[Playing…] The Simpsons: Bart’s Nightmare

Although I firmly believe that the best Simpsons games are those of the 128-bit generation (especially The Simpsons Road Rage and The Simpsons Hit and Run) I can't deny that I have spent many hours on some of their previous games.

If there is something that the classic Simpsons games have, it is a very detailed visual section when it comes to showing the characters, I would almost say that in some games they focused on that and the rest seemed secondary, total, the important thing was that it looked striking and the children recognized the characters.

From the Simpsons Arcade (style Double Dragon) to 8-bit games (which mainly suffered due to their control) the games of this yellow family have attracted attention both for good and for bad.

In the 16-bit era, 4 Simpsons games appeared, one dedicated to Itchy and Scratchy (The Itchy and Scratchy Game), another starring Krusty (Krusty Fun House) and two starring Bart where we had to overcome a series of minigames with no apparent connection between them (Bart's Nightmare and Virtual Bart).

On this occasion I will talk about Bart's Nightmare, Well, not only did I enjoy it quite a bit as a child, but it clearly seems much better to me than Virtual Bart (even though both are so similar that they share the same defects).

This game tells us that Bart falls asleep while trying to study, with such bad luck that his note sheets fly out the window. When trying to pick them up, Bart falls towards the street and arrives in a world that looks like Springfield, but is not exactly the same, although the important thing is not to waste time and look for the damn pages he has lost.

From the beginning of the game we will see Bart in the middle of any street in Springfield (although it is known as Windy World), we can move left, right, up or down, but there does not seem to be any direction that will make the game really advance, since it repeats in a loop horizontally.

The objective of the game is to survive that phase of the street while we look for the note sheets, and when we see them, jump on them so that they take us to a mini-game that, if we overcome it, will allow us to recover the sheet in question.

Before talking about the minigames I would like to comment on some things about this part of “the street” because it is something quite unique as a concept.

The first thing to keep in mind is that it doesn't matter where you move, the note sheet can be in any of the two places. The only way to get a clue to know where the closest one is is to jump over mailboxes. If we do it correctly a few consecutive times, a question symbol will appear and when we touch it, an arrow will show us which direction we should go. This is easy enough, but keep in mind that the mailboxes are live.

When we see that arrow and head at full speed in search of the blade, we will have to keep in mind that this Springfield of the world of dreams is a place where only the toughest survive, since we will encounter enemies and characters who will annoy us relentlessly and where only the most skilled survive.

Bart's life bar is a kind of bracket with some Z's inside, when hit they are emptied and when we have a Z left, a fog will warn us that with the next hit we will die (or what is the same, Bart will wake up and the game will end). The way to recover life is to use a gum ball that touches a blue Z and it will go up to our life bar. But even in that they have decided to complicate it, because if life is in brackets, the Z has to fall inside it (we can move the camera to try to help the letter, but it doesn't work miracles). If we are in the last hit, with the screen full of fog, that new Z will rise to the top and create a new life bar that will go from the point where that letter has risen, to where the other one is, so that if that new Z is on the left end of the screen and the other, on the right, our life bar will be the size of the entire screen (something to be appreciated when filling it with letters, of course) but if they are together, we will have a tiny life bar. Strange? Well yes, but this is the beginning.

There are also other red Zs, these will not increase our life, in fact they explode when they come into contact with the gum balloon that Bart throws, so they are only useful for “attacking” some enemies, something that will happen occasionally, since the red Zs appear from time to time and it has to happen that a “knockdown” enemy passes by and you hit the Z with the gum at the right moment so that it explodes in his face. Is it worth it? The truth is that yes, although it doesn't make any playable difference (it's easier to avoid the enemy than to do all this) it is very satisfying.

Bart's other abilities are not so cryptic, as he can shoot watermelon seeds to attack, jump over enemies to avoid or destroy them, use the skateboard to go faster, and burp to eliminate all enemies on the screen (as long as he has gotten a soda can). There are only two moments in which Bart cannot use these abilities: when Lisa turns him into a frog and when Principal Skinner passes by him and puts him in his clothes for going to church on Sundays and at this point I think I should explain a little, the dangers that will threaten Bart while he is on the street.

While we move along the road looking for the leaves, dozens of enemies will come to make our lives miserable. The most common and difficult enemy to avoid is Otto driving the bus at full speed down the road (which is why I recommend going on the sidewalks whenever possible) it will also be difficult to avoid the Springfield hooligans, who will not harm us, they will only catch us to force us to go in the opposite direction (until Lisa turns them into rats). Then we have the aforementioned Lisa (turned into a fairy), Skinner with his Sunday suit on a hanger (which is not necessarily a bad thing, since although we cannot use Bart's abilities, it makes us immortal for a while), an old woman who blows unpleasant kisses (which are the antidote to Lisa's magic), a grease stain (it will slow us down), the head of Jebediah Springfield (one of the most annoying enemies), a basketball (if we jump it it becomes skateboard) and many more, each and every one rarer than the last.

