The Wonder Years 1.17.07: Week 39 - Super Smash TV
Posted by Owain J. Brimfield on 01.17.2008
Get ready to smash your TVs, in a good way. Plus! Fun with Dell online.
Welcome to the column where all gamers of a certain age come to wallow in 16-bit nostalgia. I'm your host, Owain J. Brimfield, and I'll be discussing some of the hidden gems and instant classics of gaming's golden era. Some of these games may crop up on the Wii's Virtual Console at some point, some may be consigned to the annals of history. Either way, they're worth tracking down if you missed them first time round, or replaying if you were lucky enough to catch them. Let's take a trip to:
SUPER SMASH TV
(Williams, Genesis & Super NES, 1992)
Better known these days by their subsidiary's name, Midway, Williams had an undeniably powerful reputation in the arcade world (and, in fact, pinball too) during the late 1980s, with a catalogue of games that in hindsight would probably provide a single gamer of today as much experience as they would need in old-school arcade gaming. Moving into the 1990s, it remained to be seen whether the company could provide an advance in gaming to reflect the growing technological prowess of the (by then) 16-bit console world. Enter Smash TV, an arcade machine produced at the turn of the decade that would prove probably the company's greatest success in merging classic arcade gameplay with a context more befitting home consoles, and which is arguably still the most well-received of all the Williams arcade ports to the Genesis and SNES.
The game pretty much lifts wholesale from the premise of 1987 movie The Running Man (not to be confused with Carol Reed's 60s movie of the same name, a mistake I once made, with hilarious consequences). Set in the then-near-future 1999 (what a letdown that year was, eh), Smash TV is the name of a hugely OTT and popular gameshow, which sends contestants into the studio backlots armed to the teeth and proceeds to throw wave after wave of robots and soldiers at them. Those that battle their way to the end win huge cash prizes; those that don't survive, er, don't survive. The game is presented in a top-down stylee, and does a rather good job of imitating a satirically violent gameshow - the game show host himself has become something of a cult gaming figure, with his memorable catchphrases (personal fave: "Total carnage! I love it!"). In fact, short of a digitized version of Arnie's fizzog, it is pretty much Running Man: The Game. But with less Professor Toru Tanaka.
Gameplay-wise, everything tootles along very smoothly indeed. There's no need to spend too much time strategizing - in fact, you won't be given the chance before a herd of soldiers is thrown at you. All you really need to do is grab the biggest weapon (be it rocket launcher, mortar or mini-nuke), pinch some prizes if you can, but concentrate on mowing down the opposition. Of course, this isn't an approach favored by all gamers, but if you like your arcading then this is the right place to come. The game features a highly enjoyable co-operative mode, which relieves the burden a little but is still sufficiently intense to cause a few miscommunications between you and your gaming buddy. Although it's not really noticeable when in the midst of all the carnage, despite the multitude of sprites on screen the framerate remains impeccable through even the thickest blitzkrieg, and the digitized sound samples, while generally relegated to the host's one-liners, are marvelous.
As for lasting appeal, well, after a summer spent on relaxing gaming fare when I first had the chance to play the game in the mid 90s, I spent a good long while swearing at my own inability to get past the first screen, or indeed to seem as if I were anywhere near competent at gaming. It's certainly no step down from the at times obscenely steep learning curve that the Williams arcade classics throw at you, and I'd wager gave many gamers a bit of a shock when they first loaded it up expecting another shooter. The game itself features only three arenas with around a dozen screens to each, but you'll surely struggle to get to the final boss (the bosses, incidentally, are sadly repetitive in the context of the rest of the game - not really forgivable when you consider there were only a few of them to design). Add to this an unlockable Turbo mode, and the hidden Pleasuredome (oooh!) and it'll certainly be a while before you have your fill of Smash TV.
For fans of its old-school appeal, Smash TV is thankfully quite easy to get a hold of, although it may not necessarily be the Super variant from the 16-bit consoles. The game has been released as part of several compilation discs, notably Midway Arcade Treasures on all the consoles of the last generation, which is well worth picking up due to the quality of the majority of the 24 games it offers, and also as part of Arcade Party Pak on the PS1 which is very cheap to buy if you can eBay it. Much more accessible, though, is the edition released for Xbox Live Arcade, which is fantastically cheap at 400 points ($5 or thereaboots), and has the luvverly distinction of allowing two-player simultaneous online play. It certainly rivals the Genesis and SNES incarnations for the best port of the game since the arcade machine was released way back in 1990, although if you're after the full retro experience (and why wouldn't you be? Lazy, eh?) then you may want to track down an original cartridge, not to mention the vaguely-related sequel Total Carnage (which, admittedly, wasn't quite as refined). Whichever way you go though, it's more than likely you'll enjoy the gaming experience. Hell, I'd buy it for a dollar.
Super Smash TV trivia
The Amiga version apparently once scored 895 out of 1000 in a British Amiga magazine, which is notable for the inherent lunacy in attempting to rate games out of 1000. I mean seriously, I find it hard to do with a five star system sometimes, let alone the 0.0 - 10.0 scale we have here at 411.
