Bart Simpson's Escape From Camp Deadly

"An early example of how the licence was wasted."

The Simpsons where, at the moment this review was written, into their nineteenth season. The show had also spawned a film, numerable pieces of merchandise and more then twenty games across a myriad of platforms spanning several generations.

The game under scrutiny in this review, Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly was released in 1991 and as such was one of the earlier games based on the show. It was also the first one on the original Game Boy, a machine that would see three more based in the franchise. Games and the Simpsons have apparently not always been such a lucky combination. Even so, the games seem to be improving, judging from more recent reviews. So how does this offering hold up?

GRAPHICS
Although Bart and Lisa look a lot like their cartoon counterparts, there is little animation to speak of. Bart has only the most elementary ones, just like his adversaries. Like them, he can jump, walk and thrust his arm forwards. Nothing more and mercifully nothing less. His sister gets an even worse deal, having the animation of a statue.

Speaking of adversaries, most of them share a single model, only differing in their shade of colour. The sparse exceptions are the boss characters and the insects. These categories also suffer from limited animation. Environments are sparsely detailed and recycled much to often.

It is safe to say that Camp Deadly is no graphical wonder. The problem doesn't really concern the detailing of the characters, which is more or less acceptable. It is the animation which is truly sub par. Seeing that the graphics don't compensate this flaw with, for example, some nicely detailed environments, the conclusion can only be that the graphics of this game are decidedly below average.

SOUND
Believe it or not, the music and sound-effects are even worse then the graphics. The game features only one piece of background music: the main Simpson's theme repeated over and over. It doesn't matter how nice it is, after the umpteenth time it really starts to grate.

Sound-effects are not much better, being almost nonexistent. Of course there are the spoken clips from the show. I always wondered why actual speech was sometimes incorporated in a game for the original Game Boy. It practically always came out grainy and inaudible and this game forms no exception.

GAMEPLAY
Let's begin with the plot, or what passes for one anyway. Bart and Lisa are going to a summer camp. The twist is that this camp can be fatal, something that could have been surmised from the camp's name, Camp Deadly. Now the siblings must try to escape while still participating in the harrowing events the camp has to offer.

Now is the time to make a generalizing statement lacking any kind of nuance whatsoever. A lot of games, especially of this period but also in the present day, where and are rather straightforward in the literal sense of the word. Abstractly speaking, the player starts out on the left side of the level and reaches the finish at the right side of the level. Prime examples are classically designed platformers like Super Mario Bros., brawlers like Double Dragon or the EA Lord of the Rings games or first person shooters like the Call of Duty series. This characteristic is usually camouflaged in some manner (different locations and enemies for example or by providing some illusion of actual freedom or by simply being a good game) so it isn't so easily noticeable.

Camp Deadly doesn't even bother. Bart is forever walking forwards with a few short sections requiring him to climb or descend a ladder. But even so, he only does this to continue his trek eastward. He may travel trough forests, canteens and mountain ranges, his mission is always clear. To travel east without any kind of hesitation or variation. In any other game this would not be an issue. I mention it because it is so blatantly noticeable that it actually becomes irritating.

The amount of locales are also very limited. The three mentioned in the previous paragraph plus a few short sections which take place in some kind of sewer system. These environments appear in turns providing exactly the same kind of challenges each time. In the forests this entails travelling along at a steady pace and taking out the onrushing enemies. Bart can do this by freezing them with spit balls and hitting them with boomerangs. In the canteens he must do the exact same thing but now using food to defeat his foes.

As if this monotony isn't bad enough, the controls also don't help matters. The controls feel very loose and floaty. Defeating his enemies isn't too much of a hassle although the boomerang sometimes manages to fly in the most peculiar and unintended directions, missing the onrushing enemy. The main problems lay with Bart's jumping ability. Even the most simple jumps can become exercises in frustration. This holds especially true in the mountain sections which can result in some very unfair deaths.

Isn't there anything positive to say about Camp Deadly? It can surely not be that bad? Well, I have to say that the canteen sections can be fun, dodging enemies and oncoming projectiles. These parts do provide some excitement and are perhaps the only sections where the gameplay actually works. And the game also isn't that difficult, being mostly a matter of dogged persistence and patience. The experience is thus short enough to give it a try if you are a Simpsons fan blessed with a high degree of tolerance.

FINAL REMARKS
Camp Deadly has some serious issues. It's presentation is decidedly sub par. Gameplay is repetitive in the extreme and the game offers very little in the way of enjoyment and entertainment. There are vastly superior games on the system. There are also much better games based on the franchise. Although I did found the game to be strangely compelling (in a morbid kind of way) enough to finish it no less then three times in a row, I can not consciously recommend it to anyone. Camp Deadly may not be really awful but only by the smallest of margins.

OVERALL: it manages to scrape together a whopping 4,0.

Reviewer's Score: 4/10, Originally Posted: 03/24/08

Game Release: Bart Simpson's Escape From Camp Deadly (EU, 1993)