Welcome to another edition of Playing With Power. The review article that looks at all things Nintendo Entertainment System. If there’s one company that’s still around since the early 90’s that often surprises me that they’re still alive, it’s likely THQ. Of course, we know that has to do with their wrestling games, namely the WWE Smackdown series of games (Now simply WWE “Insert Year Here”), but when you look at their resume from the NES days, you don’t exactly see a lot of classics.
While many consider LJN to be the worst official company from the NES days, I consider THQ to be much worse. Yes, LJN had the bigger licenses, and the more well known franchises, while THQ often made games based on Fox Kids cartoons, but I can honestly say there are a couple good LJN games, I can’t say that for THQ. Could this week’s review continue that train of thought? Is this a rotten tomato? Let’s find out with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1991
PUBLISHER: THQ
GENRE: Sidescrolling Platformer
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was a 1978 horror comedy, that spoofed the general concept of 50’s and 60’s B-movies. In this case about evil killer tomatoes taking over the world. The movie, while not a box office or critical smash, became a cult classic. This in turn led to subsequent sequels over a decade later. Return of the Killer Tomatoes!, Killer Tomatoes Strike Back!, and Killer Tomatoes Eat France!.
But if that wasn’t enough tomato insanity, in 1990, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was adapted to a Saturday Morning cartoon show for Fox Kids, which based its plot more of Return of the Killer Tomatoes. It only lasted about two seasons. Therein leads us to the game in question. in 1991, a game based on the cartoon would be developed by a company known as Imagineering, and would be published by THQ for the NES, with a port for the Game Boy being released a year later (The Game Boy version being the only one ported to Japan).
The game wasn’t a major seller, most likely due to the fact that the cartoon wasn’t super popular, or the fact that this was the beginning of the dying days of the NES. Either way, this one is a bit more uncommon than other NES games. But is this a good game? Let’s get deeper into this tomato slop.
COVER STORY
I hate this cover. A lot. First off, I don’t much care for the red and green rectangle look. The cover has the evil tomatoes from the cartoon, but for the most part they’re pretty faint looking on the cover, especially on the red parts. I like the logo, but it doesn’t pop out that well. It’s just a rather ugly box that was obviously rushed. It’s not very pleasing to the eye, and just not well done in any way. It’s a mess.
STORY
The town of San Zucchini is in peril. The evil angry scientist (he’s not mad, just angry) Doctor Putrid T. Gangreen is up to his old tricks again. This time, he plans on using the powerful doomsday tomato to destroy the town once and for all. “Today San Zucchini, tomorrow the world!” There’s only one person who can stop him, a young boy named Chad Finletter. He sends his tomato goons to keep Chad at bay while he readies his device for action. Can Chad stop Gangreen and the tomato menace once and for all?
GAMEPLAY
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a one player action platformer. You control Chad Finletter as he must defeat the evil tomato creatures of the nefarious Doctor Gangreen, as well as destroy the doomsday tomato. You move Chad with the D-Pad, can jump with the A button, and later in the game, can run with the B button. We’ll go into detail as to why I mean later in a bit.
Chad’s main mode of attack, is jumping, since he’s really just dealing with tomatoes. the jump is awkward and a little slippery, but if you can get the hang of it and land dead center on the enemy, it will work great. Though the hit detection can be quite sloppy, and often lead to an instant hit. Most enemies in the game are variants of tomatoes. From regular killer tomatoes, to ones with spike helmets, and little spider tomatoes. There’s also bats, worms, and flies to deal with as well.
Doctor Gangreen also has five tomato soldiers to deal with as well. These include Tomacho, Ketchuck, Beefstake, Mummato, and Zoltan. Most of them you can’t actually do damage to by jumping, and will have to do what you can to avoid them. Most are easy to avoid, though Zoltan is definitely the biggest pain in the butt.
The game is broken into five very short levels. First is the streets of San Zucchini, where you’ll begin to learn the ropes of the game, while dealing with Tomacho, the only soldier tomato you can actually do damage to. From there, you enter the sewers, with slippery slime floors, multiple paths to take, and drops of sewage that will do damage immediately. You’ll have a boss battle in this stage with the Phantomato of the Opera.
