Eat my shorts!
Bart Simpson's Escape From Camp Deadly is a 1991 Platform Game for the Game Boy, developed by Imagineering (creators of A Boy and His Blob, as well as the other Simpsons games) and published by Acclaim. The game centers around Bart and Lisa being shipped off for the summer to the notorious Camp Deadly, a particularly horrible and dangerous summer camp run by the tyrannical "Ironfist" Burns (with Nelson Muntz and his band of bullies as councillors) who is determined to change the attitudes of the Simpsons children before camp is over... or they're never going to leave at all.
It's up to Bart to save both himself and his sister, and make sure Camp Deadly isn't going to ruin summer vacation for any other kids.
Bart Simpson's Escape From Camp Deadly provides examples of:
- Absurdly Spacious Sewer: The radioactive tunnels, which Bart must sometimes go through to get past impassable rivers, and later on to shut down the Camp's power supply and close it.
- Artistic License – Nuclear Physics: Camp Deadly itself seems to be powered by its own miniature nuclear power plant, complete with open pools of toxic waste and deadly radioactive orbs floating around.
- A Winner Is You: After a short cutscene of Bart and Lisa watching the power at Camp Deadly go out — from them flipping a switch — the game ends with a shot of the Simpson family outside the gates of the closed camp, with Bart and Lisa high-fiving each other and Maggie crawling after a skunk.
- Bag of Spilling: Bart loses all of his boomerangs after each Food Fight level, forcing him to retrieve more after each one. Fortunately, Lisa — who can give him more — doesn't tend to be very hard to find.
- Battle Boomerang: Bart's main weapon throughout the non-Food Fight levels is one of these, which are provided by Lisa. If you lose all of them — or try to attack again while a boomerang is already in flight — you're reduced to using much weaker spitwads.
- Bears Are Bad News: The last level features sleeping bears, which will wake up and charge at you if you tread on the piles of dry sticks and are invincible.
- Bee Afraid: Hordes of bees are enemies that will patrol areas, typically with hives. Attacking them with a spitwad or boomerang is very ill-advised, so you'll need the Beekeeper Suit to easily evade them. There are also much bigger hornets the size of Bart's head in the later stages.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Swarms of giant spiders and hornets — implied to have been mutated by the radiation from the Camp's nuclear power plant — are some of the later threats Bart has to contend with.
- Blown Across the Room: Defeated enemies are send flying off the screen this way.
- Canon Foreigner: Blindside Bill, Rebound Rodney and Slipshod Sammy, three bullies who serve as minibosses, and are presumably meant to be stand-ins for Jimbo, Dolph and Kearney from the Kamp Krusty episode.
- And of course Ironfist Burns himself, who's supposedly Mr. Burns' nephew.
- Circling Birdies: Whenever Bart loses a life, he falls to the floor with stars circling round his head.Bart: Ay Carumba!
- Covers Always Lie: Jimbo, Dolph, Kearney and the Weasels don't appear in this game at all, even though they're pictured on the game cover. Nelson does appear as an early boss, however.
- Dark Reprise: The theme song for The Simpsons — which is referenced repeatedly in a lot of the early game's music — appears in minor key as part of the music in the final level.
- Damsel in Distress: Lisa assists Bart throughout the game by providing him with ammo, health and special suits during the levels, but in the final stage, Ironfist kidnaps her.
- Death Mountain: To escape the camp, Bart has to cross Mount Deadly the first night of their stay.
- Dirty Cop: A variation. The last level features Camp Security Guards in place of the usual bullies as enemies, who appear in droves to capture Bart and Lisa as they try to escape the camp.
- Drill Sergeant Nasty: Ironfist Burns is the summer camp variety.Ironfist Burns: Listen up, Simpson! I'm your camp councillor, Ironfist Burns. For the next two months, you are going to live, breathe and eat our beloved Camp Deadly. When I say "jump", you'll ask how high. When I say "march", you'll ask how far. The same goes for your sister... you're both happy little punks, now. But I'll change that before you leave... or you won't leave here at all!
- Edible Ammunition: Nelson and the other bullies can throw apples at Bart to attack, and Bart himself can use the various horrible food items in the Lunch and Dinner stages to fight back.
- Food Fight: Both the Lunch and Dinner levels feature these, as Bart has to go through the mess tent alive while being pelted with cutlery by the councillors, using nasty foods like prune ice cream, crab apples and liver pizza as throwable weapons. If one of the supervisors sees you throwing food he'll blow his whistle and you'll be forced to eat all of your ammo (yuck!) before you're allowed to move on.
