#315 - Jaws

                                            This time, as opposed to last time?

                       You haven't lived until you've destroyed the creatures of the sea.


PLAYERS: 1

PUBLISHER: LJN

DEVELOPER: West One

GENRE: Action

RELEASE DATE: November 1987

Jaws is not the only video game based on the "Jaws" book and movie series (hello Jaws Unleashed!), but it is the only game people think of, due to its overwhelming reputation for being a sucktacular crapfest. It's simply not true. Jaws is a lot of things: boring, pointless, tedious, but it's completely playable. Hear me out. In the game, as in the movie (as in the book), your entire goal is to rid the lovely beachside community of Jaws' presence. He's a menace, eating people left and right. However, despite your good intention, you're just a lowly fisherman with some very poor weaponry. In order to "trick" out your harpoons to first-class baller status, you have to destroy other sea creatures to obtain shells, which you can then trade with merchants to upgrade your "stash." While collecting shells (and starfish for bonus swag points), you must avoid Jaws. He's pretty much out in the water all the time, being a shark and all. Fighting Jaws is relatively simple. Shoot repeatedly as he's coming towards you, move out of his way to let him pass, then begin shooting him from the back. Once his lifebar has been depleted, take heart as there's still one more fight to go. Instead of fighting in the water, you're now standing on your boat and facing down the giant beast. Line up your boat with Jaws blood-stained teeth and fire a strobe, which will stun him. You then use your boat to stab Jaws. The end. The question now is, why should we expect a great amount of depth from a game thats sole premise is killing one large creature? I'm thankful LJN had the decency to throw in the ability to upgrade your weapons. Otherwise the game would take five minutes to beat. Jaws isn't a good game, but it's not the travesty most people make it out to be.

C