Smash T.V.

Amazing how a game this blatantly unfair is also as cool and fun as it is, because I really enjoy a lot of what's going on here regardless. The backdrop of this sensational celebration of commodified brutality is super evocative with how far everything goes to craft this heavily artificial vibe that feels inherently exploitative in a rather immersive way. While this is mainly due to the fact that arcade games were made to be often extraordinarily difficult at the time, it ended up having a really neat knock on effect in this case where the game show setting itself ends up feeling way more engaging. It all feels intentionally stacked against the player because it feels as if the game show is one that doesn't want the contestants to win, just to be fodder for mass entertainment, as waves upon waves of adversaries swarm them in seemingly endless amounts to completely overwhelm you. This feels further explored with the way that so many of the prizes given to these contestants are functionally useless in greater numbers, nobody needs 13 lawnmowers, nobody needs a full stack of the same video game, and nobody needs so many microwaves either. It all feels built in such a way that it'd look appealing until you actually considered the proper value of any of it, and in the end it crafts a surprisingly immersive atmosphere. Game's definitely not exactly perfect though, as while I do really love the theming and aesthetic of what's here, and even find the first area to be a frantic mess in a good way, things do get a bit too ridiculous by the end.

I genuinely often find myself thinking how certain situations are even avoidable and if it were only once or twice then it'd be one thing, but more often than not it just feels like the default state you'll find yourself in, and no amount of insanely cool looking weaponry really changes that fact, especially near the end when the waves just carry on for a bizarre amount of time where it almost feels glitched. The bosses also really suck too, not necessarily because of nonsense attack patterns or anything but just because they're some of the biggest damage sponges I've experienced. I honestly feel like that all it'd really take to make this feel that tiny bit more reasonable would just be to make each room a bit bigger so the player gets more breathing space, since a big part of the issue seems to come from the fact that so much of it is currently dominated by enemy spawn locations to the point where there's almost nowhere to move regardless. Still a fun time overall with some amazing ideas and a gameplay loop that's very entertaining for a bit, it just gets too silly too quickly in terms of difficulty and it stops it from reaching its full potential as a result.

An isometric shooter in which you are unleashed into an arena and survive the onslaught of man that try to kill you. The TV show presentation and quite gory game for its time do make the game standout from the competition. Besides you base weapon there are a lot of power ups in the arena that can make surviving a bit easier, but these are only available for a short time so its a good idea to rush them. Unfortunatly, this is a straight action game but it fails in that department. The shooting is awkward as the directions you can face are limited, and you can only shoot where you are facing. This is a limitation of all games at the time, but things have evolved for the better since then and this one clearly loses in the comparison. Apart from that, there is also the issue of the small screen size, which can make things really chaotic very early on. Overal it is a solid action game, but there are much better twin stick shooters nowadays that its a bit redundant to come back to this one.