 the only stage I could get past was the first Super Bart Level .. I do not recall what the name was of the stage, but it had Maggie's picture in the background, and you couldn't move freely on the floor, but more like a 'checkers' style move, and if you jumped on the wrong part of the floor, you would die.. I really hated that level.
If I remember correctly, in the late 90’s we bought used Sega games from a vid store many years ago. My brother chose a Spider-Man game, and I almost considered getting a Sega game box with Mickey Mouse on it (Most likely “castle of illusion) and then I noticed another Sega box with Bart Simpson on it. And the rest is history......
I remember destroying couple NES controllers playing this game, but no matter how hard it was I still love this game. 85% of the NES games out there were INSANELY hard, with little to no indication of what to do next, but like good old 80's and 90's you took it and play the shit out of it anyway until you figure out what to do. You're just getting cranky as you get older.
as a kid, I really enjoyed the first level, buying different items from the shops and figuring out how to do the objectives and secrets, with only a minimal ammount of the platforming that made the other levels godawful. if they had stuck to the quasi puzzle/adventure themes that the first level had and not gone all in on the tight platforming over death pits the later stages had, they would have had something of a gem on thier hands.
Each stage has a set amount that you have to get. The counter for it is in the middle of the bar at the bottom of the screen. You don’t have to collect everything in every stage to pass to the boss battle. You just need to get the counter to zero, then you can go directly to the boss section of the stage.
Had it on the Amiga as it was a pack in title with their cartoon collection. It had a cut scene intro... We never got past the first level and thought we had done well to get to the skate board section. I remember enjoying it at the time as we just appreciated what games we had 🤠
i could make it to the power plants when i was a kid, but by the time i got there i was exhausted and could not progress through the level that much. i have that strange fondness of this game, but i cannot seem to get very far when i play it anymore.
This was the first game ever we rented from the video store. And just the introduction got me hyper hyped. I think there were clever elements on the design, the problem is the horrific control and confusing platform/isometric view, which made for very cheap deaths and unintuitive physics. I think if maybe the game was closer to being a 2d adventure game like Zelda2, and gave you a health bar it would have been a much more entertaining experience. I find that bringing up Avgn on interviews is not fair since the character always been about exaggeration, and not to take his words so literal. I'm surprised you didn't mention the versions of this game for the Sega mega Drive and I think Master system which is basically the same game but still it was worth the acknowledgement of their existence
This game on the NES legitimally scared me being a child, I don't know, there is something creepy besides the Aliens that scared the shit out of me, specially the circus and the museum stages.
Now I can blame Acclaim for not getting a SNES port of my favorite childhood beat em up. It's still strange how a bizarre fighting game based on a cartoon sitcom worked so well.
I spent a month mastering this game. Little by little. The only beef i had with this game was the graphics. Sure it was a bit wonky, but most people who complained about this game are the ones who got their asses kicked and gave up on it. I compare this game to Ghosts N Goblins. Game is considered a classic while recognized as brutal. No complaints from the masses though. Strange.
0:45 “rather than make a simple platform game” they ruined it, and most of the other licensed games did too. We wanted something simple: a chance to play about in our favorite worlds with familiar characters and have some simple platforming challenges to beat in order to see MORE of our favorite worlds and favorite characters. A simple story and some familiar sprites would be all that was required. Instead we got this game where I could barely get to the shopping mall in a weekend.
Just asking out of curiosity: For anyone who has played Bart Vs. the Space Mutants on Amiga 500, was it better than the NES version, worse, or just about the same?
Well all I remember is that it wasn’t any more fun and it was just as frustrating. I don’t remember whether the graphics or controls were better though.
Somehow, despite loving Simpsons and frequenting rental shops as a kid, I never played any of the NES Simpsons games. Actually only Simpsons game I remember playing as a kid was Itchy & Scratchy on the Genesis, until playing the Arcade game at the local fair when I was like 13
well, now i know why bart is the only playable simpson in every console simpsons game in the early 90s. activision execs were aggressive in keeping only bart playable and no one else. and we wouldn't even see another simpsons game like the konami arcade game with the 4 main simpsons family members playable until night of the treehouse of horror for the gameboy color. which was at least a little better than the nes and snes era games.
