The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man
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 Don't do the Bartman.
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The Simpsons: Bartman Meets Radioactive Man is a video game released in late 1992 published by Acclaim Entertainment for the Nintendo Entertainment System and Sega Game Gear. It is the third NES game based on the animated sitcom The Simpsons.
Development
The game was developed by Imagineering and published by Acclaim. It was released in 1992 for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) and the hand-held Game Gear. At the time when the game was released, the "Bartman" alter ego was popular in merchandise relating to The Simpsons, although the character rarely appeared in the television series. Radioactive Man had not been featured much either at that point. In regards to this, an 1UP.com editor commented that "when it comes to mining the show for content, Bartman Meets Radioactive Man is really reaching." The Simpsons creator Matt Groening was involved with the development of earlier video games based on the series, having final approval on all storylines and character designs. For Bartman Meets Radioactive Man, Groening changed a character named Queen Ant DeLuvian to Queen Grouchina, though no character with either name exists in the released version of the game.
Gameplay
Bartman Meets Radioactive Man is a side-scrolling platform game. Throughout the four chapters, Bartman is faced with enemies he has to defeat. He only has five life points, but if he loses one or more of them they can be restored. This is done by collecting radioactive signs. The player is able to collect lightning icons that give Bartman the ability to shoot lightning bolts at enemies from his eyes. His other weapons are kicking and punching. In addition, Bartman must avoid the deadly traps that are scattered at various places in the levels.
At the end of each chapter, Bartman must face one of the super villains that stole Radioactive Man's powers.
Plot
Bart is reading a Radioactive Man comic book in his treehouse, when he's suddenly greeted by Fallout Boy, Radioactive Man's sidekick, who tells Bart that his ally was kidnapped and is trapped in the Limbo Dimension. Bart turns into his superhero form, Bartman, and sets out to rescue Radioactive Man by defeating his enemies.
Why It Can't Do The Bartman
- The controls haven't improved from Bart vs. the Space Mutants and Bart vs. the World, meaning that they are just as bad, and the level design here makes this situation much worse.
- Some of the enemies are way too small to kill, like the rats in the junkyard level.
- The levels take forever to beat, and have very few checkpoints, making them having artificial difficulty and are also frustrating mainly for this reason.
- The game has a few inconsistencies:
- In the first level, Bartman can jump on tires and broken TVs just fine, but if he lands on any other part of the garbage, it's treated like a bottomless pit and he dies, which makes no sense.
- The platforms in the sewer level shoot electricity, which can't hurt Bartman unless he's standing on the platform. Shouldn't the electricity hurt Bartman regardless if he's standing on the platform or not?
- Some levels require Bartman to take a leap of faith, as it's sometimes difficult to tell where to land. It's made worse with the camera failing to catch up to Bartman if he makes a huge jump, causing him to die for no reason.
- This is made worse in the Game Gear version due to screen crunch.
- The levels in this game are of schizophrenic difficulty, this is also not helped by the long time to beat these and the fact that there are not many checkpoints as said before.
- Lava Man's first level requires Bartman to fall into a specific pit to progress further, and the game never hints that you have to fall down there, as all of the other pits kill Bartman.
- Lava Man's second level is basically a rehash of the Hollywood graveyard level in Bart vs. the World, with a similarly designed maze involving doors. It's impossible to navigate the level without drawing a map, as some doors warp Bartman back to the start of the level.
- Also, said level has waterfalls scattered around that instantly kill Bartman, with no indication of the waterfalls being a hazard until Bartman touches them, as they look like a part of the background.
- Furthermore, the level prohibits Bartman from jumping across platforms, even ones that are close to one another, causing him to die if he attempts to jump across.
- The game's bosses are ridiculously easy, even the final boss, Brain-O.
Redeeming Qualities
- It's easy to rack up extra lives in this game.
- The music is decent, much like Bart vs. The World.
- The Game Gear version is an improvement over the NES version, with better graphics and more responsive controls, that version is also pretty decent compared to the NES version, despite having sluggish framerate compared to the NES version.
Reception
 "What were they thinking?"
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Bartman Meets Radioactive Man received negative reviews from critics. GamePro magazine gave it a 2.5/5 rating, while Game Players gave the game a 44/100 rating with the rationale that "it's full of frustrating jumps, and there are no passwords [for saving]."
In the fifth issue of Nintendo Magazine System, reviewer Andrew called Bartman Meets Radioactive Man inferior to Krusty's Fun House and gave it a score of 73 out of 100. He wrote that the game starts in a "promising manner," but quickly "degenerates" into a generic platforming game, concluding with "It would be easy to ignore Bartman Meets Radioactive Man, and, if you did, you wouldn't miss out on much. But if you can cope with boring graphics and monotone tunes, you have a tough game that should take a while to complete."
In 2009, 1UP.com editor Bob Mackey reviewed the game in 1UP's official Retro Gaming Blog. He wrote that Bart "still has the same awful, inconsistent jumping from his first NES game. [...] Really, this game could have been somewhat interesting if the developers used the Radioactive Man character to parody existing comics and comic eras—as they did in the show and the Radioactive Man comic book—but that's asking way too much of a licensed 8-bit game."
Writing for Tribune Media Services in 1993, columnists Chip and Jonathan Carter gave Bartman Meets Radioactive Man a more positive review. They wrote that "we haven't seen a bad Simpsons game yet, and Bartman's actions and graphics are as good as the others. This one-player cart's not quite as much fun as the first two NES Simpsons games — probably because it's harder — but it still stands mask and cape above most other 8-bit games." The game received a 70/100 rating from the Dutch magazine Power Unlimited in 1994.
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