Smash TV
Developed by Midway/Digital Eclipse
Published by Midway
Released for XBLA (11/24/2005)
Also on Arcade
Around a year after Xbox Live Arcade launched, Midway dropped a bunch of arcade classics as download-only titles onto the service and Smash TV was one such title. An arcade fondly remembered by those who played it back in the day, Smash TV is a twin-stick shooter with a game show theme heavily inspired by the Running Man. We'll go into a brief overview of the game to see if it's still worth playing all these years later...
Smash TV is the textbook definition of an arcade quarter muncher, meaning that the game is excessively difficult and designed to empty out all of the quarters from your pockets. Death will come quick and frequently in Smash TV as you are constantly being swarmed from enemies in all directions. There are only 3 levels, but there are many screens within each. You'll get to choose your own path as you go, making for some nice replay value should you decide to come back for more. Each room is a screen where you'll have to fend off an onslaught of enemies while powerups and bonus prizes appear at random during the action. There's a nice array of weaponry to find here, each with their own strengths and weaknesses.
Smash TV allows up to 2 players to enter the competition and the game is best played with a buddy. At the end of each stage, there's a cool screen that tallies up who got the most prizes and cash. The levels are relentless, with enemies coming at you non-stop until you either make it to the next screen or perish. While the difficulty might be a turn off for some, the game controls so smooth and the presentation is so slick that it never bothered me how bad the game kicked my butt; I always come back for more. The character sprites are small, but it works to the game's advantage as it allows you to see everything on the playfield. The graphics are detailed, colorful and it's always easy to discern what you're looking at.
The boss battles are a major highlight in Smash TV, featuring huge bosses that take up a large chunk of the screen. These were quite the sight to behold back in 1990 and are still impressive even to this day. The bosses go through many stages of damage as you blow them apart in the grueling battles. Another highlight is the superb presentation, with a host that pops in on a screen every now and then to drop some catch phrases such as the famous "Big money, big prizes...I love it!" and "I'd buy that for a dollar!" They really nailed the shoot 'em up game show aesthetic in this one.
With this being an Xbox Live Arcade release, there were 12 achievements (worth 200 gamerscore) to unlock for completing various tasks. This had a particularly nasty achievement for completing the game without using a single continue, which is no small feat! To make matters even worse, this achievement was declared unobtainable by the achievement hunting sites and was never patched. I can only imagine the heartbreak for those that managed to complete the task, only to find out that the achievement is glitched and doesn't unlock after meeting the parameters. My condolences go out to anybody this happened to. While it is possible to find gamers that have the title 100% completed, these have been assumed to be hackers that cheated the system to unlock that particular achievement. It's a bummer that Midway never did anything to patch this post-release.
Speaking of bummers and Midway, the studio would file for bankruptcy in February 2009. Following the closure of the studio, the digital-store titles that the company released were pulled from the Xbox Marketplace in February 2010, with Smash TV being one of several Midway titles that were taken down. There is a happy ending though, as Smash TV would be made available again on the Xbox 360 when it was included on the compilation Midway Arcade Origins which was released in 2012 by WB Games, who obtained the rights to Midway's properties after the studio shut down. This compilation, released on both digital and disc formats, features a nice selection of Midway and Atari arcade titles. Another bonus is that this title received backwards-compatibility support for the Xbox One. Smash TV was also released for the original Xbox, both as a digital-download on the original Xbox Live Arcade and also on-disc via the Midway Arcade Treasures compilation.
Final Verdict: An arcade classic from the early 90's, Smash TV is a relentless twin-stick shooter where you play as a contestant on a deadly game show. While the XBLA version has been de-listed, this can still be played thanks to the Midway disc compilations. If you like twin-stick shooters and somehow haven't played this one yet, do it!
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| Screenshots taken from Midway Arcade Origins (Xbox 360) |
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