I quite liked this and Bart vs the World growing up. They were really challenging, and I think people rip into these so much is because they sucked at it. It's a similar situation to the first TMNT game. A game like this wouldn't last today because people have the attention spans of goldfish.
I only had a (cheap second hand) NES for a fairly short time, before realising more "me" games were on the PC, but I confess during that time I did reasonably like 'Bart vs. the Space Mutants'. Yes it's INSANELY hard, with abysmal collision detection, pixel perfect requirements (lauching a rocket in the first level to the exact right spot, for example!), and being all 'round excessively harsh, but I did like it's sheer variety and various references to the early TV series. Wanting to see more of that variety is what kept me coming back - though I very seldom made the second level, and I think once ever made it onto the third. Creatively, both my mate and I blamed "our NES controllers being worn out and not responding well enough" and possiby "our NES's not being 'chipped' and so not running the game smooth enough"(?!) to explain our difficulty in making much progress. But I think to myself and maybe a few others in UK (obv not you, THGM lol), it just seemed such a novelty, as The Simpsons could only be seen on $ky for many years, which many of us never had so only caught the odd glimpse of if round a friend's house or whatever, so this was one of our few ways to 'access' The Simpsons. It's a shame more development time couldn't be afforded to polish out the difficulty issues, as I still believe there's a good game in here somewhere. Though maybe 'They Live!' should have sued for copying the "x-ray specs" idea!! :)
I remember playing this back in the day with my mother and uncle and tho it was hard we enjoyed trying to overcome it and win, we was always like that no matter the game we played and I miss my uncle.
There are more difficult games considered classics. Blaster Master, Battletoads, Ninja Gaiden, etc. There are more confusing games considered classics. A Boy and his Blob, The Immortal, etc. This game is ambitious, and honestly, it pulls a lot of that off. The variety in interactivity in this game should be lauded, not condemned. The game handles fairly well, and the difficulty is challenging, but never really "cheap". It's not really random insta-kills. Everything you need to beat the game is there, it just doesn't hold your hand through it. And it certainly portrayed as much of The Simpsons as it could, as well as it could, for how early a release it was. I think this game is underrated, and certainly more harshly condemned than is necessary.
It was ridiculously difficult, but I still rented it a dozen times at the convenience store down the road as a kid, each time kicking myself asking: why did I rent this again?
I remember being SO pumped for this game and so hyped for it.... I loved the Simpsons at the time and i couldn't wait for it to come out. Then when it did, I rented it.... could not understand it.. Rented it three more times, trying my best to get better at it and understand it... Eventually i just gave up and never played another Simpsons gave after that... it just killed it.
Wooooow. So this is why that game turned out so bad. A dude that once picked up a joy stick but was like eh. Then turned corporate. Saw that he messed up then converted to trying to make money off the passion of others. Sounds like how most movies are made. LISTEN TO THE CREATORS AND FANS YOU DOPE. YOU'LL MAKE MORE MONEY THAT WAY INSTEAD OF THINKING YOU'RE ABOVE PEOPLE AND KNOW WHAT THEY WANT. Especially when clearly you already make bad business decisions. All for money. Smh.
Man, I loved this game back then! Before playing it, I even dreamed about it, where I was running around my town looking for purple objects to paint red. And I hadn't even watched the show at that point, it was just how interested I was for the concept of the game itself. When I finally put my hands on a rental cartridge, I didn't return it for weeks (the rental store was on a neighbouring city, and my parents had an agreement with them to pay by the month), and I didn't rest until I had seen the end of the game. The only level I really didn't like was that goddamn maze at the power plant, but the rest, especially the first level, were all amazing. To each their own, I guess, but I for one am thankful it wasn't yet another platformer without any innovations. The sequels were awful though, couldn't stand them. Oh, and just a small correction: contrary to what you said, you don't have to find *every* purple object on the first level, there is some wiggle room. For every level, there are always more objects than you need to fulfill your quota. Except for that f&*%ing maze, of course.
yes it did so I ruined my first game cartridge of it I ended up getting it for genesis with a box full of other genesis games originally I had it for NES
oh boy, I actually bought that game for the C64 from my pocket money. What a disappointment. The only thing I've still got is the included Bart keychain
@@JohnnyProctor9 not sure - was a 10 year old back then. The box art looks like in the video and I still recognize some of the in-game screens. The other ports look better
@@macgoryeo - I'm just saying, it must've felt like a bite in the arse having bought this tripe when you found out that the arcade game was also available on the same home computer...wow, in the C64 port it sounds like Bart is farting every time he jumps! LOL!!! 😆
The idea seems good but the execution was the problem. Controlling Bart to save Springfield for an alien invasion while exploring the town and solving puzzles seems like a fun idea for a Metroid-styled game or a graphic adventure.
