"Why does every Sega-made arcade shooter start with the word "The?""

Sega's arcade shooter The Lost World was an extremely popular, sit-on-your-dead-butt lightgun game filled with eye-popping dinosaurs and interesting "follow the leader" puzzles. Other than the fact that TLW was super short and almost too easy at times (and too hard at others), it had one minor flaw that made the lazy man angry -- your arm gets tired after holding the gun for a while.

Ending any tiresome feelings (and taking away the need for re-loading your gun), Sega created The Ocean Hunter, a sea-atisfying experience with a touch of added repetitiveness.

Gameplay: 7
You're a diver with a spear gun that has unlimited ammo and a nifty rumble kick-back. What to do? Just keep blasting the enemy until he dies. You see a target symbol on the screen, as with most shooting games these days, letting you know where you're shooting. Very simple, but fun.

After a while though, if you've gotten far in the game without losing, you'll notice that The Ocean Hunter will almost make sure that you die no matter what. In Gauntlet Legends you're always losing health -- in this game you get caught in a dead end and can't fight off every baddie, hence you die. Very fishy indeed.

Much like The Lost World, there aren't very many levels to conquer, and most of them have a pre-set pattern. You learn it, you copy it, you've beaten it. Not very hard. Definitely not a game you'd want to be brought home to the Dreamcast, except for a weekend rental.

Oh, and you get to sit down! And you don't have guns, you hold onto your sea diving, spear shooting mobile thing (kind of like some arcade flight sticks) and stare at this big, colorful screen. I'm kind of shocked that Dave & Buster's don't have The Ocean Hunter, since a lot of the regulars there prefer to sit down when playing games (if they ever do) anyway...

Sound/Music: 5
I think they hired the same talented team of voice acting directors/producers that put together The House of The Dead! And it shows, because every time someone speaks, it's backed by the corney, almost muffled sound as if they really were in the water. Not to mention the fact that the actual sound coming from their mouth is as badly acted as anything they have to say in Eyes Wide Shut. Fortunately, as with Eyes Wide Shut, The Ocean Hunter doesn't have much talking going on, because... they have much better things to do than talk.

The music is dull, ocean-sounding stuff. Neat. You hear things under water... wow. It's pretty bad, and gets very annoying after a short while.

Graphics: 7
Just keep telling yourself, "this game is different... this game is different!" Sega, and maybe, just maybe it'll be different. Unfortunately that didn't happen (maybe you should try knocking on wood next time. Yep, that'll work) and this game does look like every other Model 3/Naomi shooter out there.

Every fish, every sea creature, every monster, every human you accidently shoot because you just can't take his whining ("help me, help me!") anymore and every background detail is rendered, right down to the textures, the same as all of the other lightgun games from Sega released in the past couple of years.

Remember how Nintendo 64 came out, and after the first few games released, every game, first and third party, started looking exactly the same? Compare SFR to MCR or DKR to Mario Kart 64 -- the graphic differences are there, but the gameplay and sound quality are exactly the same. What about its fighting games? Its wrestlers? Sports? Yes, all are almost identical to each other. And you wonder why I think Dreamcast will turn out the same way? The gameplay may stand out from title to title, but the look of each game won't be very different.

Story: 1
Ummm, does this game really have a story? You're an ocean hunter... hunting for treasure or something. Been there, done that.

Replayability: 6
Good for a quick game every "other" time you go to an arcade (or less), the good news is that you'll always want to come back, if not a year after finishing the game, and play it once again. The House of The Dead 2, The Lost World and now The Ocean Hunter all have these same qualities about them (they all have the same bad qualities about them too, but that's beside the point).

Shooting games are fun, and with time, they seem to get better and more advanced, but have never really stood out as one of the ultimate gaming genres. Will that ever change? Not if Sega doesn't first.

Should I buy The Ocean Hunter?: No.
All of you arcade owners reading this (because I know there just has to be dozens, I'm sure GameFAQs.com's review section is where every arcade owner goes for the latest and greatest, most comprehensive reviews on the net), don't buy The Ocean Hunter. People will come in to your arcade looking for HoD2, play a game of The Ocean Hunter, get angry about the fact that you don't have the game they're looking for, and leave.

What about all you enquiring millionaires out there? I'm sure you're just dying to know Casa's verdict on the game, aren't you? Well, don't you buy it either. Save your money, or buy something else. How about Tekken Tag Tournament? Oh, you say you already own that one? Then how about... Crazy Taxi? Not many arcades have that one.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 11/01/99