Tongue of the Fatman

IBM MCGA/VGA version of Tongue of the Fatman

Tongue of the Fatman is a fighting game first released by Activision for IBM computers and later ported to the Commodore 64 and Sega Genesis. The game allows two alien beings to fight each other in the infamous fight pits; a variety of moves are available along with numerous “black market” items that can be purchased to provide an advantage. Two players can fight each other, or one player can fight the computer in an attempt to become the fight pit champion!

Tongue of the Fatman features ten different alien fighters, each with 15 different basic moves (such as kicking, punching, jumping, and so on) along with one unique special ability. When players first start the game, only the first three fighters are available for selection. When progressing through the game in single player mode, each time a new fighter is defeated that fighter will then become available for players to choose. Each fighter has a health meter located at the bottom of the screen; to win a fight, players need to fully deplete their opponents meter before their own is gone. The meter is depleted by successul attacks with the amount of health lost based on a few factors including which attack is executed. Each player also has a meter for attack effectiveness; this starts out full, and if players repeat an attack it reduces. The further the meter reduces, the less damage an attack causes until eventually it causes no damage at all. When players use a different attack, the meter refills; due to this, players need to keep their attacks varied in order to prevent them from becoming ineffective.

Before each fight, players have a few additional options to make things more interesting. First, players can bet on how fast they think they can beat their opponent; the faster the time selected, the more money can be won. The actual fight doesn't have a time limit and can go on for as long as both fighters survive, however any money wagered is lost once the time selected has lapsed. Players can also visit Doctor Kadaver to use money earned for purchasing weapons and other items. Items vary in price with more powerful ones being more expensive and include both offensive and defensive items. The effects of the items are varied and include increased damage dealt during attacks, increased defense, various weapons such as rockets, items to knock opponents down, invisibility, and more. Up to four items can be carried at a time; if players don't use all four items during a fight, the leftover items will remain in inventory for the next fight. When a fight is over, the game returns to the betting screen where players can place new bets for the next fight or buy some more items. If players have won the previous fight, the game continues on to the next fighter. If the previous fight was lost, the game reverts players to the previous fighter requiring them to win again before proceeding further. Players have at most three losses, or the game is over. Additionally, being revived after a loss costs money so the game ends regardless of number of losses if players don't have enough money for the revival fee.

When first released the PC version of Tongue of the Fatman came on either one 3.5" disk or three 5.25" disks. In order to cut costs a bit, a second 3.5" disk that normally would have been needed was eliminated by removing a few non-essential elements from the game. This includes some of the background graphics shown during the fights (a single background is repeated instead of randomly selecting one of several), a few splash screens are removed (such as when a player loses the graphics repeat another screen instead of having a unique view), and the digitized sounds are missing.