It seems that just a few here have fond memories from bart vs space mutants and it's sequels. 11 y/o me figured out this game after lots of try and error (and with little to almost none English language knowledge). After I get used with the controls, it became a different challenge of trying to beat as fast as possible with almost no damage. Bart vs the world and Bartman games were easier despite the odd controls.
Bart vs Space Mutants was ... hard. It had some good, creative ideas but the controls and level design were painful. Bart's jump was akward and playforming was really tight. The soundtrack also lacked variety. Thankfully, the second game (Bart vs The World) was much better and way more enjoyable. Controls still were cluncky but level design was more bearable and soundtrack had more varitey
I guess luckily I did not play this game since the only LJN games that I've played growing up (on actual hardware with actual cartridges) were both WWF Royal Rumble and Raw Both Spiderman & Venom Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety for the SEGA Genesis (I live in the United States). Ironically and this is a hot take but I rather play both said Spiderman games than the ones that SEGA made for the console. I did end up buying Super WrestleMania but I ended up hating that game. Greed plus crappy time restraints is not a good mix. Doesn't help that there were people who hated The Simpsons because of the so called "morals". Heck there were people who were not allowed to watch pro wrestling because of their parents.
This game had really bad gameplay (movement to be specific) but the idea wasn't bad. It felt kinda dark and creepy like old Simpsons episodes and had a couple clever elements.
The game's entertaining in its crappiness because it's still playable and there's some masochistic fun in navigating the more obtuse parts (like the dinosaur in the museum). Krustyland has the neat mini-games, which also helps. But the mall and nuclear plant are dreck.
I thought the game genie could save this atrocity... Somehow even the codes were useless because even with infinity health, the tasks were still have cooked if not an exercise in futility
Oh God, my parents bought this for my brother on Genesis when we were small. Hated it so much that it became a burned memory in our heads. We may forget other stuff about our childhood but we will always remember we hate that game 😂
the worst part is that this game was good as an idea, it looked good, had good graphics and sounds and a lot of ideas, sadly it was hard, almost impossible, cryptic but that all pales to the jumps, the jumps killed it, i never managed to get past the dino boss, and i stopped there and neve went back, shame, the first level was actually fun, the other levels went bat shit garbage.
Ha! I remember this game fondly. I had never seen the Simpsons before and this is what introduced me to it. Also, I was determined to beat this game and did so. Then I discovered the Simpsons Arcade game and never touched Bart vs The Space Mutants again.
I got this game and got to then end of it and couldn't figure out how to finish. I called the the nintendo hint line (first and last) and they didn't know how to finish it. I figured it out by accident. How could ANYONE know Maggie was the answer when interacting with her the entire time did nothing before??!!
I actually enjoyed it alright as a kid, though I wasn't a Simpsons fan. It took me ages to get past the mall stage, I think the controls being the biggest issue.I actually liked the puzzle aspect that changed up how I was used to gaming. I'm not ganna claim it was a great game, but I owned far worse at the time.
I remember bringing this game home and being absolutely devastated
Cheer up.
I was shocked by how bad it was. After the first level, I knew I should have rented a different game
The biggest problem w/this game is it's slippery, unresponsive controls. That goes for, not just the NES version, but also the SEGA ports, which came out much later. Its bad controls seem to be done almost on purpose or as part of the game's challenge.
If 'Bart vs the Space Mutants' had tighter controls, it would've been a lotta fun, perhaps even a classic. Instead, the game is just awful.
Yes, even the sequels the same horrid physics
@@Shinmsl - You'd think they would've made tighter controls, physics & better collision detection by the time they made the 3rd game. But nope. 😐
Player Versus the Controls is a more apt title.
I had the LCD version of the game as a Christmas present one year.
