The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man
released on Dec 01, 1992
LISTEN UP, CRIME FIGHTERS! The greatest comic book hero of all time, Radioactive Man, has been kidnapped...and it's up to yours truly to save the R-Man. I'll put all my awesome super-powers to the best when I battle the slimy Swamp Hag, the evil Dr. Crab and the bad-tempered Lava Man. Once I wipe these villains out and restore Radioactive Man's powers, we'll take on the brains behind this ugly scheme, Brain-O The Magnificent. So quit reading and buy this game OR ELSE. That's an order from Bartman, man!!! -THIS LOOKS LIKE A JOB...FOR BARTMAN! -WILL A BLAST OF COLD BREATH PUT THE FREEZE ON SWAMP HAG? -THE TERRORS OF THE DEEP ARE NO MATCH FOR THE MIGHTY BARTMAN! -DANGER LURKS EVERYWHERE IN THE JUNKYARD! -IT'S FIST AGAINST CLAW IN THE EVIL DR. CRAB'S LAIR!
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The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man is a rough one. It has some cool ideas – you get to play as Bartman, and there's neat platforming sections... but the controls are super janky, enemies feel completely unfair, and it's way too hard. It's a shame too, because the concept is fun! Unless you're a major Simpsons diehard who loves a challenge (or just enjoys frustrating yourself), this one's probably best left in the past.
De "Bartrilogia" de NES es tal vez el mas "fácil" pero sigue siendo un juego complicado pero con un poco de práctica se vuelve pasable, niveles variados y un par de poderes. Puntos extra por la increible portada simulando un "comic" debido a la temática del juego.
You know, it may just be me or something, but I’ve felt this feeling of… dread for a good couple of days now. I dunno why, it just feels like something is coming up soon, something that is just determined to ruin my day, no matter what the cost may be. I can’t seem to put my finger on what that could be though. Lemme see if… looks at list... oh fuck, THAT’S why I’ve been feeling like this! I have to cover another Simpsons game today! Those bring nothing but tears, sadness, anger, rage, and the feeling of asking yourself “what am I doing with my life”....... at least, in terms of the earliest Simpsons games, Arcade Game excluded of course. So, we may as well get it out of the way, and take on the last Simpsons game made for the NES, The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man.
As per usual, I went into this game with the lowest of expectations, as I have had plenty of experience with these games at this point, and given what I had seen from some screenshots, it didn’t look like anything was going to be changing here. However, upon playing it, I have come to find that, shockingly, this may be the best of the console Simpsons games so far. That’s not to say that the game is good, as it still has many issues that the other games had as well, and it isn’t really any fun, but for what it’s worth, I would rather play this Simpsons game over all of the other ones that I have grown to despise so far. Then again, I would go back and play the arcade game before any of these, but that obviously goes without saying.
The story is one that you could easily guess when reading the title, where Bart encounters Fallout Boy (no, not that Fall Out Boy) in his treehouse, who tells him that Radioactive Man is in trouble, so he dons the persona of Bartman and goes out to recover his powers and save him, which is about as silly and stupid as a story in a Simpsons game can be, so I am cool with it. The graphics look exactly like the other two Simpsons games on the NES at this point, and by that, I mean it looks like shit, but to its credit, it is definitely the best looking of the three games, the music is incredibly unmemorable, just being a bunch of typical tracks you would expect to hear for the types of stages you travel through, while sounding somewhat super-hero-y, but hey, it’s better than playing The Simpsons theme over and over again as the only track (I still can’t get it out of my head), the control is still as bad as we have been used to at this point, and it will still take you quite a bit to get used to what we have here, and the gameplay, thankfully, is extremely straightforward and simple, which at this point is a divine blessing rather then just being lazy.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of Bartman, go through a set of 4 different stages featuring plenty of different segments (or in reality, 3 stages like this and one last boss stage), punch and kick through many different opponents, big or small, as you make your way through these environments, gather plenty of different powerups that will grant Bartman several powers, such as eye-lasers, ice breath, of the power of flight, which will help you tremendously in getting through the stages and taking down your foes, and face several bosses that may seem difficult at first, but when you find out how to take them down, they then turn into a complete joke. That is all the game has to offer. There are no puzzle elements, no extra mini games, no chugging frame rate, no nightmare segments, none of that. Again, this may seem like the developers were being lazy, but trust me, after all I have been through, I would just like to thank the Simpsons game gods for being merciful on my soul for once.
