Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes is a platform game originally released for the NES in 1991 but I played the Game Boy version which was released a year later. It was something of a copy of a copy, being based on the cartoon which was a sequel to the original movie and I’m afraid to say I did not like it.

If, like me, you’re not familiar with the films or series, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes tells the story of tomatoes that become malevolent sentient beings that attack humans. It was a low budget spoof of B-movies and despite poor reviews, it did well enough to spawn a franchise.

For me, that’s where the silliness ends. I’ve not seen any prior AotKT media so I can’t tell how well the game portrayed the cartoon but it certainly felt more filler tomatoes than killer tomatoes. The game sees you play the role of a young boy named Chad Finletter who is trying to stop an evil scientist, Dr. Putrid T. Gangreen, from unleashing his Doomsday Tomato which I can assure you isn’t a euphemism of any kind.

Along the way, you have to defeat a load of mutant tomatoes across 11 stages with big boss tomatoes at the end of each with names such as Zoltan, Mummato, and Ketchuck. There are only four controls as you’d expect—jump, kick, ride your skateboard, and throw a sword/use a parachute while jumping. There are swords lying around during each stage and they come in clutch when you want to slice and dice. And like many platformers, there’s a timer and you’ve got to get to the end before it runs out.

I can still appreciate an old Game Boy game and maybe it’s because I’m not good at platformers, but I just couldn’t jam with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. It felt clunky and annoying and because of that, it felt like it dragged even though I beat it in about an hour. My son even reminded me of what I told him when he got frustrated at games: “if you’re getting mad, why are you still playing it?” He’s definitely my child!

But I persevered and I got to the end (thankfully I played this during Twixmas which might have explained why time felt like it was going so slow). Even though it was a single-play game, I reckon Attack of the Killer Tomatoes could have been better as a multiplayer title where you could recruit friends to help you defeat the tomatoes. That wasn’t an option for me as I was emulating the game but I think playing this as a kid with friends would have lightened the load and enhanced the experience.

So yeah, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Better sundried than mutated and angry.