I was 8 when this was released. It was the talk of the playground. I loved it as a kid. Couldn’t beat it, but certainly didn’t ruin mine or any of my friends childhoods. Lol.
Despite my hatred for the game itself, I have always been morbidly curious about what brought this into being, abomination that it is. Way to shine a light on some of the lesser known heroes and villains who are responsible for this legendary flop landing in the laps of so many unsuspecting 90's gamers!
I could almost forgive this game for being awful simply by giving it the benefit of being the first of its kind. However what cannot be forgiven is the sequels Bart vs. the World and Bartman Meets Radioactive Man carrying over much of the reviled aspects of Space Mutants.
This is definitely a prime of example of just because something sold very well, doesn't make it good. It's disappointing that the Simpsons brand has a long history of this with many of its video games (which I'm sure Mr. Top Hat will cover in the future) fooling people into buying them because of its much more revered source material..for the first dozen of seasons at least.
This is easily my favorite of the non-arcade 90s Simpson's games. The closest thing we ever got to a They Live video game that I know of for some insane reason as well. It was something more then a cheap platformer with the Simpson's label slapped on which was great.
I have to agree. This one gets a bad rap because people don't know how to play it.
@Brian Babin Exactly :).... and yo, Brian!!!!
I remember this game way back when... I thought it was one of the coolest concepts that I had ever experienced in a game, and I found myself making many many attempts across the years at playing it. The first level blew me away with just how much content was involved in it, and all the cool and different things you could do...and then I got to the second level.
Despite feeling off from the get-go, I could never find myself capable of getting past the Wet Cement platforming segment due to the ridiculously rapidly rotating lollipops that you could only stand on when the sticks weren't vertical (they had 6 frames for positions, which rotated at about 8 frames per second) which was *extremely* difficult due to the slippery/sluggish control you had over Bart. Not to mention that it was truly the first real platforming challenge that you had to overcome in the game.
All in all, decades later did I only ever figure out how the rest of the game went by looking up a full playthrough on TH-cam. Disappointing...
This is probably the most in-depth look into one of the NES's most infamous turds. Even turds can have a fascinating production history.
I also remember picking up Escape From Csmp Dwadly for Game Boy as a kid. That could be a good video too.
I remember many game magazines putting this game on the cover back in 1991. Probably not because it was a good game, but only because it was The Simpsons, which were a big deal at the time.
I can't think about this game without be reminded of Lord Alfred Hayes and the WWF.
Happy Easter, Top Hat Gaming Man!
I had this on Genesis as a kid and couldn't beat the 2nd level . But as an adult I've finally conquered it .
Which shows how skilled and unusually full of patience you must be, you have my respect for beat up that horrid game.
I was 6 when I played this. Brutally difficult and cryptic but hey, that was par for the course for the average NES game. The controls were less forgivable but despite it's myriad of problems me and my friends played the heck out of it.
You must be a saint
This was the first video game I ever played back in 1999 at my church summer school. My dad wouldn't let me play on his nes, mega drive or other consoles we had at home until the ps1 came out :( I found the first level of this game so ridiculously hard I just thought I was bad at games I hated it! Bad bad game! But when I finally completed the first section I felt like a boss everyone I showed was "like wow you're so good" permanently cementing my love for platform games. Then in the very very early 2000's I was given a second hand pc from my dad's work which had flight sim and the Simpsons Hit and Run already on it. Epic game! Epic show! Keep reviewing these old games mate!
Yep I had Thai growing up and was full of disappointment. All that saved me was listening to, ‘do the Bart man!’
Can’t wait for Hit and Run episode!!!!
I remember being really excited for this game, and rushed to my local mom & pop video store in my small town to rent it after it came out, and still felt cheated out of my $4.00. 🤬🤬
$4? Try paying £40 to buy the game. What a waste.
Top Hat Gaming Man, you should definitely do a video on Virtual Bart.
I never got the hate for this game, I loved it, it was hard and sometimes frustrating but that made completing it more satisfying
The hate for the game can be summed up very simply....the laziness of people who didn't read the manual.
This was really good! I personally enjoyed the game (never beat it) but it’s a part of my childhood.
Dude, this post seemed almost paranormal to me. I'm currently on a nostalgia trip watching old wrestling and playing games I grew up with, and I'm currently playing this game! So weird. BTW I'm on the museum level..ugh.
