The Average Gamer

Smash TV – Xbox 360

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What is it?
Multi-directional shoot-em-up (a 1990 arcade classic!).

Is it fun?
Yes.

Is it worth the money?
Yes – Only 500 Microsoft points or £3.40.

Why?
In two words – “Total carnage!”

The entire game involves running around killing everything that moves and collecting money and “fabulous” prizes. Your killing power can be enhanced, albeit temporarily, by collecting the various weapon power-ups that randomly appear in the game arena (a Running Man-like TV studio). These power-ups are essential to your survival in Smash TV as you fight off wave after wave of unrelenting men/robots/snakes/tanks and snakemen.

As you progress though each arena the difficulty level really gets jacked up, along with the body count. Oh yes, death on an unprecedented scale. Add a little soupçon of despair to all this carnage and eh voila, the perfect arcade game. Mmm, actually come to think of it, I was experiencing mostly despair towards the very end as the enemies just would not stop coming!

There are a total of 3 levels available, each one composed of a varying number of arenas with the whole game taking about 30-40 mins to complete and using about 5 squillion Continues!

The graphics and sound are basic at best, so don’t judge Smash TV on its looks. Simply try out the trial game on Xbox Live and you’ll soon find out how much fun this game is.

You can also get hold of Smash TV on Gamecube, Xbox, PSOne and PS2 by way of Midway’s Arcade Treasures 1 here.

Screenshots:
Smashtv-01-tb.JPG Smashtv-02-tb.JPG Smashtv-03-tb.JPG Smashtv-04-tb.JPG

Links:
Smash TV page on Wikipedia

Update 19th Aug 06: Check out the upcoming PSP game Cash Money Chaos. Look familiar? It’s Smash TV in the 1970s!