The Itchy & Scratchy Game

For the unreleased Sega Mega Drive version, see The Itchy & Scratchy Game (Mega Drive).

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The Itchy & Scratchy Game
System(s): Sega Game Gear
Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment
Developer: Bits Corporation, The Grey Team
Distributor: Buena Vista Home Entertainment Spain (ES), Sega-Ozisoft (AU)
Licensor: Twentieth Century Fox
Genre: Action
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code US 1995 $44.9544.95 T-81218 EU 1994 T-81218-50 PT 199x UK 1994-09 T-81218-50 AU 1994 FITC00SGC
Non-Sega versions Super NES

The Itchy & Scratchy Game is a Sega Game Gear action game based on The Itchy & Scratchy Show, a "show within a show" in the animated television series The Simpsons.

Gameplay

The Itchy & Scratchy Game is a side-scrolling platforming game with an emphasis on fighting. The player controls Itchy (the mouse), who must hunt down and hurt Scratchy (the cat) by depleting his health meter. Scratchy, who is controlled by the computer, attempts to do the same and deplete Itchy's health meter. Health meters appear as bomb fuses (Itchy's is yellow and in the top corner, and Scratchy's is red and in the bottom corner), and an arrow points the way to Scratchy when he is not on-screen.

Scratchy only appears in certain parts of the level. Levels contain items to help Itchy, including a variety of weapons, as well as lesser enemies, called "Scratchlings," that can harm Itchy. High falls also harm Itchy. Levels are timed. The player can pause the game with  START  and view the number of lives remaining with or the time remaining with . The level ends when Scratchy is defeated. The game ends if Itchy runs out of health or time, but it can be continued an unlimited number of times. There are three difficulty levels (Easy, Medium, and Hard).

Itchy moves with and and jumps with . He jumps higher when the button is held longer. He uses his weapon with . Both Itchy and Scratchy carry mallets as their standard weapons, but various other weapons, coordinating with the theme of the level, can also be found and used. He can enter doorways with or climb ladders with and .

Items

Items are collected by attacking them.

	Weapon
	Arms Itchy with a weapon. Each level has a different selection of weapons that both Itchy and Scratchy can use, which do more damage than the standard mallet but only last a limited time. Several weapons have unique animations for Itchy and Scratchy when they are hit by them.
	Shield
	Temporarily makes Itchy invincible.
	Cheese
	Causes Itchy to run, which lets him escape Scratchy. He can also run into enemies to hit them.
	Itchy
	Refills some of Itchy's lost health.
	Clock
	Increases the amount of time remaining.

Cartoons

The game is divided into six "cartoons," with themed after different movies.

	Jurracid Bath
	The Medieval Dead
	Mutilation on the Bounty
	A Site for Sawed Eyes
	The Magnificent Severed
	The Disassembly Line

History

The game was once scheduled to be published in Japan under the name Itchy & Stratchy Guriguri Daituseki (イッチー＆スクラッチー　グリグリ大追跡).

At the time of release, only a very small handful of Itchy & Scratchy shorts had been shown in The Simpsons, so much of the game's material can be traced back to early seasons of the show.

Production credits

• Developed by: BITS Corporation
• Programming: B O'Shaughnessy, J Cox, S Clark, T Prosser
• Graphics: J Baker, A Grier, E Pieri, L Roberts, J Stephenson
• Music: G Hadjineophytou, S Ahmad
• Testing: J Taylor, S Cox
• Production: C Lazouras, T Hull, G Sheinwald, J Cox
• Executive Producer: F Katan
• Acclaim Grey Team

Source:

In-game credits

File:Itchy & Scratchy Game GG credits.pdf

Magazine articles

Main article: The Itchy & Scratchy Game/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in EGM² (US) #5: "November 1994" (1994-1x-xx)
also published in:

• Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) #65: "December 1994" (1994-xx-xx)
• Game Players (US) #0802: "Vol. 8 No. 2 February 1995" (1995-0x-xx)

Physical scans

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Electronic Games (1992-1995) (US) NTSC-U 50 GamePro (US) NTSC-U 43 Todo Sega (ES) 65 Top Consoles (FR) 50

	52
Based on 4 reviews

The Itchy & Scratchy Game

Game Gear, US
Cover
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Game Gear, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, AU
Cover
Cart Manual

Game Gear, PT

Technical information

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
?	CRC32 44e7e2da MD5 63bb5a1a959cdc79bfbe05b022f64ebf SHA-1 2d0c2be09b977cc68a7e8f0fc415d8783ad7f8ae	256kB		Cartridge (US/EU)