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Twenty-first century game shows, eh? You've just survived one depraved and violent prime-time experience, like Wheel Of Decapitation or Winner Gets Killed, and along comes another with its promise of a cheap car or some garden furniture. Smash TV is the latest, and undoubtedly the greatest of the lot. The prizes up for grabs rank somewhat above your average cuddly candelabra, although if you lose you're more likely to get a lead-lined box than a chequebook and pen.

Yes, Smash TV is the all-shooting, all-exploding game show of tomorrow, where the contestant battles against hordes of armed clones with only his trusty machine gun to protect him.

The object of the game is to fight your way to the end of each level and destroy the giant guardian who waits there, whereupon you are rewarded with many prizes. Each level is composed of a series of single-screen rooms into which enemies pour. Once all the enemies in the room are dead, the player progresses onto te next, and so it goes on. It's survival of the fittest on prime time TV and a new slant on the phrase your money or your life.

To be candid, a contestant isn't much use with the laser provided at the start of the show. That's why the producers of Smash TV show have left random power-up icons dotted about the studios. Such as:

1. Spread Gun
   Sprays out a stream of plasma related death. Snarl.
2. Chaos Cannon
   Deals out high impact shells of explosive right into the heart of the enemy. Whazz!!
3. Satellite
   Revolves around the planet 'contestant' in perpetual motion, doubling up firepower and increasing the body count. Die, scum, die!
4. Grenades
   These green explosive life-savers take out tons of would-be trouble makers in one go. Just you try it. Just you dare to even...
5. Super Grenades
   The mother of all grenades. Extremely powerful, Extre-e-emely nass-tee.

The host of Smash TV would appear to have nicked much of his repertoire from the film Robocop. Phrases such as "I'd buy that for a dollar" and "I love it" to name but two.

During the course of the show, the hated MC provides such words of wit and if there's one thing the contestant becomes hell-bent on achieving it's the demise of this tacky tormenter.

Once again Megadrive owners have to sit and watch their Super NES-owning counterparts enjoy a fabulous conversion of an arcade rave - Smash TV - long before they can. Now the balance is redressed, slightly. Smash TV on the Megadrive is not the disaster it is on the Master System, but doesn't scale the heights of the SNES version.

Despite saying that though, it isn't half bad and I've had quite a lot of fun playing it. The main components of any decent conversion - the look, structure and the feel are all there, and arcade fans will appreciate the similarities of the versions.

The graphics are a reasonable, though lack finesse, and the sound is passable. The most important aspect, the gameplay, is perhaps the most fudged. There's plenty of action, but it's not frenetic enough for junkies tuned into its hell-bent arcade parent. This all sounds sort of wishy-washy roundabout average, doesn't it?

That's about right, I suppose. Smash TV will be enjoyed by the average Megadrive player, but the thuggish mobs expecting a perfect conversion may feel like a riot.

Smash TV owes much of its success to the instinctive, almost mindless method of gameplay required to progress through the levels. This Megadrive conversion is okay, but suffers because of its control system.

The programmers have employed an awkward fire, reserve fire and lock alternative using the A, B and C buttons to replace the second joystick of the coin-op. This is very tricky to get used to and you find that more time is spent on trying to get the gun pointing in the right direction instead of concentrating on wasting the opposition.

In a one-player show, the option to use two pads works very well and recreates that intuitive feeling for mass destruction almost perfectly. However, not everyone can take advantage of this option because not everyone has two pads to brag about.

Also, in the two-player spectacle, there is no alternative but to do things the strange way. To make up for this, the collision detection sometimes lets the contestant get away with the impossible.

However, players also find themselves blasting away at the enemy only to find that the first couple of shots have no effect. Very frustrating. I can't help feeling that Smash TV on the Megadrive should be better than this.

Certainly the animation of the bosses is a bit lacking, and the colours are a bit too bright to be really intimidating. Somehow the game just doesn't seem polished and isn't the excellent game that it could have been.

Presentation 88%
P. Lengthy introduction screen sets the scene. There's the option to alter the control figuration.
N. The intro screen doesn't look too great and the options to alter the controls range from bad to worse.

Graphics 88%
P. A close enough rendition of the arcade. Most of the sprites are nicely rendered and well animated.
N. The bosses lack the impressive nature of their arcade counterparts.

Sound 88%
P. The various gun samples and explosive effects are cool enough.
N. A lot of the Arcade's speech is missing. The music has lost much of its appeal in translation to the Megadrive.

Playability 88%
P. With two control pads you'd swear you were playing a decent conversion of the classic coin-op.
N. The alternative is very frustrating and ruins everything!

Lastability 88%
P. Smash TV puts up quite a challenge...
N. ...as long as you're prepared to stick with the awkward controls.

Overall 88%
A flawed conversion of a classic game. A sadly missed opportunity which could have been bettered by a few tweaks in the right places.