Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly
Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly is a 1991 platform video game for the Game Boy. Developed by Imagineering, it was published by Acclaim Entertainment in North America and Europe in 1991. The game was released in Japan in 1993. In "Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly", the player controls Bart from the television series "The Simpsons" as he escapes from an unpleasant summer camp run by ruthless counselors. The plot is similar to that of "The Simpsons" episode "Kamp Krusty", although the game was released nearly a year before that  episode aired. Critics gave the game mixed to negative reviews. Plot and gameplay. Bart and Lisa go to spend the summer at a camp, which turns out to be the dangerous "Camp Deadly" run by Mr. Burns's nephew, Ironfist Burns. His intentions are to make sure that the children suffer and have as little fun as possible, refusing to allow them to leave until they are thoroughly miserable. In the first stage of the game, Bart and the other children play capture the flag in a forest, as part of the camp's morning activity. Bart is harassed by  camp counselors and bullies Blindside Bill and Rebound Rodney, and must make his way through nests of angry bees and other obstacles. The second stage takes place during lunch break at the mess hall, where the counselors throw knives and forks at Bart. Bart can retaliate by throwing food, but if caught he will be made to eat his entire arsenal. Another game of capture the flag follows in the next stage as the afternoon activity. While playing, Bart must avoid counselors, bullies, killer hornets and traps set out for the escaped madman Mort. Bart will find Mort in a  trap and choose to free him. The fourth stage is dinner break and is the same as the lunch break stage, albeit with increased difficulty. If Bart made the decision to free Madman Mort in the prior stage, he will reappear at a particularly difficult point in the dinner stage to come to Bart's aid. The following day, Bart and Lisa decide to escape from Camp Deadly, both because it is too dangerous and because they cannot stand it anymore. However, Ironfist overhears their plans. At night, in the next stage, they escape by climbing to the other  side of a mountain called Mount Deadly. The game's final stage takes place in a forest on the other side. Partway through, Ironfist captures Lisa, and Bart later finds them both at a power station supplying the camp with power. Bart defeats him and frees Lisa. Together, they find and flip a switch at the station that shuts off the power at Camp Deadly and puts an end to their stay there. The end scene shows Bart and Lisa joyfully reunited with Maggie, Marge, and Homer. "Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly" is a side-scrolling 2D platform  game. It is single-player-only, and the player controls Bart. Lisa's role in the stages is giving Bart boomerangs to use against the various enemies. His default weapon is spit wads, and in the cafeteria stages, the barely edible food offered at the camp. Development and release. The game was developed by Imagineering and published by Acclaim. It was released in 1991 in North America and Europe for the hand-held console Game Boy. The game was released in Japan on February 26, 1993. It was the first "Simpsons" game to be released on a portable console. The  plot of "Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly" bears a strong similarity to the "Simpsons" episode "Kamp Krusty" in the sense that they both revolve around Bart and Lisa staying at an evil summer camp. However, that episode did not air until 1992, a year after the game was released. Reception. "Bart Simpson's Escape from Camp Deadly" has received mixed to negative reviews. "Nintendo Power" gave it a 3.4/5 rating in 1991. UGO Networks gave the game a negative review, commenting that "this uninspired train wreck of a Game Boy title fails on nearly every level, but most  of all simply because it's a snore-fest. It's your basic side-scrolling platformer with little to no connection to the source material and lasts only about few hours at best. During the game you come across bullies, camp counselors and even a few wild animals, battling them with spitballs, a boomerang and, in the lunchroom level, food. This one is for completists only." Matt Williamson of the "Rocky Mountain News" gave the game a C+ grade and commented that ""Escape from Camp Deadly" tries too hard to be a Nintendo game. It's hard, I know, to  try to make game graphics more primitive, but please, guys, the more complex you make the graphics, the more confusing a game gets!" However, the Channel 4 video game programme GamesMaster gave the game an 89% rating. In 2009, 1UP.com editor Bob Mackey reviewed the game in 1UP's official Retro Gaming Blog. He wrote: ""Camp Deadly" drops the limited adventure elements of "" in exchange for some much simpler platforming with vastly improved controls [...]. The simple jumping and shooting is nothing to write home about, but "Camp Deadly" would have at least been a semi-competent early Game Boy game  if not for the interminable waves of enemies it constantly throws at you. Here we see a common problem with Game Boy titles: the developers were clearly designing "Camp Deadly" with a big-screen mindset. Enemies teleport in from the edge of the screen and, given how little space there is to actually maneuver, you sometimes have less than a second to react."