How many times did I rent this game thinking "maybe now I can get past level 1". Never did. I was adult before I even saw level 2...on TH-cam
And by then it was nothing but BLINDING
All I remember was not beng able to jump over that road block and thinking "If this was just a boss battle.." but it wasn't I couldn't progress. How the FUCK was I supposed to know to use a rocket to unpaint something? Not the greatest game to come out on NES.
Bart vs The Space Mutants could have been so much better with an engine/control scheme similar to Super Mario Bros, and a pause screen inventory menu. That alone would have made this significantly more forgiving.
Love you stuff/channel/missises channel and wrestling. Mind blown.
Brilliant Vid THGM 🎩!!!
This game was so difficult always wanted to like it.
It wasnt difficult
It was Shit
Big diffrence
Had this one on the Amiga in the Cartoon Classics bundle. Unfortunately the disk was faulty and my dad, who irrationally hated the Simpsons, even though we had never seen a single episode of it (no Sky TV in our house) he refused to have it replaced, and so I never got to play it.
Was I in fact spared from the horror of this game? Did my dad perhaps commit an act of kindness unknowingly?
As bad as we see this game now, everyone I knew had this game and played it often. God damn spinning lollipops in the mail still give me nightmares.
What about Bart's Nightmare on the SNES? that was an unfairly difficult game.
I remember beating Barts Nightmare as a kid. Took me all night on a weekend and I was dreaming myself trying to beat the game. Finally beat it like 5 in the morning.
@@michaelfields7088 the only stage I could get past was the first Super Bart Level .. I do not recall what the name was of the stage, but it had Maggie's picture in the background, and you couldn't move freely on the floor, but more like a 'checkers' style move, and if you jumped on the wrong part of the floor, you would die.. I really hated that level.
If I remember correctly, in the late 90’s we bought used Sega games from a vid store many years ago. My brother chose a Spider-Man game, and I almost considered getting a Sega game box with Mickey Mouse on it (Most likely “castle of illusion) and then I noticed another Sega box with Bart Simpson on it.
And the rest is history......
I remember destroying couple NES controllers playing this game, but no matter how hard it was I still love this game. 85% of the NES games out there were INSANELY hard, with little to no indication of what to do next, but like good old 80's and 90's you took it and play the shit out of it anyway until you figure out what to do. You're just getting cranky as you get older.
it's such a shame that akklaim and LJN got the licenses of so many great IPs.. if only Konami or Capcom had made those games instead....
as a kid, I really enjoyed the first level, buying different items from the shops and figuring out how to do the objectives and secrets, with only a minimal ammount of the platforming that made the other levels godawful. if they had stuck to the quasi puzzle/adventure themes that the first level had and not gone all in on the tight platforming over death pits the later stages had, they would have had something of a gem on thier hands.
Unlike Sadam Hussein,I put 2 Wiis next to each other so I can tell people to come over and play with my WiiWii...
...😬...
...I'll show myself out.
Each stage has a set amount that you have to get. The counter for it is in the middle of the bar at the bottom of the screen. You don’t have to collect everything in every stage to pass to the boss battle. You just need to get the counter to zero, then you can go directly to the boss section of the stage.
Had it on the Amiga as it was a pack in title with their cartoon collection. It had a cut scene intro... We never got past the first level and thought we had done well to get to the skate board section. I remember enjoying it at the time as we just appreciated what games we had 🤠
i could make it to the power plants when i was a kid, but by the time i got there i was exhausted and could not progress through the level that much. i have that strange fondness of this game, but i cannot seem to get very far when i play it anymore.
This was the first game ever we rented from the video store. And just the introduction got me hyper hyped. I think there were clever elements on the design, the problem is the horrific control and confusing platform/isometric view, which made for very cheap deaths and unintuitive physics. I think if maybe the game was closer to being a 2d adventure game like Zelda2, and gave you a health bar it would have been a much more entertaining experience.
I find that bringing up Avgn on interviews is not fair since the character always been about exaggeration, and not to take his words so literal.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the versions of this game for the Sega mega Drive and I think Master system which is basically the same game but still it was worth the acknowledgement of their existence
This game on the NES legitimally scared me being a child, I don't know, there is something creepy besides the Aliens that scared the shit out of me, specially the circus and the museum stages.
