Virtual Bart Review

I distinctly remember the first time I saw Virtual Bart. It was in a Blockbuster Video store, and I saw Bart Simpson’s face on the front of a Genesis game. I was, and still am, a gigantic Simpsons fan, so it was the game I rented sometime in 1995. There are very few things I remember about the game, but it seems most people dislike it. I decided to go back and play the game so I could review it for myself.

Story

Virtual Bart begins with Bart Simpson walking through the science fair at Springfield Elementary School. He walks past various exhibits from the show that are well-animated on the Genesis. He gets to a room with a machine and gets hooked up to it. That’s when the real game begins, and you see that it’s just a compilation of mini-games.

Game Types

Waterslide

The water slide was the first game I played, and it left a lot to be desired. Bart is just going down the world’s longest water slide and trying to avoid beach balls and other kids. If you do hit things, you can find corn dogs to replenish your health partially. You’ll reach different forks where you’ll have to pick whether to go left or right (there’s a bald guy with lines on his swimsuit that point you in the right direction). If you go the wrong direction, you’ll either run into Homer’s backside, fall off a cliff, crash into a sign, or somehow get eaten by a lion. I have no idea how the last three things would happen, but they do.

Pig

This is one of the weirder game modes in Virtual Bart, with Bart turning into a pig. You’re in a Krusty Foods factory trying to fight back and save yourself from becoming Spam. You’re jumping around the level, hitting levers and finding keys to save the other pigs in the factory. It was a fun game that played like many platformers of the time. One wrong move sends you to the ham-press, so you have to go through some trial and error to figure out the correct route at times.

Baby Bart

This has got to be the worst game of the bunch. Baby Bart has awoken from his nap only to hop out of the window. The idea is to swing across the trees, but good luck getting very far. Bart can shoot some projectiles that may or may not help you take out some of the enemy squirrels and birds. I say it may help you because it doesn’t seem like you can stop your momentum long enough to do that. You’re constantly trying to swing Bart to the next branch. I spent most of my time looking at him, head buried in the ground, after I died from a missed jump.

Bart The Dinosaur

This was one of the most enjoyable games in Virtual Bart. Bart can hop and tail-whip different enemies, and even has a special roar to clear the screen. The enemies do feel cheap at times, and taking hits feels inevitable. The platforms can be a little bit hard to hit, as Bart feels slippery at times as well. The collision detection can be a bit suspect at times as well. Still, I managed to complete a significant portion of the levels. It was also fun to see different Simpsons characters as prehistoric versions of themselves.

Mad Max err…Bart

This game bears some resemblance to Road Rash. You’re riding down the open road on a motorcycle, trying to fight off various bullies from The Simpsons. It’s a decent game, but nothing too memorable. It’s probably one of the easier games in the bunch until you get to the last little bit.

Tomato Toss

This is one of the games that I remember most from when I played it all those years ago in 1995. This game is simple. You’re just trying to hit as many students and teachers from Springfield Elementary as possible. It’s all about timing here. Some people walk slowly, while others move so quickly that they seem to disappear in an instant. You can also move your shot left or right, but I found that adds even more difficulty to the shot. It was fun to practice this one and try to figure out the best tactics to hit everyone so they’re all red for picture day.

These mini-games are a lot longer than traditional mini-games. I didn’t have a good time with most of them. It felt like a collection of half-baked ideas thrown together under the guise of a virtual reality machine. I would have liked a more cohesive story.

Presentation

I liked the graphical style in this game. It closely resembled the animated series on the hardware of the time. I do feel like some of the games could have had more detailed levels, but it’s perfectly fine. The menu is basic, offering either story or practice mode. The audio was just passable to me, with the music and sound effects not being very memorable.

Final Thoughts

Virtual Bart can be fun in short bursts, but it’s a game I’m unlikely ever to go back to. The games aren’t particularly enjoyable, and some are frustratingly difficult at times. It feels like the developer threw this together, and it shows in the shallow gameplay. A lot of the games are just long for the sake of being long. They don’t change much; you just have to keep going. That’s not my idea of a good game.