Smash TV

In the far flung future of 1999, violence is the biggest draw in entertainment. The game show has become the dominant force in television. The most spectacular, gruesome, and rewarding show, topping the ratings, is Smash TV. Contestants are armed and sent into a closed arena, where they fight for cash, glory, and unforgettable prizes including (but not limited to) brand new toasters, more 2600" televisions than you ever thought possible, and a year's supply of good meat.

"Big money! Big prizes! I love it!"

You are the next lucky contestant!

Yep, that's the plot in a nutshell. The game is basically a graphical update of designer Eugene Jarvis' earlier Robotron 2084, while also borrowing heavily from The Running Man (it can be considered a Spiritual Successor to both).

From The Running Man, it borrows the Deadly Game and Blood Sport aspects, and the quite phenomenal volumes of carnage. From Robotron, it takes the Mooks, Shoot'Em Up styling, two-joystick control scheme, and - most memorably - the Nintendo Hard-ness. Co-op play makes life a bit easier, but not much.

Originally released to arcades in 1990, it turned up on several home computer systems and consoles before making the jump to Xbox Live Arcade - the first version that allowed co-op online play.

Tropes:

Action Bomb: Mr. Shrapnel.
Announcer Chatter: The host pops up to spout one of his catchphrases every few levels.
Attack Drone: It also copies whatever gun power up you're using, for twice the gunnage.
Awesome Yet Impractical: The yellow mortar weapon that only appears during boss battles is ONLY meant for boss battles. Trying to aim it at anything smaller than a boss will generally get you killed, as the shells fly high in the air and don't hit anything mid-arc.
Bald of Evil: Mutoid Man.
Blood Sport
Bottomless Magazines: Averted. Using the Attack Drone will actually drain your special weapons twice as fast, and the grenade launcher empties at a ludicrous speed. At least new weapons tend to appear every 15 seconds.
Bragging Rights Reward: The Xbox Live Arcade port has a notable achievement: "Game Master - Finish the game without continuing on the default settings." Yeesh.
- Unfortunately, this achievement was bugged when the port was originally released. So even if you DID accomplish that task, the achievement would not be recorded.
Catch Phrase: The host's "Big money! Big prizes! I love it!", and "I'd buy that for a dollar!", the latter a Shout Out to Robo Cop.
Color-Coded Multiplayer: Contestant 1 has light skin and wears a blue outfit; Contestant 2 has dark skin and wears a red outfit.
Deadly Game
Double the Dollars: All scoring is doubled whenever there are two players active.
Dual Boss: The cobras.
Everything Trying to Kill You: And how!
Excuse Plot: Seriously, did you read that stuff up there?
Eye Beams: Mutoid Man. The M.C. Boss simply fires eyeballs at you.
Film At Eleven: Smash TV is a TV show, and lines of this type appear as the room's title as the players enter a room - including the actual "FILM AT 11".
500,000 Points and Every 1,500,000 Thereafter: And damn, will you need them!
Flip Screen Scrolling
Goofy Print Underwear: The M.C. Boss. Rather than exposing his ribcage (as with Mutoid Man previously), shooting his chest reveals a pink polka dot undershirt.
Hey It's That Guy: Aside from Eugene Jarvis (the main designer of the game), Smash TV was programmed by Mark Turmell (NBA Jam, NFL Blitz), and features character designs by John Tobias (Mortal Kombat).
Home Game: One of the prizes, probably a nod to the The Running Man home game
Losing Your Head: Mutoid Man's head gets blown off. Don't worry, he has a spare.
- NO WAY!!!
Ludicrous Gibs: Most enemies - and you - explode in a large pool of blood.
Made of Plasticine: You explode into gibs if you step on a land mine, if you get run over by a tank, and if you shot by certain types of enemy fire.
Mercy Invincibility: A free forcefield power-up, see Ramming Always Works below.
- Higher difficulty settings make this wear off almost immediately.
Mooks: Most enemies, actually.
More Dakka
Muscles Are Meaningless: Both contestants are shirtless muscle dudes, but since all the action is gunfire...
Nintendo Hard

"Good luck! You'll need it!"

- The arcade version is literally impossible not to die in, mostly due to slow movement speed without the speed powerup (which has a short duration). The arcade Smash TV is probably designed this way intentionally to eat up quarters. Other ports are mostly difficult for being bad ports. Despite this, one of the developers claims he can finish it in one coin.
- That still doesn't manage to explain how evil this game is. Individual rooms in arenas 3 and 4 will run you over 10 minutes each, and later enemies will start to run much faster than you.
Nitro Boost
One-Hit-Point Wonder: You'd be surprised what you can squeeze past, though.
One Up: These randomly appear. At times, the game will appear to be rather generous with these free lives.
Palette Swap: Some of the Mooks, and the final boss - The Host - is a head swap of the first.
Power-Up: Standard shoot-em-up fare.
Ramming Always Works: The forcefield power-up (including the free one after you get killed) kills enemies other than bosses on contact, so you can charge into one group while shooting at another.
Shoot'Em Up
Shout Out: Robo Cop, the Atari 2600, and several more.
- Scarface also looks suspiciously like Sinistar.
- In Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance, Johnny Cage is revealed to have been a contestant on a celebrity edition of Smash TV.
Shows Damage: The bosses tend to fall apart over time- not surprising, given the number of bullets they absorb.
Smart Bomb: "BINGO!"
Spam Attack: The grenade launcher.
Spiritual Successor: To Robotron: 2084 and The Running Man, as noted up top; also has its own Spiritual Successors, Total Carnage, The Grid, and Monday Night Combat. On a side note, Smash TV programmer Mark Turmell said in an interview that Robotron: 2084 is one of his favorite games.
Spread Shot
The Many Deaths of You: Clubbed to death, blowing up, and electrocution.
Turns Red: Somehow, completely skeletonizing Scarface makes him even more dangerous.
The War Sequence: The entire game is basically one huge long one.
Undesirable Prize: Oddly subverted in the first studio, wherein the contestants seem to be more excited over winning toasters than any of the other prizes offered.