Uploaded May 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
A playthrough of Acclaim's 1991 run-and-gun shooter for the NES, Smash T.V.
In the words of Damon Killian, "This is television. That's all it is. It's nothing to do with people, it's to do with the ratings. For fifty years, we've told them what to eat, what to drink, what to wear. [...] Americans love television. They wean their kids on it. Listen. They love game shows. They love wrestling. They love sports and violence. So what do we do? We give them what they want!"
Created by Eugene Jarvis as a reimagining of his early 80s hit Robotron: 2084 for cutting edge 32-bit arcade hardware, Midway's 1990 arcade game was a thinly veiled love letter to the classic Schwarzenegger film The Running Man. It was a huge hit, and it was ported to pretty much every relevant 8 and 16-bit platform of its time, including the NES.
The NES's hardware was ancient by 1991 standards, but in the right hands, it was still capable of some extraordinary feats. Beam's conversion of Smash TV was one such feat. I doubt anyone expected much from it at the time. I certainly didn't. I dismissed it outright after renting the SNES cart, and it wasn't until a couple of years later that I had an opportunity to play it.
The graphics and sound obviously couldn't compete with the 16-bit console ports, but I was amazed by how well it played. It's fast and smooth, there are tons of enemies running around the screen at once with virtually no flicker or slowdown, it offers two-player simultaneous play, and the game allows you to use the d-pad of two controllers to mimic the twin stick layout of the arcade controls (or four controllers for two players through the NES's Satellite and Four Score multitap adapters.)
The difficulty level is a fair bit lower than you'd find in the quarter-hungry coin-op, but it's still very satisfying to blast your way through. Just like its bigger brothers, the NES version requires you to enter a near Zen-like state to successfully navigate the hordes of bad guys, and you'll constantly be on the lookout for grenade launchers, brand new cars, and year supplies of meat. "BIG MONEY, BIG PRIZES!"
I'm not exaggerating when I say that it plays just as well as the SNES game does, and the graphics and sound, though hideous, do their jobs well. The sprites are clearly defined against the backgrounds and well animated for how small they are. The compromises made to retain the game's playability on the NES were absolutely worthwhile, and the Master System version would've done well to follow suit. That being said, the presentation is hardly barren. It makes a valiant effort to provide as much window dressing as possible, including the TV studio bits and many of the digitized voices.
Beam's NES conversion is so much better than anyone could've reasonably asked for. If you want to be blown away by the NES's ability to somehow still deliver an arcade-class gameplay experience in 1991, here you go.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
A playthrough of Acclaim's 1991 run-and-gun shooter for the NES, Smash T.V.
In the words of Damon Killian, "This is television. That's all it is. It's nothing to do with people, it's to do with the ratings. For fifty years, we've told them what to eat, what to drink, what to wear. [...] Americans love television. They wean their kids on it. Listen. They love game shows. They love wrestling. They love sports and violence. So what do we do? We give them what they want!"
Created by Eugene Jarvis as a reimagining of his early 80s hit Robotron: 2084 for cutting edge 32-bit arcade hardware, Midway's 1990 arcade game was a thinly veiled love letter to the classic Schwarzenegger film The Running Man. It was a huge hit, and it was ported to pretty much every relevant 8 and 16-bit platform of its time, including the NES.
The NES's hardware was ancient by 1991 standards, but in the right hands, it was still capable of some extraordinary feats. Beam's conversion of Smash TV was one such feat. I doubt anyone expected much from it at the time. I certainly didn't. I dismissed it outright after renting the SNES cart, and it wasn't until a couple of years later that I had an opportunity to play it.
The graphics and sound obviously couldn't compete with the 16-bit console ports, but I was amazed by how well it played. It's fast and smooth, there are tons of enemies running around the screen at once with virtually no flicker or slowdown, it offers two-player simultaneous play, and the game allows you to use the d-pad of two controllers to mimic the twin stick layout of the arcade controls (or four controllers for two players through the NES's Satellite and Four Score multitap adapters.)
The difficulty level is a fair bit lower than you'd find in the quarter-hungry coin-op, but it's still very satisfying to blast your way through. Just like its bigger brothers, the NES version requires you to enter a near Zen-like state to successfully navigate the hordes of bad guys, and you'll constantly be on the lookout for grenade launchers, brand new cars, and year supplies of meat. "BIG MONEY, BIG PRIZES!"
I'm not exaggerating when I say that it plays just as well as the SNES game does, and the graphics and sound, though hideous, do their jobs well. The sprites are clearly defined against the backgrounds and well animated for how small they are. The compromises made to retain the game's playability on the NES were absolutely worthwhile, and the Master System version would've done well to follow suit. That being said, the presentation is hardly barren. It makes a valiant effort to provide as much window dressing as possible, including the TV studio bits and many of the digitized voices.