You get rocks to use which you can throw with the B button. You must use the rocks to break the pipes on his organ, which will drop tomatoes on you. The annoying thing is that you have no direct control on where the rocks land. If you shoot them from the left side, they go diagonal right, from the far right they go a diagonal left, and center of the room, they go center. But getting them to land on the pipe you want is still a pain, and with tomatoes falling on you, it makes this frustrating.
After sending the Phantomato away, you’ll then make it to Gangreen’s lab. You’ll have to avoid Beefstake, while making your way up conveyor belts to turn on Gangreen’s anti-gravity machine. You then have to go all the way back, avoiding tomatoes, and a weird robot arm, as you try to get to the ceiling vent. The game also gives you a run ability at last by holding the B button. Why the wait? Hell if I know. I blame poor programming.
After running through vents, and avoiding an annoying electric tomato, you’ll make it to Doctor Gangreen. You don’t fight him, of course, why actually fight the main villain? You just survive a gauntlet of enemies he throws at you until he runs away. Lame. You make it to the last level, where you again, have to navigate an annoying maze, while dealing with more tomatoes, and one of the most annoying soldier tomatoes in Zoltan, who can literally destroy you in seconds thanks to his inconsistent jumping pattern.
Make it to the top of the tower, and you’ll face the final boss… which you of course don’t actually fight either. The game destroys the doomsday tomato for you. Again. Lame. And that’s it. The credits roll as you see three whole people worked on this game.
BUT WAIT! The game actually isn’t over yet. You’ll have to go through one more level as you’re eaten by Larry the mountain tomato. More annoying maze-like platforming, while avoiding flies and slime tomatoes, as well as Mummato. You find the purple vein, pull it down, and turn Larry into a giant pile of splatter, as you celebrate with the real ending of the game. But you know the funny part of this whole extra level? If you should press start at the credits before getting this level, you skip it entirely. Now that is just pathetic. Not to mention, who the hell thought fakeout credits in this game was a good idea? This isn’t Bayonetta, where that actually works, this is a crappy game based on Killer Friggin’ Tomatoes.
Chad has three lives, and starts with three hits. You can hold a total of six hits at once. Levels are littered with lunch bags that refill Chad’s health. There are also other bags that just up the points. This was 1991 people, who cared about points in a game by then? Hit detection in the game is awful, and sometimes the jump will phase through platforms, as I’ve had happen to me a couple times in the sewer level. There are no level select or passwords, but you do get continues. A mere two as you’d expect. At least that’s more forgiving than some other THQ games I played lately (I’m looking at you Home Alone).
GRAPHICS
The game has some bad graphics. Levels are all bland looking, and use way too much reds, blues, and greens. And not just reds from all the tomatoes.There is a cutscene or two, but nothing that would wow anyone. They feature characters from the show like Chad, Doctor Gangreen, Igor Smith (who doesn’t even appear in the actual game), and newscaster Whitley White. But no Tara, F.T, or Wibur Finletter to be seen. Kinda lame if you ask me.
MUSIC
The game has okay music at best. Mark Van Hecke is our composer for the game, and his resume actually contains some well known NES soundtracks, including A Boy and His Blob, The Simpsons Bart Games, and one we recently covered in Home Alone 2: Lost in New York. While not his best work, there are some decent tunes, and the rendition of the Attack of the Killer Tomatoes theme is actually really good. Other than that though, nothing really stands out, and it’s otherwise forgettable.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
While not the worst THQ game, or even the worst basic licensed platformer on the NES, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is still a bad game. Iffy controls, bad graphics, and an embarrassingly short length hurt this game big time. Similar to Home Alone 2 as previously mentioned, this is one of those “Hard but short” games that just suffer from some cheapness and a lack of a true fun factor. But again, there are far worse THQ games. This one is just a blah in-the-middle bad game. I’d say avoid this rotten tomato at all costs.
RATING: Thumbs Down