I never played this (or the NES version) but it doesn't sound like I'm missing much lol. I might try to watch that movie if it's on Netflix. The premise seems too ridiculous not to.
Retro Game of the Week: Attack of the Killer Tomatoes
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 On 02/01/2014 at 10:39 AM by The Last Ninja See More From This User » |
The movie may be a cult classic, but this sloppy platformer sucks tomoto juice! Gross!
Even if you like tomatoes, this game is probably too sour for your tastes. The movie of the same name was released in 1978 and quickly became a hit. Later a cartoon was started (1990-91) which had tomatoes hopping around with monstrous mouths. Well, along with all of this came two video games, one for the NES and one for the Game Boy (and neither were good). Today we're going to take a brief look at the GB game. It was developed by Imagineering, published by THQ, and released in 1991.
The game stars Wilbur Finletter, one of the main characters from the show. He must stop Dr. Gangreen from destroying everything with those blasted killer tomatoes. The controls are rather unconventional; for starters, the A and B buttons have been switched (A makes Wilbur kick, B makes him jump). This tells me that the developer either knew nothing about video game control configuration, or they just didn't care. Also, there is no pause button; pressing start will make Wilbur use a weapon, and pressing select will make him ride his skateboard.
Wilbur is very good at floating in the air
The controls are loose and unresponsive at times. You may accidentally run right off the edge because Wilbur moves at such an uneven pace; he walks very fast, and the screen automatically scrolls in the direction he's going, not stopping until he stops. This is a good way to get a headache! Due to the screen scrolling, you can go at your own pace, as slow or as fast as you want. The only "weapon" I ever found was the sword, which is almost useless; Wilbur will throw a sword right across the screen, but the tomatoes are too short to be hit by them.
Your goal in each level is to find a can of tomato juice and get to the end. If you reach the end without the tomato juice, you will have to backtrack and find it. Why is tomato juice so important? Anyways, Wilbur can jump very high, which is helpful at times, but can also lead to frustrations. You can defeat killer tomatoes by either kicking them or jumping on them. Those good-for-nothin' tomatoes will appear out of nowhere sometimes and get you! Three hits and you're dead. After three tries, it's Game Over. Don't worry, the levels are very short; usually you can run through one in about a minute (atleast the first two levels). However, you can take longer if you would like to explore and rack up extra points, jumping and hitting blocks Mario-style.
How do you destroy rocks? By kicking them of course!
A newsman speaks between levels, keeping us up-to-date on the situation at hand. He tells us what Dr. Gangreen is up to and that the heroic Wilbur Finletter is trying to stop him. Atleast this guy gives you a short break from this frustrating game. I'm not done ranting about this terd of a game. Some platforms (most of them) will crumble after Wilbur steps on them (for no reason at all!). The game slows down dramatically if too many enemies get on the screen; suddenly, you're playing in slow-motion. Sometimes killer tomatoes will hurt you even if you jump on them; the hit detection seems to be a little shoddy at times. And the skateboard is useless! You will either ride right into an enemy or into a pit!
If you're like me, you'll want to get through the levels as fast as possible. The problem is, even when you know where the enemies appear, Wilbur will often still get hurt due to the bad controls or the lag in the game's motion. Hunting down that can of tomato juice is also really annoying. In the end, I'd rather go eat a rotten tomato than play this terrible crappy game.
Final Verdict--2 Stars: Not Worth It
Bad controls, boring level design, and plenty of frustrations make this game one which you will want to stay away from. Stay away from the NES game too (I've heard it's just as bad). Go watch the movie instead; even the cartoon is decent. What could have saved this game? How about if Wilbur had a gun instead of his pathetic low kicks? How about if A and B corresponded to the typical gaming configurations? How about if the levels were actually interesting? Stay away from this one; this is one rotten tomato of a game.
Join me every Saturday as we take a look back at all kinds of retro games, good and bad.
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