Super Smash TV

"Still the only game where you can kill game show employees"

Super Smash TV

Gameplay: 8

Visuals: 6

Sound: 6

Ingenuity: 9

Replay Value: 9

Super Smash TV is a very, very strange and unique game, but not in a bad way at all. A company called ASCII released it in 1992. The year is 1999, and the world is obsessed with violent television. Hmm…sound familiar? No, it’s not celebrity boxing! Instead, you are a contestant on a show called Smash TV, where you fight your way through a gauntlet of enemies to collect money and prizes.

The gameplay is strange to say the absolute least. You enter a room with four doors, and enemies enter. You start out with a crappy gun, but in typical video game fashion, better ones will appear. The enemies are pretty cool. There are the standard baseball bat carrying thugs, guys in tanks, the occasional boss, and of course, the fat man who explodes with shrapnel when he gets shot. The humor element is definitely there, which offers some relief to the constant barrage of blood and gore. The visuals are lacking, but aren’t terrible. The enemies look pretty good when they die since their bodies explode and disappear into a cloud of blood. The sound is also pretty mediocre. The tunes are basic for an SNES game, with the simple beat playing as you go about blowing apart game show cronies. The strong point of this game comes in the form of replay value and multiplayer. Knocking the heads off of studio flunkies with your friends is always good for a cheap thrill, and it offers a strange appeal that no other game can match. This is a game that I seemingly keep going back to over the years. There’s just something about massacring people in a game show setting that satisfies some sort of craving that can’t be done by any other game. Innovation is also a big factor in the score of this game. There just isn’t any other title like it, and since it’s been about twelve years since its release, that’s quite an accomplishment. There aren’t too many other games that can claim that title, save a few others from back in the day (Zombies Ate My Neighbors comes to mind).

I have to recommend this game. It is a load of fun to play. You can find it cheap in stores, so there’s almost no excuse not to. If you want a great old school game that has no copycat anywhere in the market, or just have an odd fetish for killer game shows, this game is for you.

Final Score: 78%

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 03/18/04