Although, that mercy only goes for so long, as this is still an early 90’s Simpsons game, and thus, it has plenty holding it back. Like I mentioned before, the control is pretty terrible, with you being given a terrible melee attack as your default means of defending yourself, and it barely helps in dealing with any enemies, and the jumping feels extremely heavy and stilted, making any kind of jumps you will perform feel like it takes a millenia to perform. The levels themselves are also pretty bad, with there being several things that make them hold them back, such as repeated designs copy-and-pasted to extend the length of the stage, many different obstacles that you will barely be able to avoid, and most of all, the maze-like aspect. Many of the segments feature a maze-like design that you need to navigate through in order to make it to the end, and as you would expect, these are not fun to go through whatsoever, not just because of the fact that they are mazes, but because you will most likely die before you can make it to the end.
There are also just a lot of little things present here too that drag it down. In the final main level of the game, you have to navigate through these doors in order to reach the last exit, and outside of these doors, if you even attempt to try to jump from one platform to the other, the game will likely just say “No, fuck you”, and throw you into the background and kill you. It’s a little hard to explain, but if you have played this last level, you know exactly what I am talking about. In the second stage, there is another maze that you have to travel through, but it is pitch dark, and there is a light source that you think will help guide you through, but it actually HURTS you if you touch it, so you pretty much have to fumble through the dark in order to reach any kind of exit. Aside from all that though, like I mentioned before, this isn’t nearly as bad as some of the other Simpsons games that I have played before. The straightforward approach of this game is much more appreciated and welcome compared to any of the other games, the bosses, while not all that good, do have some creative means of taking them out, and the whole premise of the game is just stupid enough to where I can enjoy it. Not enough to ever play this again though.
Overall, despite its straightforward design, fun enough story, and creative bosses, this is still another bad and pointless Simpsons game that was solely meant to gather more money and notoriety for the show that it was based on, with real redeemable qualities to it, placing itself among many of the other terrible licensed video games that the 90’s had to offer. I guess I could recommend it for those who thought the other Simpsons games were good enough, as well as those who just enjoy trash like this, but for all of us sane people, we can just forget this game ever existed and move on with our lives. Besides, Bartman is a stupid name anyway. He just took his name and then put “man” at the end of it, like that makes it sound any more super-hero-like. That would be like if I was a superhero named Mega Man or something…………… WAIT A MINUTE-
Game #472
As per usual, I went into this game with the lowest of expectations, as I have had plenty of experience with these games at this point, and given what I had seen from some screenshots, it didn’t look like anything was going to be changing here. However, upon playing it, I have come to find that, shockingly, this may be the best of the console Simpsons games so far. That’s not to say that the game is good, as it still has many issues that the other games had as well, and it isn’t really any fun, but for what it’s worth, I would rather play this Simpsons game over all of the other ones that I have grown to despise so far. Then again, I would go back and play the arcade game before any of these, but that obviously goes without saying.
The story is one that you could easily guess when reading the title, where Bart encounters Fallout Boy (no, not that Fall Out Boy) in his treehouse, who tells him that Radioactive Man is in trouble, so he dons the persona of Bartman and goes out to recover his powers and save him, which is about as silly and stupid as a story in a Simpsons game can be, so I am cool with it. The graphics look exactly like the other two Simpsons games on the NES at this point, and by that, I mean it looks like shit, but to its credit, it is definitely the best looking of the three games, the music is incredibly unmemorable, just being a bunch of typical tracks you would expect to hear for the types of stages you travel through, while sounding somewhat super-hero-y, but hey, it’s better than playing The Simpsons theme over and over again as the only track (I still can’t get it out of my head), the control is still as bad as we have been used to at this point, and it will still take you quite a bit to get used to what we have here, and the gameplay, thankfully, is extremely straightforward and simple, which at this point is a divine blessing rather then just being lazy.
