![Slap Happy Rhythm Busters [PS1] - play as Tom Tom](/images/yt/-e/slap-happy-rhythm-busters-ps1-play-as-tom-tom-kei.jpg)
Slap Happy Rhythm Busters [PS1] - play as Tom Tom
35This is a playthrough using Tom Tom in the PS1 game Slap Happy Rhythm Busters. Read on for more information...
Tom Tom is a hidden character in the game. He can be fought against in Arcade Mode as a regular CPU opponent, and is an unlockable playable character.
===== HOW TO UNLOCK TOM TOM =====
Beat Arcade Mode 3 times.
===== ABOUT TOM TOM =====
He is an 11 year-old graffiti artist and is a troublemaker and street urchin. His mastery of graffiti has resulted in the artwork taking on a life of it's own, manifesting itself into a ghost or spirit that assists him. Upon hearing the news of the UFO landing, he desires to paint graffiti all over the UFO so that even the residents of outer space can see his work.
This is quite literally a character who fights using a pair of graffiti paint cans with a graffiti "Stand" or "Persona" type assist character for some of his moves (the assist character is part of his moves and NOT someone he can summon/switch off)... that is certainly some creativity there, but as a lot of us know, Tom Tom is not the first to have the concept of a Stand/Persona type assist character in fighting games. =)
===== GAMEPLAY =====
He has some good combo abilities from most of his basics, and both his supers can be combo'd into from his Heavy basics. His Flash Hand special move (the fist that comes out of the ground) is good for surprising opponents, and he has an easy Beat Rush combo. One weakness is that his Beat Rush activation strike has a really short range so it can easily miss.
===== ADDITIONAL INFORMATION / TRIVIA =====
---- In the PS1 fighting game Vs. (also made by the same company Polygon Magic), there are some characters from it that has been brought over and resigned into SHRB. These characters are Ramos, Mia and Oreg/Oleg.
---- When you win a match, the announcer who says "Winner" sounds very much like the Tekken 1 announcer.
---- The main single-player mode is called Arcade Mode, despite there being no arcade version of the game.
---- The game only saw a Japanese release.
---- Despite being Japanese region-only, the entire game itself is in English.
===== ABOUT SHRB =====
Slap Happy Rhythm Busters is a PS1 fighting game where the character designs and game aesthetics are inspired by the hip music youth culture in Japan.
The in-fight character graphics consist of a cel-shaded style (I think) of polygons, which looks pretty good considering that this is the PS1 hardware. The backgrounds are 2D and have a very modern hip cartoon look.
The music of this game features compositions from various real-life DJs. The tunes are mixed, but most of them do gear towards an electric-techno-dance genre.
The gameplay is solid and is your typical old-school 2D affair. It features a flexible chain combo system which can be cancelled into specials or supers.
Perhaps the stand-out aspect of the gameplay is a universal super move called the Beat Rush - if this is activated (by hitting the opponent unblocked), you then get whisked into a rhythm-style game where you have to press the D-Pad or buttons in sync to the on-screen brackets which appear. It works like the arrows in DDR and PIU. The better you do, the more life depletion you'll dish out to the opponent after the session is over. On a deciding round, if you perform a Beat Rush (with the opponent having a depleted amount of life that can be defeated with a Beat Rush) and do well you'll then enter Fever mode, where it'll show a special finishing sequence for your character.