Beam's NES conversion is so much better than anyone could've reasonably asked for. If you want to be blown away by the NES's ability to somehow still deliver an arcade-class gameplay experience in 1991, here you go.
_____________
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!
![R-Type Complete CD (PC Engine CD) Playthrough [English]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/sRltIEP5PEY/mqdefault.jpg "R-Type Complete CD (PC Engine CD) Playthrough [English]
A playthrough of Irems 1991 shoot em up for the PC Engine Super CD-ROM², R-Type Complete CD.
Since this version of R-Type was only released in Japan, for this video, Ive translated the cutscenes and subtitled them in English.
R-Type, Irems 1987 arcade shoot em up phenom, was adapted for countless home platforms in the late 80s. Hudsons version, released in 1988 for the PC Engine, was the first and (by most accounts) the best of them. The graphics, though slightly downgraded, came amazingly close to matching the quality of the arcades, the music sounded much better without the grating twang of the original games FM synth, and the gameplay retained everything that made the arcade game such a success.
All of this came at cost, though: in 1988, the max capacity of a HuCard was smaller than the four megabits (512K) the game required, and without major cutbacks, R-Type simply could not fit on a smaller cartridge. Rather than reducing the quality of the graphics, Hudson opted to split the game across two releases. R-Type I contained the first four stages, and R-Type II (released three months later) had stages five through eight. The following year, improvements made to the HuCard format made larger games possible, and the 1989 North American release combined the two on a single card. The game wasnt reissued on a single card in Japan, but a CD version was instead released in late 1991.
R-Type Complete CD updates the game with a remixed Redbook soundtrack and fifteen minutes of animated, fully-voiced cutscenes. It wasnt as well-received as the original PC Engine released - the quality of the arrangements and the cutscenes was heavily criticized - but its a nifty package. The story does indeed feel tacked on and the art isnt great (those facial expressions!), but the cutscenes are entertaining in how unintentionally campy and over the top they are. I didnt have any problems with the music, either. The style is a bit inconsistent, not to mention strange (R-R-R-R, R-Type... wtf?🤣), but I dug its funkiness.
The game is the same as it was on HuCard, so its still a top-quality arcade port, and I appreciated the new cutscenes and the music. Late 80s arcade shooters packed with gotcha moments dont typically appeal to me, so Im not a big fan of the original R-Type, but R-Type Complete CDs extras drew me in.
Hope you enjoy the translation!
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
![Final Fantasy III (SNES) Playthrough [2 of 3]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tJQtMmT9VfE/mqdefault.jpg "Final Fantasy III (SNES) Playthrough [2 of 3]
A playthrough of Squares 1994 role-playing game for the Super Nintendo, Final Fantasy III.
This video is part two of a three-part playthrough, beginning with the partys return to Narshe following the attack on Vector.
Following the events on the floating continent, the second half of the game begins at 5:55:44, and the video wraps up with odds and ends after defeating Phunbaba in Mobliz.
Part 1: https://youtu.be/wpKEFXrkGzc
Part 3: https://youtu.be/jxS32BHD6Xc
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
![The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) Playthrough [1 of 2]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/teCKhlWjPVU/mqdefault.jpg "The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (DS) Playthrough [1 of 2]
A playthrough of Nintendos 2009 action-adventure game for the Nintendo DS, The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks.
This is the first part of a two-part playthrough, showing from the beginning up through Link and Zeldas arrival at the Fire Temple.
Part two: https://youtu.be/-72pTFCufTY
The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is the direct sequel to 2007s https://youtu.be/ScHUpO7GG9k, and its the third and final game in The Wind Waker branch of the series overarching timeline.
Ive had this video recorded and ready to go for a long time. The thing that has prevented me from posting it until now is that Ive had no idea what to say about it. I dont find much fun in tearing into a game that obviously had a lot of effort and time invested in it, or one that has such a devoted fan base. That being said, if Im not truthful in expressing my thoughts on a game, theres no point in writing about it in the first place, so Im going to keep this short.
Spirit Tracks is similar to Phantom Hourglass in a lot of ways. The control scheme and the presentation have been refined, you still have an ever-present companion who talks a lot without saying anything substantial, and theres a ton of tedious backtracking. The dungeon layouts and puzzles are better designed, and the story is more engaging, but the game is still insultingly easy, and the overworld is the worst Ive seen in a Zelda game. It takes forever to get anywhere, and because navigation is restricted to literal rails, theres not much to do but fire at random enemies while staring at the scenery for minutes at a time. Its boring, but at least the music is fantastic.
Spirit Tracks is a better version of Phantom Hourglass, and if you liked that one, youll probably like this even more. If youre looking for a classical Zelda adventure, youre barking up the wrong tree.
No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
NintendoComplete (http://www.nintendocomplete.com/) punches you in the face with in-depth reviews, screenshot archives, and music from classic 8-bit NES games!")