Just fyi in case you missed it. The Simpson Arcade was shortly listed on the Xbox arcade market place. I still have a copy that I bought on my 360
My parents rented it from a small town gas station for me. Weekend kinda sucked.
Now I can blame Acclaim for not getting a SNES port of my favorite childhood beat em up. It's still strange how a bizarre fighting game based on a cartoon sitcom worked so well.
Just FYI:
"Groening" rhymes with "raining."
While Acclaim did eventually buy LJN, that wasn't until 1990.
All LJN games prior to that were licensed and produced on their own.
It's Fischbach with the bach pronounced like the composer not "back".
I spent a month mastering this game. Little by little. The only beef i had with this game was the graphics. Sure it was a bit wonky, but most people who complained about this game are the ones who got their asses kicked and gave up on it.
I compare this game to Ghosts N Goblins. Game is considered a classic while recognized as brutal. No complaints from the masses though.
Strange.
For a lot of people, gaming shouldn't be akin to learning a trade or taking a test, you know, it should be fun instead of a chore or a sidejob.
Problem is this game is hard for the wrong reasons: cryptic design, poor controls and cheap unpolished levels.
0:45 “rather than make a simple platform game” they ruined it, and most of the other licensed games did too. We wanted something simple: a chance to play about in our favorite worlds with familiar characters and have some simple platforming challenges to beat in order to see MORE of our favorite worlds and favorite characters. A simple story and some familiar sprites would be all that was required. Instead we got this game where I could barely get to the shopping mall in a weekend.
Smackdown’s Butch is a fan of this game so much he demanded a HD remake of it
Just asking out of curiosity: For anyone who has played Bart Vs. the Space Mutants on Amiga 500, was it better than the NES version, worse, or just about the same?
Well all I remember is that it wasn’t any more fun and it was just as frustrating. I don’t remember whether the graphics or controls were better though.
Up to jump on the Amiga makes any platformer instantly more hateful.
What was the Master System or Genesis version of Bart vs the Space Mutants like?
Somehow, despite loving Simpsons and frequenting rental shops as a kid, I never played any of the NES Simpsons games. Actually only Simpsons game I remember playing as a kid was Itchy & Scratchy on the Genesis, until playing the Arcade game at the local fair when I was like 13
well, now i know why bart is the only playable simpson in every console simpsons game in the early 90s. activision execs were aggressive in keeping only bart playable and no one else. and we wouldn't even see another simpsons game like the konami arcade game with the 4 main simpsons family members playable until night of the treehouse of horror for the gameboy color. which was at least a little better than the nes and snes era games.
I can't believe how you didn't mention that my brother and I would play this at our babysitter's house
I quite liked this and Bart vs the World growing up. They were really challenging, and I think people rip into these so much is because they sucked at it. It's a similar situation to the first TMNT game. A game like this wouldn't last today because people have the attention spans of goldfish.
I only had a (cheap second hand) NES for a fairly short time, before realising more "me" games were on the PC, but I confess during that time I did reasonably like 'Bart vs. the Space Mutants'. Yes it's INSANELY hard, with abysmal collision detection, pixel perfect requirements (lauching a rocket in the first level to the exact right spot, for example!), and being all 'round excessively harsh, but I did like it's sheer variety and various references to the early TV series. Wanting to see more of that variety is what kept me coming back - though I very seldom made the second level, and I think once ever made it onto the third. Creatively, both my mate and I blamed "our NES controllers being worn out and not responding well enough" and possiby "our NES's not being 'chipped' and so not running the game smooth enough"(?!) to explain our difficulty in making much progress.
But I think to myself and maybe a few others in UK (obv not you, THGM lol), it just seemed such a novelty, as The Simpsons could only be seen on $ky for many years, which many of us never had so only caught the odd glimpse of if round a friend's house or whatever, so this was one of our few ways to 'access' The Simpsons. It's a shame more development time couldn't be afforded to polish out the difficulty issues, as I still believe there's a good game in here somewhere. Though maybe 'They Live!' should have sued for copying the "x-ray specs" idea!! :)
never could get past that dinosaur in stage 4.