Everything said above describes the part of “the street” which in turn is still the main area of ​​the game where we look for the leaves that allow us to access the different worlds, so we will have to concentrate on surviving to find them.

Once we find one of these leaves, we jump on it and Bart will appear in front of two doors, we will have to choose one or the game will do it for us. Each door leads Bart to live a different dream and if he overcomes it we will obtain the note sheet.

The green door turns Bart into godzilla in a minigame that is quite complex from what it seems at first glance. While “BartZilla” walks through the city we will have to eliminate the enemies that are stalking us (tanks, planes, trains...). This seems easy but it is not since each enemy comes from a different depth plane and we will have to memorize which attack hurts them. If we use the D-pad, Bart will shoot fireballs where we have touched and if we touch the buttons, he will shoot laser beams through his eyes in various directions. As I said, it seems easy, but it is not, also, Bartzilla does not have a life marker but he is not immortal, so we simply have to try to avoid being damaged too much.

If we overcome the city part, we will have to climb a building where Marge will appear transformed into Momthra (homage to Mothra) and Homer king kong.

La puerta amarilla nos lleva al mundo de Itchy y Scratchy, en un minijuego bastante rápido y violento donde al primer despiste moriremos. Lo bueno de este nivel es que Bart puede obtener muchas armas y si sois un poco hábiles también conseguiréis vidas extra fácilmente. Siguiendo con el espíritu de la serie, el gato y el ratón se intentaran matar con armas cada vez más letales y Bart sufrirá los daños colaterales (casi cualquier ataque enemigo es una muerte instantánea). Pese a su alta dosis de letalidad, es uno de los minijuegos más accesibles.

La puerta rosa envía a Bart a un mundo acuático, algo raro, donde tendrá que nadar y atrapar enemigos para inflarlos hasta hacerlos explotar (algo así como Dig Dug pero buceando) al hacerlo aparecerá un logo de Joe Fisión y en caso de tocarlo, irá rompiendo la barrera que mantiene prisionera la hoja. Posiblemente es el juego más fácil y sencillo.

La puerta azul nos pone en la piel de Bartman, que surcará por los cielos de Springfield usando su letal (más o menos) tirachinas como arma. Este minijuego es bastante largo y requiere mucha práctica, pues además de tener que eliminar enemigos comunes y evitar peligros (como misiles o nubes radiactivas) tendremos que ser muy hábiles para enfrentarnos con los jefes finales (y hay unos cuantos).

La puerta naranja nos llevará a un mundo del estilo Indiana Jones, donde Bart irá moviéndose por cuadrados de colores hasta llegar al final. El control de este nivel es raro pues usaremos la cruceta para hacer que Bart salte hacia la dirección que queramos, mientras que los botones se usaran para el látigo. Cada paso que Bart da, las piedras de alrededor se mueven (algunas se levantan, otras se hunden) y eso es un aviso para que sepamos que la mayoría de plataformas se hundirán en cuanto saltemos en ellas. Moverse por este nivel es muy difícil, pero a eso hay que sumarle que tenemos enemigos molestándonos y que incluso Maggie (que aparece en forma de pintura en el fondo) nos disparará su chupetete. Sin duda, para mi es el más difícil de los minijuegos, no tengo paciencia.

Cada vez que un minijuego sea completado nos darán una hoja y una vez las tengamos todas podremos ver el final del juego. Aunque para lograr eso tendréis que haber muerto un centenar de veces, porque este juego es bastante duro y no ofrece continuaciones, passwords ni salva partidas. Al menos la pantalla de Game Over nos da la alegría de ver que mientras más hojas tengamos, la nota de Bart va subiendo, aunque el resultado siga siendo un suspenso.

Este juego tuvo cierta fama en su día, pero no conozco a nadie que realmente lo considerase una maravilla o el mejor juego de los Simpsons de 16 bits (en mi opinión ese mérito se lo queda Krusty’s Fun House).

Sin embargo hay que admitir que con Bart’s Nightmare trataron de hacer algo original en planteamiento, aunque quizás se pasaron en cosas que se tendrían que haber simplificado (como que la barra de vida se llene con globos de chicle y letras Z son de todo menos intuitivas, cuando una barra de vida normal e ítems que la rellenasen sería más coherente.

Con la dificultad podemos decir lo mismo, algunos minijuegos son accesibles si insistes un poco, pero otros pueden ser terribles dando un juego tremendamente desequilibrado. Lo curioso de esto es que podrían haberlo solucionado (al menos parcialmente) añadiendo passwords o continuaciones.

En cualquier caso, este juego es un placer culpable para mí, me gusta jugarlo de vez en cuando y ver cuántas hojas consigo. No aspiro a pasármelo, pero me divierte hacer algunos de los minijuegos.