Amiga Tribute: The Killing Game Show

Carl from The Killing Game Show.

Part 23/24 of my Amiga tribute project >3

"The Killing Game will have you climbing walls. After all, it's the only way out." ~ The Killing Game Show ad


Well, as super late as it is, it's almost drawing to a close. And for this occasion, here's a game I was dying to showcase, namely The Killing Game Show.
Well, this one's a true "killer", and in more ways than one, be it the overly grim and dark story, or the insanely hard difficulty, the game lives up to it's title. But first things first, The titular Show is more or less a mix or The Running Man and The Terminator. It's a show starring inmates, mostly death row ones, who have their brain and most vital internal organs removed and inserted in a mechanical monstrosity with claws for feet and vulcan machineguns for arms.
After the conversion, the "contestant" is hurled into a maze filled with basically anything and everything that could end their pitiful existence in just a few well-placed shots, and while the first few levels are mainly just to help you get the hang of things, shit gets all too real as you gradually progress through the game... that is, IF you manage to progress at all. At first it's just shoot stuff and get to the end of the stage formula, but then you're introduced to doors locked with keys, doors unlocked when you have a certain amount of certain item, doors unlocked in a specific order, doors locking themselves when certain others get unlocked, trust me, it's FAR harder than it sounds. Basically take Megaman and Zelda, mix 'em up and multiply by 666, and maybe you'll get close to this game's difficulty. And then there's the DOLL (and yeah, it's spelled in all caps), a mechanical monstrosity that slowly creeps up the screen in a zigzag motion (ignoring any obstacles that tops you, like all omnipotent certain-death foes do) which is set of once your timer reaches zero. And trust me, with the game being hard as is, you certainly don't want this thing to go off, cause it's more than likely gonna cost you plenty (did I mention it kills you with one hit?). More so, while there are health pickups and you fo get an additional life each time you clear a stage, there is no other way of gaining extra lives and there is no way whatsoever to gain any more continues aside form the limited supply you get...
And speaking of "extra lives", those are pretty literal here as well. You see, Carl here might be the "main character", at least as far as the game's manual tells us, but the fact is, each time you die, you actually die, and another contestant takes your place, until you run out of "lives" and the Show's over, at least until a fresh supply of contestants arrives to challenge the SHow's mazes again.

Also note, there was a Genesis port of this game made by EA, which had not only a reduced difficulty but also had the hardest levels removed entirely (the original has 8 levels divided into 2 stages each, the Genesis port only has 6), just to reduce it from "Amiga difficulty" to "Nintendo difficulty" >D

Other parts of the project - Shadow Of The Beast, Shadow Fighter, Zool, The Chaos Engine, Superfrog, Skeleton Krew, The Speris Legacy, Flashback, Agony, Brutal: Paws of Fury, Fightin' Spirit, Ruff 'N' Tumble, SwitchBlade, Lionheart, The Lost Vikings, Brian The Lion, Wolfchild, Gods, Entity, Franko: The Crazy Revenge, Hired Guns, Turrican, The Killing Game Show, Yo! Joe!


Carl (c) Psygnosis