The game features in-joke references to subjects as diverse as Samuel Taylor Coleridge and Robocop.
The game's lead programmer was Eugene Jarvis, most famous for his work on legendary arcade title Robotron: 2084.
Super Smash TV is an honorable mention in my official all-time Top 100 games.
Reactions and interactions
Last week's Treasure Co.-influenced column did inspire one pleasant email, which makes a change from the critical material I've been getting lately. From: Matthew Rizzo Subject: Sin and Punishment
"First of all, I just wanted to let you know that I'm a huge fan of your column The Wonder Years. I love finding articles on the interwebs that allow me stroll down memory lane and your column gives me the opportunity to walk the path every week. Keep up the great work!
Just a quick comment on Sin and Punishment. I too, bought the game on the Virtual Console (and you're right, the controls are wacky), but I haven't had the opportunity to play a lot of it. Anyway, it is my understanding that the game always had English voice acting in it and had Japanese subtitles on the bottom of the screen - which is why so many people were peeved that it was never released outside of the land of the rising sun.
Well, that's about it, I gotta run. Not to nitpick or anything, but I thought it was something that you may want to know. Thanks again for continuing to write a fantastic column every week. Please don't give it up anytime soon."
Thanks for the kind words, I think you're the first "fan" to write me as opposed to a "reader" so cheers very much!
You could well be right about Sin and Punishment's voice acting - since you mentioned it I do seem to recall an old review in N64 Magazine (these days known as NGamer) that made mention of the fact the game would pose little difficulty to gamers who imported the title, so I think you're on the money there. Incidentally, I also did a bit of research into the game's controls - it looks as though it was equally tricksy on the N64, although with the Z trigger used to fire as opposed to the shoulder buttons on the Wii's Classic Controller I'd imagine it would have bee a bit more intuitive. A shame you can't use GameCube controllers for it really, as the dual analogue sticks would have been a bit less confusing. Then again, maybe we're just showing our lack of familiarity with Japanese on-rails shooters!
The Videosphere
Let's take a look at this week's video highlight. Of course, the premise of Smash TV has been done several times before in science fiction, with varying degrees of success. my own favorite interpretation of the formula is 80s Arnie classic The Running Man. Check out the following clip from the movie, in which Ahnuld takes on a baddie by the name of Sub Zero and delivers one of his all-time greatest one liners.
General indulgences
Every week in this section I'll endeavor to provide you, the faithful readers, with a fascinating insight into the various forms of entertainment currently dominating my spare time.
This week, I have been mostly enjoying:
WarioWare Smooth Moves, which took me a while to get into but has since inspired some furious high score contests in my household. Currently I stand supreme at the tennis ball tower minigame, but I haven't checked to see if my score has been toppled since yesterday...
Infinity on High by Fall Out Boy. Yes, they're shit and annoying, but my girlfriend bought it so I had to give it a listen. Wish I hadn't really, there are maybe two out of fifteen songs that are passable.
28 Weeks Later, which I finally relented to watching and was surprised how un-bad it was. Not to say it was good, mind you, but I was certainly expecting a lot worse, especially given Robert Carlyle's choice of work in recent years.
and Dell's online customer service - brilliant stuff. Here's a rough transcript of my chat with a customer service operative named Mehundali:
Me: Hi, can you just confirm for me whether this particular laptop model [linked] has a VGA line out? Him: [template opening response, please give me a moment yadda yadda] Him: Could you please tell me how you will be using the laptop eg. home use, business, multimedia...? Me: Just typical home use, but I want to hook it up to an external monitor. Him: And what programs will you be using eg. Word, Excel, Powerpoint? Me: I just need to know whether it has a VGA out. ... fifty second pause... Him: This model may not be suitable for you sir. May I ask your budget? Me: That's irrelevant. Does it have a VGA out? Him: Just let me check that for you sir. ...ninety second pause... Him: [sends link to another model] Him: [sends link to yet another model] ...thirty second pause... Him: You may wish to try one of these. Me: I will look, but can you please answer my original question? ...thirty second pause... Him: The first model will not be suitable for you. Me: So, it does not have a VGA out? Him: Yes. Me: Yes it does, or yes I am right in saying it does not? Him: It does not have VGA out. Me: Thank you. [leaves before further brain cells are murdered in cold blood]
The twist at the end of the tale, of course, was that neither of the models he linked me too had a VGA out either. Thankfully, I finally found what I was after a few hours of navigating their website later. I just have to pretend to be a small business in order to buy it.
And finally…
As always, reader feedback and suggestions are welcome, I respond to everything so just drop me a line or leave a comment. You can also check out my science fiction column "The Flux Capacitor" over at 411 Movies. Next week in "The Wonder Years" - it's time for yet another special feature, which may well be extra special due to it coinciding with my birthday. Until then - keep it real, keep it retro.
