Cash Money Chaos Hands-On

There have only been a couple of shooters on the handheld, none of them have focused upon the fast-paced, shoot anything that moves experience. Cash Money Chaos should easily solve that issue, with lots of fun for both single and multiple players across a variety of radically twisted levels, letting you blow away everything from clowns to chickens with wild abandon.



Easily inspired by Smash TV and Total Carnage, the story behind Cash Money Chaos is being told with tongue firmly planted in cheek. Four humans named Sonny, Cher, Ike and Tina have been captured by aliens who have a love of game shows and the 1970s. Rather than the standard abduction and experimentation scenario that people have always heard of, the aliens decide to put the humans into a twisted version of a game show to fight for their very lives. However, survival isn't the only prize that the characters will win as they play their way through the various episodes; just like "The Price is Right," the characters can win cash and prizes as they shoot their way through more than 50 separate levels.

Maybe I should say episodes, because the game is broken up via a TV schedule: each episode has three rounds that will take place in a variety of levels, such as circus stages, ghost towns and other places. Five episodes will make a season, and there are at least 10 seasons that will be included in the final game. At the end of a season, you'll face off against a boss that, akin to Smash TV, will have multiple stages that you'll need to defeat. In fact, we were told that the boss at the end of the circus stage is a bearded lady who eventually winds up releasing midgets on unicycles from beneath her dress. Inflicting enough damage only causes her attacks to become more bizarre and unexplainable. As you blast your way through, you'll be berated by the psychotic host of Cash Money Chaos, Sfink Sfartindale, who will crack jokes at your expense and throw out hints to keep you playing.

One such hint will be to gather playing cards and letters. By shooting a small man wearing a clapboard, you can collect either a poker hand or attempt to spell the word of the day, which results in a screen clearing smart bomb and a deluge of cash and prizes. This will definitely be useful, especially on some of the latter levels because the game will literally throw wave after wave of opponents at you. Fortunately, you won't have to rely on mere pistols to kill off these creatures. There are at least 12 weapons, including shotguns, rocket launchers and blasters, as well as a number of power-ups, such as speed dashes and rate of fire increases. You also won't be forced to fight your way through the game alone either; the final game will have four player co-op, and 8 player versus matches via ad hoc or infrastructure play.

There will also be a lot to explore in the final version, thanks to three difficulty levels and the option to replay episodes thanks to the Rerun mode. While it's still slated to come out next year, what we played seemed extremely responsive and capable of handling dozens of enemies and projectiles on screen without any slowdown. It also managed to emulate the analog feel of shooters like Smash TV with the gun controls firmly placed on the face buttons.

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