Smash TV

Big money! Big prizes! I love it!

Smash TV is a spiritual successor to Robotron: 2084, an early arcade game that is one of the first examples of the dual-joystick shooter. Smash TV retains this same gameplay, using the left joystick to move and the right to shoot, allowing a player to move in one direction while firing in another.
The year is 1999. A new game show called Smash TV was created which puts its contenders to the fight for their lives. They will have to kill hundreds of enemies and collect money and prizes (from toasters to a big-screen TV). The inspiration for Smash TV seems to be the Arnold Schwarzenegger film, The Running Man. Two players can play simultaneously, and at the end of each of the three levels, the two players' performance is compared, with one being declared the winner.

Evil M.C.

Each of the levels in Smash TV ends with a boss battle. The first level pits the players against Mutoid Man. The second boss is a giant, round face named Scarface. The third level seemingly ends with a fight against two large, robotic snake heads called Die Cobros. But this is immediately followed by the game's true boss, the game show host himself called Evil M.C. This battle is essentially a tougher version of the Mutoid Man boss fight.

Home Versions

Super Smash TV for the SNES, one of the few console versions of the game to truly capture the gameplay of the arcade original.

After its success in coin-operated form, Smash TV was brought to the home market on many different console and computer platforms. Few of the home machines were able to properly duplicate the arcade's control. Some got around this with buttons that let you switch from firing ahead to firing behind, some allowed you to clumsily attempt to use multiple controllers, but most of these failed to capture the sharp control that makes the hectic gameplay of the original work. The lone exception from the era of its release is the SNES version. Acclaim's SNES version of the game was called Super Smash TV (at least on the box--once in the game, it was only referred to by its original name), and it used the D pad and face buttons to properly duplicate the two joysticks of the original. The SNES version also contained a few additional secret rooms.

The same style of home version control was used in the Xbox Live Arcade version of the game, which is an emulation of the original arcade release. It is also the only version to include online play, letting two players play the game over the Internet.

This game is featured on Midway Arcade Treasures for the Gamecube, Playstation 2, Xbox, and PC.

Achievements

Due to a glitch in the xbox live arcade version of the game, 360 users are unable to obtain the full 200 achievement points available in the game. The Game Master Achievement (in theory obtained by beating the game without continuing on default systems) does not unlock, denying gamers the game's final 50 points. The publishers have acknowledged the problem, but at present there are no plans to fix the problem.

Sequels

Though Smash TV never received a proper sequel, many of the same people responsible for the game went on to produce Total Carnage, a game that maintained the same control style and applied it to a vertical scrolling world, similar to Ikari Warriors or Mercs. There are plenty of references to Smash TV in Total Carnage.

trivia	In what year does the futuristic ultra-violent game ...	DXSSI
blog	Also Games That I Have Beaten in 2008	Vod_Crack
trivia	Complete The Quote: The Announcer from Smash TV"BIG ...	skrutop
forum	What the hell do I do with 200 VCRs?	svcheats1
trivia	What is the name of the first level ...	DJ_Lae
trivia	At the end of each level in Smash ...	DJ_Lae
trivia	Which of these is a phrase that is ...	RJPelonia
trivia	The Smash TV line "I'd buy that for ...	DJ_Lae

Game Name	Smash TV
Platform(s)	Xbox Live Marketplace Arcade NES ZX Spectrum Commodore 64 Atari ST Amstrad CPC SNES Sega Master System Genesis Game Gear Amiga
Publisher(s)	Midway Games
Developer(s)	WB Games Chicago
Genres	Add a new genre Dual-Joystick Shooter
Themes	Add a new theme Game Show
Original US Release	Jan. 1, 1991 need a fuzzy date?
Original US Release	know the real date?
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