"The House of the Dead: The AMS Go Diving!"

I usually pass up arcade shooters, opting more for pinball, fighters, and beat-em’-ups. But I couldn’t get myself away from The Ocean Hunter. It’s just so cool.

I’ve seen two different cabinets for this game. One is your standard large screen and platform, with a small bench for you to sit on. The other is a small private hut with a window in back, a screen in front, and an all-important bench, like in the Lost World game. The screen is smaller, but it’s more in-your-face. On the platform, along with the Player One and Player Two buttons, are two rotating yellow gun turrets. No, they aren’t for decoration, they’re your lightguns!

Like the tagline suggests, this is an underwater themed House of the Dead. The story is very basic. In each of the Seven Seas, there’s a giant deadly sea creature. These freaks of nature are sinking ships and contorting the environment, so that eels, sharks and barracuda have become ferocious! So of course, you and your partner attempt to kill the monsters using submergible gun type things.

But of course, no one gives a hoot about the story of an arcade shooter.

Ocean Hunter is your standard two player rail-gun shooter with a twist. Instead of using hand-held lightguns, you use the two yellow gun turrets mentioned earlier! A cursor appears on screen, and you aim your gun at various attacking sea stuffs and press one of two triggers on it to shoot. Reloading occurs automatically, so you don’t have to worry about ammo conservation. There are various treasure chests scattered around, some are merely worth points, some recover your precious life.

Besides killing the endless army of Sharks & Friends, there’ll also be hostages that are ever so close to the baddies, so your aim has to be perfect to hit the people-eater, not the person. When a boss attacks, things really heat up. A health meter appears in the upper left hand corner of the screen for the boss. Bosses in this game aren’t too aggressive, but are constantly changing position. Thusly, you have to change your aim every couple seconds.

SPECIAL FEATURE!- Axem Explains the Rail-Gun Shooter
For those of you who are in the dark about the term “rail-gun,” your good ol’ neighborhood Axem will tell you what you’ve been missing.

In a rail-gun shooter, you have no freedom of movement. Instead, you move along a set path and shoot whatever comes toward you. Dodging is impossible, so you shoot thing to get em’ out of your way. You can’t turn your own head, either, so if you know a shark is coming from the left, you can’t shoot it until the game looks in that direction. This might seem a little restraining, but it lets you concentrate on your aim.

Graphics in The Shark Hunter are cool, for the most part, though the backgrounds are a bit grainy. Your characters and most enemies don’t have too much detail, but look smooth. The bosses, however, are amazing! They just ooze detail, and have different facial expressions depending on what they’re doing. About to get gobbled up? Evil grin! Did ya’ just cap em’ in the head? They’ll seem dazed and in pain! So cool!

Music is mediocre. Really. I hardly even noticed it. Sound effects are great, though. Voice acting isn’t bad, but characters shown no emotion whatsoever. (Except for the bosses.) And the fact that most characters have their faces hidden behind helmets doesn’t help.

The difficulty is way up there, like most Sega arcade shooter. Definitely bring along a partner. Unfortunately, this game is far too similar to another popular Sega shooter, The House of the Dead. Heck, one of the bosses in the first level is Tower from The House of the Dead 2 with only one head! There is more aiming than blatant blasting in The Ocean Hunter than the Dead games, but the similarities are what warrant this game a 7.

All in all, nice work Sega.

Axem does not support trying out the game in real life and has no accountability if you try it. However, if you do decide to go hunting for sharks like this, Axem wants to know if he can have your stereo.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/01, Updated 09/10/01