- Game-Over Man: Not unlike what happens in the Sega Genesis port of Bart vs. The Space Mutants, Ironfist Burns serves as this; taunting Bart and Lisa with a key as he locks them up for good in the camp's brig.
- Hit Points: These are represented in the form of Chocolate Candies that Bart picks up or takes from fallen enemies. Notably, there doesn't seem to be an upper limit on how many he can carry, meaning that if you collect enough of them, he can take a frankly insane amount of damage.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Camp Deadly is presumably named after the nearby mountain, but it still really isn't the name of a camp you'd want to send your kids to.
- Instant Costume Change: Twice throughout the game, a beekeeper suit, a football uniform and a hazmat suitnote . The beekeeper suit and the hazmat suit allow you to safely get past deadly obstacles on said level — swarms of killer hornets and toxic waste, respectively — while the football uniform lets Bart barge enemies out of his way on contact for as long as it lasts.
- Invincible Minor Minion: There are several enemies that cannot be killed, including the aforementioned bees.
- It's a Wonderful Failure: The Game Over screen shows Ironfist Burns locking Bart and Lisa in the brig and taunting them with the key, as a creepy mournful tune plays.
- Ledge Bats: Eagles and boulders will try to knock you off when climbing Mount Deadly, and big bite-y fish do the same in the levels where you have to cross rivers.
- Lethal Chef: To no surprise, the food served at Camp Deadly is god-awful, and the menu features things like tofu burgers, liver pizza, crab apples, and prune ice cream.
- Moral Myopia: The councillors in the Food Fight levels will punish Bart by forcing him to eat all of his ammunition if they see him throwing it, but will never punish the bullies for throwing knives at him.
- Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: At one point in the second capture the flag level, Bart finds a character named Madman Mort caught in a snare trap. The manual mentions he's an axe murderer, but then again maybe he's not. If Bart lets him down, Mort will show up to help him a few times later in the game.
- One-Hit Kill: Several enemies and hazards will take Bart down in a single hit if he touches them.
- 1-Up: Picking up a Krusty The Clown head will give Bart an extra chance.
- Plot Hole: It is never revealed how Lisa gets kidnapped by Ironfist Burns in the endgame... even though you see her earlier in the last level.
- Ratchet Scrolling: In most places, you cannot backtrack at all.
- Recycled Soundtrack: Most of the soundtrack in this game is recycled from Bart Vs The Space Mutants.
- Summer Campy: Camp Deadly somehow manages to be even worse than Kamp Krusty ever was, as not only does Bart have to deal with the scary Ironfist Burns and the bullies as camp counsellors, but pretty much everything in the surrounding wilderness wants him dead as well.
- Stone Wall: Downplayed. Although certain dangers will still put Bart down for the count in one hit, the fact there doesn't seem to be an upper limit on how many Chocolate Candies he can carry — a "+" symbol appears next to the nine you can see in the Life Meter when you pick up more than that — and how they carry over between levels means that he can tank pretty much anything else if you save up enough of them.
- Super Drowning Skills: Water spells instant death for Bart in any of the levels it's featured in.
- Very False Advertising: A cutscene before the Mount Deadly level implies that the ads for the camp, much like Kamp Krusty, portrayed it as a standard fun camp rather than the horrific death march it actually is.Bart: Face it, Lisa — we've been duped. This is the pits, man.Lisa: You're right, Bart. I was so looking forward to the nature walks and birdwatching tours promised in the brochure!Bart: And what about the fun and games and all the Campfire Weenies you can eat? Kelp Burgers... yuck! We gotta get out of here!
- Video Game Cruelty Punishment: If you attack Lisa she'll shout "Stop it, Bart!" and drop whatever item she was holding for you, although you can still catch it if you're quick.
- What the Hell, Player?: Lisa scolds you if you attack her.Lisa: Stop it, Bart!
- Wicked Wasps: Enemies include hornets as big as Bart's head.
- Zerg Rush: Camp counsellors will endlessly rush Bart in the capture the flag levels.
- Zero-Effort Boss: Nelson becomes this if you rescued Madman Mort earlier in the level. Normally, Nelson attacks from the treetops by dropping apples on you, but Mort forces him back into the corner, preventing him from attacking or moving and allowing Bart to easily climb up the tree and wail on him with the Boomerang.
