Todd Friedman, host
of the Smash TV - The Video Game Facebook page, wrote a killer essay on Super
Smash T.V. for the Super Nintendo for my forthcoming book, The 100 Greatest Console Video Games: 1988-1998. I decided to share the text from the chapter with
you guys and gals months ahead of the book’s release. The book will be out in
November, and the Kickstarter campaign is doing very well. ENJOY!
SUPER SMASH T.V.
SUPER NINTEDO
GENRE: TOP-DOWN
SHOOTER
PUBLISHER: ACCLAIM
ENTERTAINMENT
DEVELOPER:
WILLIAMS ELECTRONICS
1 OR 2 PLAYERS
(SIMULTANEOUS)
“The Year is 1999. Television has adapted to
the more violent nature of man. The most popular form of television remains the
game show. One show in particular has dominated the ratings. That show is Smash T.V. The most violent game
show of all time.
“Two lucky
contestants compete for cash and prizes. Each contestant is armed with an
assortment of powerful weapons and sent into a closed arena. The action takes
place in front of a studio audience and is broadcast live via satellite around
the world. Be prepared, the future is now.
“You are the next
lucky contestant!” - From the Super Smash T.V. manual
With the huge
success of the original arcade version of Smash T.V. (1990), it was only
natural for home consoles to jump onboard. The Nintendo Entertainment System
had an 8-bit version of the game, and then a 16-bit Super NES rendition called
Super Smash T.V. followed. Despite the name change, it is a straight-up port of
the arcade classic. (Smash T.V. was also ported to the Game Gear, Master System,
and Genesis. For the computer market, Ocean published ports for the ZX
Spectrum, Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, and Amiga).
The concept for the game was the brainchild of Eugene Jarvis, who
created various other historically important classics, including Defender and
Robotron: 2084. Gameplay is similar to Robotron, and the plot and design were
influenced by the 1987 films The Running Man and RoboCop. In fact, one of the
announcers’ lines in the game is “I’d buy that for a dollar,” which is a direct
quote from RoboCop.
According to the
programmers of Smash T.V., among them Mark Turmell of NBA Jam fame, the
original layout of the game had blood, but just a pixel here and a pixel there.
However, they decided to test the limits and go above and beyond most gory
games such as Mortal Kombat, and they did not disappoint. The blood quotient is
in a class of its own, bringing many people to the game just to see how bloody
it really was. Then, many of these players would get hooked and put in more
quarters to see what the next screen would bring.
Unsurprisingly,
the arcade game has higher resolution graphics than the Super Nintendo port,
but the home game looks great nevertheless and retains most of the blood (only
the big bloods sprays from certain bosses are missing). Better yet, the game
manages to display dozens of sprites with little to no slowdown. The SNES game
isn’t quite as fast as its coin-op cousin, but it’s a speedy game nonetheless.
In a recent
interview I conducted with Jamie Rivett, the lead developer of the SNES port,
he revealed that he was happy with the game and provided some behind-the-scenes
info.
“All the heavy
optimizations and work really paid off because the Super Nintendo version was
actually a pretty faithful conversion of the actual game,” he said. “We never
got source code, but I was able to replicate the various enemies by playing the
game, and in some ways, this was more fun than if I had been given the code for
everything. The one thing that Mark [Turmell] did give up was the spawn tables
for each level. That defined which enemies, how many, max on screen, and what
rate they came in. I think this is what really gave the SNES version the
authentic feel.”
When I was 16, I
absolutely loved Smash T.V. The announcer’s voice, the gameshow-style
presentation, and the intense shooting action made it super appealing to me. I
was excited for the home versions because the arcade game was taking all my
money—it is one of the hardest coin-ops to finish on just a few credits. At
home, I could play the game again and again without spending loads of money
(except for the money it took to purchase the game, of course). To this day, I
still play it when I have a chance. If given the choice, I will always play the
SNES version as it’s the most realistic of the vintage ports.
Super Smash T.V.
is likely not the first game you think of when it comes to the Super Nintendo,
but it is a nice change of pace when you want a break from all the
family-friendly, first-party titles like Super Mario World and The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.
In this hardcore
shooter, you are a contestant on a vicious, violent game show. With the cameras
rolling, the announcer says, “Good Luck, You’ll Need It!” The action begins
with you (or you and a friend in simultaneous two-player mode) entering the
first room on the gameshow stage. Armed with a machine gun, you must run for
your life in a series of closed arenas, avoiding bullets and bombs while
blowing away baseball bat-wielding gangs, laser-firing orbs, exploding tin
soldiers, and other killers bent on your destruction. There at times up to 20
different enemies onscreen at once in the Super Nintendo version and up to 30
in the arcade game. There are few breaks to catch your breath as more enemies
come out the instant you kill the others. Each arena has different enemies and
attack patterns for you to contend with.
Along the way,
you’ll pick up such prizes as money and gold bricks—be careful, though, they
may be sitting on top of a hidden landmine. You’ll also find grenade launchers,
photon guns, missile launchers, and other weapons. After you clear a stage, you
will have the option of going to a couple different rooms. Over time, you’ll
learn which routes are easiest to travel and which arenas have more prizes for
you to grab. At the end of each of the four rounds of play, a boss awaits:
Mutoid Man, Scarface, Cobra Head, or The Game Show Host With The Most. Regular
machine gun fire won’t work on them, so you must use your special firepower.
There are more than 45 levels of carnage, plus bonus stages.
Playing Smash T.V.
can be difficult at home. One of the coolest things about the arcade version is
the dual-joystick control that lets you move your character in one direction
and fire in another at the same time. The challenge was to replicate that for
consoles. The NES did a good job of utilizing both controllers for a one-player
game and four controllers for two-player action. Super Nintendo controllers
have extra buttons, so you can use them to shoot up, down, left, or right while
you guide your character with the d-pad. It’s not a perfect solution, but it
gets the job done. In fact, it works pretty well.
When Super Smash
T.V. was released, it garnered high marks from such publications as Computer
and Video Games, which called it “the most awesome home arcade blaster yet
seen,” and Electronic Gaming Monthly, which hailed it as a “winning effort that
fans of the coin-op should not miss.”
The action can get
a little repetitive, as certain magazine and website reviews point out, but
most gamers agree that it is a highly entertaining shooter overall.
In my interview
with Jamie Rivett, he further described his satisfaction with the port: “All
the conversion shops said no to Smash T.V. because they thought it was
impossible to replicate on the home consoles. I guess we proved them wrong!”
FUN FACT
After finishing
Super Smash T.V., programmer Jamie Rivett realized that he had optimized the
game so much that it could run faster, so he added a turbo mode after
completing the regular game. After he implemented this, he would only play the
game in that mode.
WHY IT MADE THE
LIST
Super Smash T.V.
is a controller gripping, heart pounding shoot-'em-up that will blow your mind.
No cutscenes, prolonged build-up, or rescuing princesses here—just lots of ass
kicking and taking names. Experience everything that made the arcade game great
in the comfort of your home—it’s a great way to “kill” an afternoon.
~ Todd Friedman,
author of Walter Day's Gaming Superstars, writer for Old School Gamer Magazine
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