 | Just the cover art itself would have been enough for any gamer back in the late 80s to at least pick this beauty off the shelf, and consider buying it. Back before Street Fighter II came out, and changed the world of side-scrolling beat 'em ups forever, gamers desperately sort out games to fill their need to kick the shit out of each other and the computer. In 1989 Activision obliged them with the deeply weird Tongue Of The Fatman. Actually the game was only called by that bizarre title on the PC version of the game. When the game was ported across to other formats, they changed the name for some unknown reason. The Commodore C64 version was called Mondo's Fight Palace, the Sega version was Slaughter Sport, and the Japanese release was simply called Fatman. |
Not just a straight fighting game, it was packed with weirdness. During fights giant annoying alien heads would pop-up in front of the screen, and a slave girl would randomly walk across the screen carrying a sign with slogans on it. All the characters you got to choose from were strange aliens. You could choose from bladed fin wielding shark creatures, human shaped colonies of bacteria, a huge hairy testicle with arms, oh and the Fatman himself. The "tongue" in the title referred to the giant tongue that would appear from a giant mouth shaped gash that would open up in the stomach of the Fatman.
The PC version came on both 3 5 and 1/4 inch floppies and a single 3 and 1/2 inch disk. However to get the whole game squeezed into the single 3 and 1/2 inch disk the makers removed the digitised sound effects and some of the backgrounds from that version!!! As you load up the game players are introduced to the Fatman, who grins at you from the screen rubbing his nipples. Once into the game players can choose the species of the fighter they want to be, and even bet on how quickly they think they will beat their opponent. Gaining cash, so that they can then buy power-ups and weapons. One special skill you can acquire is invisibility, which your opponent can also have. Meaning at any point in the game both characters can disappear off the screen altogether!!!
With one of the most convoluted control systems ever, the game is virtually unplayable. And players spend most of the time breaking their joystick trying to pull off moves, while their character lays on the floor being stomped on by the computer player. With all of the weirdness and the impossible game-play Tongue Of The Fatman must go down as one of the worst games ever made.
The PC version came on both 3 5 and 1/4 inch floppies and a single 3 and 1/2 inch disk. However to get the whole game squeezed into the single 3 and 1/2 inch disk the makers removed the digitised sound effects and some of the backgrounds from that version!!! As you load up the game players are introduced to the Fatman, who grins at you from the screen rubbing his nipples. Once into the game players can choose the species of the fighter they want to be, and even bet on how quickly they think they will beat their opponent. Gaining cash, so that they can then buy power-ups and weapons. One special skill you can acquire is invisibility, which your opponent can also have. Meaning at any point in the game both characters can disappear off the screen altogether!!!
With one of the most convoluted control systems ever, the game is virtually unplayable. And players spend most of the time breaking their joystick trying to pull off moves, while their character lays on the floor being stomped on by the computer player. With all of the weirdness and the impossible game-play Tongue Of The Fatman must go down as one of the worst games ever made.