Im glad to hear this. I really tried to like this game but could not. People kept talking about it as a kid.
I remember playing this back in the day with my mother and uncle and tho it was hard we enjoyed trying to overcome it and win, we was always like that no matter the game we played and I miss my uncle.
There are more difficult games considered classics. Blaster Master, Battletoads, Ninja Gaiden, etc. There are more confusing games considered classics. A Boy and his Blob, The Immortal, etc. This game is ambitious, and honestly, it pulls a lot of that off. The variety in interactivity in this game should be lauded, not condemned. The game handles fairly well, and the difficulty is challenging, but never really "cheap". It's not really random insta-kills. Everything you need to beat the game is there, it just doesn't hold your hand through it. And it certainly portrayed as much of The Simpsons as it could, as well as it could, for how early a release it was. I think this game is underrated, and certainly more harshly condemned than is necessary.
This was a weekend rental for me back in the day. Yep, never got past the first level, lol.
I wish Konami made a few arcade sequels based on Season 2-3, 4-5, 6-7 in the 90s
I actually enjoyed this game as a teenager. And I'm happy to say that I've finished it numerous times as well as its sequel, Bart vs the World.
I rented this game frequently. I do think the first stage is fun and creative, despite the bad controls, but the developers stopped caring after that.
It was ridiculously difficult, but I still rented it a dozen times at the convenience store down the road as a kid, each time kicking myself asking: why did I rent this again?
"What a shite load of feck".
10/10 homage
2:40
The Nerd.
Every time a Shitty game is spoken of, in the distance you'd hear FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCCKKKKKK
I remember being SO pumped for this game and so hyped for it.... I loved the Simpsons at the time and i couldn't wait for it to come out. Then when it did, I rented it.... could not understand it.. Rented it three more times, trying my best to get better at it and understand it... Eventually i just gave up and never played another Simpsons gave after that... it just killed it.
Space Mutants is an amazing game that requires you to think out of the bubble. I love it til today
My friend has this on his NES and when I visit him I always play this. I'm addicted to it in some weird way. I can't get further level 2 though.
Wooooow. So this is why that game turned out so bad. A dude that once picked up a joy stick but was like eh. Then turned corporate. Saw that he messed up then converted to trying to make money off the passion of others. Sounds like how most movies are made. LISTEN TO THE CREATORS AND FANS YOU DOPE. YOU'LL MAKE MORE MONEY THAT WAY INSTEAD OF THINKING YOU'RE ABOVE PEOPLE AND KNOW WHAT THEY WANT. Especially when clearly you already make bad business decisions. All for money. Smh.
It also doesn't help when they are forced into crappy time restraints aka what we call crunch.
Man, I loved this game back then! Before playing it, I even dreamed about it, where I was running around my town looking for purple objects to paint red. And I hadn't even watched the show at that point, it was just how interested I was for the concept of the game itself.
When I finally put my hands on a rental cartridge, I didn't return it for weeks (the rental store was on a neighbouring city, and my parents had an agreement with them to pay by the month), and I didn't rest until I had seen the end of the game. The only level I really didn't like was that goddamn maze at the power plant, but the rest, especially the first level, were all amazing. To each their own, I guess, but I for one am thankful it wasn't yet another platformer without any innovations. The sequels were awful though, couldn't stand them.
Oh, and just a small correction: contrary to what you said, you don't have to find *every* purple object on the first level, there is some wiggle room. For every level, there are always more objects than you need to fulfill your quota. Except for that f&*%ing maze, of course.
Skipped the NES, and kept with the arcade game, and later PC version. Thank my lucky stars, and had Simpsons' fun during this era.
I actually really like this game. It always grows on me the more I play it. I think it's way better than VS the World and Meets Radioactive Man.
yes it did so I ruined my first game cartridge of it I ended up getting it for genesis with a box full of other genesis games originally I had it for NES
I have PTSD when I see the color purple. But, because it was the Simpsons, we suffered it anyway and shed our blood on the alter...clever girl.
oh boy, I actually bought that game for the C64 from my pocket money. What a disappointment. The only thing I've still got is the included Bart keychain
Didn't the C64 actually get a port of the arcade game? Boy, you bought the wrong title...
