Reviews

This was (If the big 3 magazines were to be believed) one of the best games to get for Christmas if you were lucky enough to own a spectrum in 1991.

Lucky, lucky you...

Though criminally never released, the spectrum had managed a really good conversion of Robotron back in the eighties. Everything including the 8 way firing that enabled the character to run one way and shoot another had been possible back then on the humble spectrum. So it really was not asking too much for the spectrum to manage a reasonable approximation of Smash TV.

Ummm ... evidently it was. That firing mechanic (crucial to the 'feel' of the game) was the first thing the programmers decided we didn't need.

Oh we wouldn't be needing much of rest of the accompanying gameplay either.

Then there were the graphics. A stream of random flying saucers, balls, wiggly worms, things, and more things arrived in the play area. These enemies were badly drawn over a pointless background that's only function in life was to add constant colour clash to proceedings.

The player moved quite badly, the fact that you coudln't direct your fire meant you were constantly running, which was a shame as there was just no feeling of weight to the sprites.

I don't believe for a second that the speccy was incapable of a decent version of this game. All this really called for was essentially a version of Gauntlet that didn't scroll with power-ups, the correct firing mechanic and some special effects. God only knows what went wrong.

It pains me to say it, but if you want to know what could have been, play the C64 version.

I initially bought the Hit-Squad re-release of Smash T.V. and wasn't happy with the game at all. I didn't like the way the game looked and sounded similar to Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, which I loved. It had the same use of colour, the same sound effects and I was expecting a whole lot more, but what else would you except from Probe Software, the makers of both games. Then I discovered the arcade version and I was blown away by the overall gameplay. It was then that I was encouraged to give this game another chance and give it a second opinion, but it was hopeless. After 10 minutes gameplay the same negatives came back to me and I put the game away, never to be touched again.

Very disappointing conversion.

lots of colour, although not so well used, quick sprites, although rather lacking solidity, in a frenzy shoot'em up, claustrophobically occurring in small rooms. although not so exciting.

Back in the day, this arcade port was one of the few games to get a 97% rating in Crash magazine; the highest ever to be awarded to a select few games. Looking back now though, you'd have to wonder quite what the reviewers had been smoking at the time. Realistically, it's a pale shadow of an arcade game, with fast moving colourful sprites and dual stick controls, that was never going to work well on the Spectrum.

Programmer David Perry and graphics artist Nick Bruty did a pretty good job with the tools available to them. It's still a very colourful and attractive looking game, albeit that is only achieved for the price of making everything move in exact character squares; adding a certain jerkiness that you wouldn't associate with the arcade original.

Similarly, there are some gaping holes in the gameplay that just weren't there in the arcades. For most of the levels you can just hide in a corner, avoiding most of the enemy, whilst blasting away to success. And, with only a few screens to get through, that success can come pretty quickly.

Ultimately, it's at best a flawed gem, which flatters to deceive graphically, but totally fails to recreate the look and feel of the original. Taken on its own merits, it's a half-decent blaster, albeit a short-lived one.

Despite getting rave reviews from the magazines of the time, Smash TV is a very average game. One of the problems is that your character moves in fits and starts meaning you never feel totally in control. The jerky movement extends to the enemy sprites making them hard to avoid. The best option is to stand in one of the corners and fire into the centre of the room. Using this strategy you'll eliminate most of the enemy without having to move.
It's not all bad. It's very colourful and is reasonably fun, just not the masterpiece it was made out to be.

I wish I could believe the hype! I wish I could be sympathetic to the effort that did go into this game.

But no! It was never going to work, and making it fixed directional shooting, and cutting the amount of enemies down, and doing 8x8 masked character jumpy bollocks.

It's a different bloody game altogether, sorry, but no!

Home computer versions of this were never going to work. Either it'd be 8 keys 4 for movement, and 4 for the gun, which surely would've brought on early arthritis, or using both player 1, and player 2's joystick ports for 1 player.

Both considerably more impractical than 2 dedicated joysticks, or a controller with a D-Pad, and 6 buttons. Or later on for re-releases a controller with 2 analogue sticks.

Bad!

Ocean done a brilliant version of Rengade, they done a brilliant version of Cabal, they done a brilliant version of Pang, Smash TV does not join that list by a considerable margain. It's not poor by any means but it is nothing special nor exciting and it is nothing more than a massive missed opportunity.