Virtual Bart (Sega Genesis)
Developed by: Akklaim

I miss my Sega Genesis. It died an untimely deathduring my first year of college. The wires connectingit to the TV broke, and I never bothered trying toreplace them. My Genesis library wasn’t all that bigto begin with, there was Street Fighter II and MortalKombat II and a WWF game or two, but thats about it. Iwas ready to move on to Playstation and leave Segabehind.

Well, I thought I was. A few years later and I missmy Sega Genesis, if only for one reason: Virtual Bart.

I will make it known that of all the Simpsons gamesever released on a home system, Virtual Bart is myfavorite. It is also the only one I have ever beat.But then again, the other ones were on NES, and thatsystem as mentioned died before I could finish withthose games.

There are two options to the game – play mode andpractice area. I’m glad theres a practice area, andsoon you will know why.

The story of the game is that Bart has wandered intoMartin Prince’s virtual reality machine while at theschool science fair. He became trapped in themachine, and has to complete the 6 different worlds ofthe machine or else he will be trapped in those worldsforever.

THE 6 WORLDS:

In Dinosaur Bart, you are a bartosauraus, and in aplatform game, you travel across a prehistoriclandscape, encountering stone age versions of Homer,Barney, Mr. Burns and others. Its very easy to falloff the platforms, and fighting the final bosses isdifficult because of this reason.. the game doesntrequire as much strategy as it does control… its abasic jump-on-top-of-the-bad-guy-and-he-dies game.

Baby Bart is a side scroller and is much moredifficult, you must strategically swing on trees,bounce off objects and avoid deadly obstacles such asjumping dogs and such. if you hit the ground, you’reoutta there.

Post-Apocalyptic Bart is a racing game of sorts,though you’re not racing against anyone really…you’re traveling and trying to dodge rocks andoncoming traffic (Otto’s bus) as well as get thecorn-dog power ups you can find all over the game.

Waterslide Bart sees you at Mount Splashmore, tryingto get to the bottom of the waterslide, go the wrongway and you’ll meet your maker at the bottom of theSpringfield gorge, go the right way, and give Sherriand Terri a bath.

Pig Bart is another platform game that requiresstrategy. You have to pull levers, time your jumps andfind objects to advance through the game. This game isquite hard because the controls fight you as you are,in fact, running as a pig would.

Picture Day Bart sees you outside the school makingtarget practice with the other kids. You must throwtomatoes or eggs at the other students to avoidpicture day. But don’t hit the teachers, unless ofcourse, Skinner is bending over, then go right ahead.

This game was and I’m sure still is incrediblyaddictive and very challenging. Since its an Akklaimgame, you can bet there are its flaws (not much forsound, and although the graphics fit the cartoon, theycould have been better). The animated endings to theworlds are quite entertaining, but I was a bit letdown with what happens when you beat the whole game.The fun from playing however, makes up for it.

Overall, Virtual Bart is a vital piece of anyonekeeping a collection of Simpsons games, and a greatgame in general. If you still have your Genesis, lookfor it. — The Pretentious Goon