@@JohnnyProctor9 not sure - was a 10 year old back then. The box art looks like in the video and I still recognize some of the in-game screens. The other ports look better
@@macgoryeo - I'm just saying, it must've felt like a bite in the arse having bought this tripe when you found out that the arcade game was also available on the same home computer...wow, in the C64 port it sounds like Bart is farting every time he jumps! LOL!!! 😆
The idea seems good but the execution was the problem. Controlling Bart to save Springfield for an alien invasion while exploring the town and solving puzzles seems like a fun idea for a Metroid-styled game or a graphic adventure.
I didn't realise until watching this video but Bart was toned down a lot over the years. Less violence, slingshots and spray paint in recent episodes
It seems that just a few here have fond memories from bart vs space mutants and it's sequels. 11 y/o me figured out this game after lots of try and error (and with little to almost none English language knowledge). After I get used with the controls, it became a different challenge of trying to beat as fast as possible with almost no damage. Bart vs the world and Bartman games were easier despite the odd controls.
Will you make a video on Bart vs the World?
“Phoned a friend”, so he literally phoned it in.
Bart vs Space Mutants was ... hard. It had some good, creative ideas but the controls and level design were painful. Bart's jump was akward and playforming was really tight. The soundtrack also lacked variety.
Thankfully, the second game (Bart vs The World) was much better and way more enjoyable. Controls still were cluncky but level design was more bearable and soundtrack had more varitey
Any plans of finishing king of fighters series.
And how about wcw vs nwo wrestling games
Please cover Bart's Nightmare next
My friend had this game when I was in 3rd grade. We could never figure out how to get past the first level. I hated it
I guess luckily I did not play this game since the only LJN games that I've played growing up (on actual hardware with actual cartridges) were both WWF Royal Rumble and Raw Both Spiderman & Venom Maximum Carnage and Separation Anxiety for the SEGA Genesis (I live in the United States). Ironically and this is a hot take but I rather play both said Spiderman games than the ones that SEGA made for the console. I did end up buying Super WrestleMania but I ended up hating that game. Greed plus crappy time restraints is not a good mix. Doesn't help that there were people who hated The Simpsons because of the so called "morals". Heck there were people who were not allowed to watch pro wrestling because of their parents.
This game had really bad gameplay (movement to be specific) but the idea wasn't bad. It felt kinda dark and creepy like old Simpsons episodes and had a couple clever elements.
The game's entertaining in its crappiness because it's still playable and there's some masochistic fun in navigating the more obtuse parts (like the dinosaur in the museum). Krustyland has the neat mini-games, which also helps. But the mall and nuclear plant are dreck.
I thought the game genie could save this atrocity... Somehow even the codes were useless because even with infinity health, the tasks were still have cooked if not an exercise in futility
I had the NES version growing up. Never beat it.
Oh God, my parents bought this for my brother on Genesis when we were small. Hated it so much that it became a burned memory in our heads. We may forget other stuff about our childhood but we will always remember we hate that game 😂
the worst part is that this game was good as an idea, it looked good, had good graphics and sounds and a lot of ideas, sadly it was hard, almost impossible, cryptic but that all pales to the jumps, the jumps killed it, i never managed to get past the dino boss, and i stopped there and neve went back, shame, the first level was actually fun, the other levels went bat shit garbage.
Ha! I remember this game fondly. I had never seen the Simpsons before and this is what introduced me to it. Also, I was determined to beat this game and did so. Then I discovered the Simpsons Arcade game and never touched Bart vs The Space Mutants again.
My mom came back from the UK and bought me 2 Mega Drive games: this one & Quackshot. This game was difficult.
I loved this game as a kid
I got this game and got to then end of it and couldn't figure out how to finish. I called the the nintendo hint line (first and last) and they didn't know how to finish it. I figured it out by accident. How could ANYONE know Maggie was the answer when interacting with her the entire time did nothing before??!!
This game still gives me nightmares
If a papernews as lame as "Repubblica" said that this game was bad, then you know that the game is reeeal bad.
I actually enjoyed it alright as a kid, though I wasn't a Simpsons fan. It took me ages to get past the mall stage, I think the controls being the biggest issue.I actually liked the puzzle aspect that changed up how I was used to gaming. I'm not ganna claim it was a great game, but I owned far worse at the time.