The game is a 2D platformer, where you take control of Bartman, go through a set of 4 different stages featuring plenty of different segments (or in reality, 3 stages like this and one last boss stage), punch and kick through many different opponents, big or small, as you make your way through these environments, gather plenty of different powerups that will grant Bartman several powers, such as eye-lasers, ice breath, of the power of flight, which will help you tremendously in getting through the stages and taking down your foes, and face several bosses that may seem difficult at first, but when you find out how to take them down, they then turn into a complete joke. That is all the game has to offer. There are no puzzle elements, no extra mini games, no chugging frame rate, no nightmare segments, none of that. Again, this may seem like the developers were being lazy, but trust me, after all I have been through, I would just like to thank the Simpsons game gods for being merciful on my soul for once.
Although, that mercy only goes for so long, as this is still an early 90’s Simpsons game, and thus, it has plenty holding it back. Like I mentioned before, the control is pretty terrible, with you being given a terrible melee attack as your default means of defending yourself, and it barely helps in dealing with any enemies, and the jumping feels extremely heavy and stilted, making any kind of jumps you will perform feel like it takes a millenia to perform. The levels themselves are also pretty bad, with there being several things that make them hold them back, such as repeated designs copy-and-pasted to extend the length of the stage, many different obstacles that you will barely be able to avoid, and most of all, the maze-like aspect. Many of the segments feature a maze-like design that you need to navigate through in order to make it to the end, and as you would expect, these are not fun to go through whatsoever, not just because of the fact that they are mazes, but because you will most likely die before you can make it to the end.
There are also just a lot of little things present here too that drag it down. In the final main level of the game, you have to navigate through these doors in order to reach the last exit, and outside of these doors, if you even attempt to try to jump from one platform to the other, the game will likely just say “No, fuck you”, and throw you into the background and kill you. It’s a little hard to explain, but if you have played this last level, you know exactly what I am talking about. In the second stage, there is another maze that you have to travel through, but it is pitch dark, and there is a light source that you think will help guide you through, but it actually HURTS you if you touch it, so you pretty much have to fumble through the dark in order to reach any kind of exit. Aside from all that though, like I mentioned before, this isn’t nearly as bad as some of the other Simpsons games that I have played before. The straightforward approach of this game is much more appreciated and welcome compared to any of the other games, the bosses, while not all that good, do have some creative means of taking them out, and the whole premise of the game is just stupid enough to where I can enjoy it. Not enough to ever play this again though.
Overall, despite its straightforward design, fun enough story, and creative bosses, this is still another bad and pointless Simpsons game that was solely meant to gather more money and notoriety for the show that it was based on, with real redeemable qualities to it, placing itself among many of the other terrible licensed video games that the 90’s had to offer. I guess I could recommend it for those who thought the other Simpsons games were good enough, as well as those who just enjoy trash like this, but for all of us sane people, we can just forget this game ever existed and move on with our lives. Besides, Bartman is a stupid name anyway. He just took his name and then put “man” at the end of it, like that makes it sound any more super-hero-like. That would be like if I was a superhero named Mega Man or something…………… WAIT A MINUTE-
Game #472
I mean, it's better than the other ones, but that's something most platformers ever made can say about themselves
I'm just now realizing how prevalent Bartman was in Simpsons merchandising in the early 90s considering how Bartman is in, what, a single scene of season 2?
Just like the other two NES Simpsons games... this isn't very good. This is the one I played the least since I only rented it once or twice back in the day.
Just like the other two NES Simpsons games... this isn't very good. This is the one I played the least since I only rented it once or twice back in the day.
To quote Bart, "Meh"