Megadrive/master system lot

You know I actually liked Bart vs. The Space Mutants.

You see I had a C64 at the time and in the early 90's you jumped on any bone that was thrown at you. BvsSM reviewed really well on the C64. And in comparison to other C64 games at the time it was up the higher end, more an indication of how dire the C64 was compared to the NES and master system more than anything.

I found the game obnoxiously tough as well but once I got used to it I actually really enjoyed the opening level. There's some really clever puzzles mixed in with the platforming. There's a great bit of variety and it can feel a bit like a point and click at times with the puzzles and inventory management.

However if you got to the second stage and beyond it gets much worse. The game is front loaded and all the games good ideas are in that first level. The second level you have to collect hats in a linear platforming section. Get to the end and don't have enough hats and you'll have to backtrack and grind. There's some rotten sections like the tiny candy canes you need to jump on that rotate and knock you off. The timing seems random so it can just completely screw you up. It's so hard that the developers put in a way to cheat past it because even they knew it was bull****.

The third level again is another linear level where you collect **** in krusty land. It is admittedly visually pleasing at least.

The fourth level is in a museum and you collect exit signs. It's as far as I ever got. It's another linear level and absolutely nothing stands out.

The fifth and final level sounds like torture with it being a massive confusing maze where you have to collect radioactive bars and bring them back to a room. Some version have skateboarding bits that are entirely rote memorisation as well and instant death if you guess wrong.

I've gone back to the NES version and while I think the first level has some great ideas I recognise it's not a lot of fun.

The later levels are pretty bad with the usual level design that David Crane is noted for, i.e. the total lack of any level design. I heard it called 'airplane hangar' level design where you have a massive level and just fill it with random **** just to fill it up with not rhyme, reason or flow. See the Megadrive Shiny games like Cool Spot, Aladdin etc. or something like Home Improvement of the SNES for other examples.