Bart walks around and has to find pages of his homework while avoiding enemies such as living post boxes and various characters from the show.

Power-ups that Bart can collect include bubble gum (with which he can blow bubbles to repel enemies or collect floating blue Zs to restore his health), watermelon seeds (which he can spit at enemies to defeat them or make them change direction), pillows (which create a new health bar for him if he runs out of Zs), and his skateboard (which temporarily increases his speed as well as restoring and extending his health bar the longer he is on it).

Hitting a flying saxophone will summon Lisa Simpson with pixie wings to sprinkle fairy dust on Jimbo and his gang and transform them into rats, freeing Bart.

Although much of the game could be categorized as a platformer, some of the minigames could fit in the shoot-em-up genre, particularly the Bartman and Bartzilla stages.

Bart Simpson falls asleep while studying and dreams of a strange universe where TVs and fairies roam the streets.

Bart's Nightmare was developed by Sculptured Software and chiefly designed by Bill Williams.

[1] 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.

[2] Entertainment Weekly wrote that "Falling asleep while doing his homework, Bart has to battle with the demons of his subconscious—imagining himself as, among others, a rampaging green Bartzilla and a caped Bartman.