The Simpsons: Barts Nightmare – Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1993)
The Simpsons: Bart’s Nightmare for the SNES is an action-adventure game, the story revolves around Bart Simpson falling asleep while doing his homework, and his completed papers being blown out the window. In his dream, Bart must navigate a surreal version of Springfield, which serves as a hub world, to retrieve his lost homework pages. Each page leads him into a unique, often bizarre, mini-game nightmare. These mini-games see Bart transform into various alter egos, such as “Bartzilla” stomping through the city, “Bartman” flying as a superhero, or even shrinking down to explore his own bloodstream. Gameplay primarily consists of navigating the side-scrolling hub world, avoiding enemies like living mailboxes and hostile grandmas, while collecting power-ups. Once a homework page is found, the player enters one of several mini-games, which vary wildly in genre and mechanics, from shoot-’em-ups to platforming challenges. The goal is to successfully complete these mini-games to earn back a homework page, with the ultimate aim of waking up with a good grade. Reception for The Simpsons: Bart’s Nightmare was generally mixed to negative. While it was praised for its colorful graphics that captured the show’s aesthetic and its unique, imaginative premise, the execution of its gameplay often fell short. Many critics and players found the controls clunky, the difficulty uneven and frustrating, particularly in certain mini-games (like “Indiana Bart” or “Bartzilla”), and the main hub world to be drawn out and repetitive. Despite its flaws, some players found the game to have a certain charm due to its faithfulness to the show’s humor and its willingness to experiment with different gameplay styles.
Boxed, Insert, No Manual
2209
£27.99
The Lawnmower Man – Super Nintendo Entertainment System (1993)
The Lawnmower Man on the SNES is an action game based on the 1992 film, which itself was loosely based on a Stephen King short story. The game’s story expands on the movie’s ending, with Dr. Lawrence Angelo (the player character) pursuing Jobe Smith into the virtual world after Jobe transfers his mind into computers, causing widespread digital chaos. Angelo’s goal is to stop Jobe, who is revealed to be controlled by a mysterious figure named Zorn the Doomplayer. Gameplay is a mix of 2D side-scrolling run-and-gun segments, where you control either Dr. Angelo or Carla Parkette, and impressive (for the time) first-person 3D “virtual reality” sections. These 3D sections involve dodging obstacles, flying through tunnels, and sometimes engaging in shooting sequences, attempting to replicate the film’s CGI visuals. The game was developed by The Sales Curve and published by THQ. Reception was mixed but leaned towards positive, with critics often praising the innovative 3D virtual reality sequences and the soundtrack, while some criticized the difficulty, especially in the 3D sections, and the somewhat generic 2D platforming.
