Jaws

"Jaws should have stayed as a movie"

Jaws was the ultimate horror movie. Nothing scared as many people. I think everyone will admit that going in the ocean makes you a little bit nervous because you watched Jaws.
Anyways, the people at nintendo decided that a movie this good would be able to have an equally good game.
I loved jaws. It scared the hell outta me, and it was a really good movie. Naturally, I hoped this game would be equally good, following the storyline of the movie, or something. Such was not the case. What we gamers got instead was another weird game with basis in a movie, and yet the 2 have nothing in common.

The game starts with a bad rendering of the jaws theme, and you're whisked off to a scene with your boat just pulling out of the dock. You ride around hunting for jaws, and when you find him, you kill him.
Now, there are a bunch of technicalities to this game. First off, the game entirely revolves around that guy in the glasses. Remember how he went into the cage? Well, in this game, you travel from area to area, looking for jaws. When ''you found something!'' appears, it shifts you to a scene where this guy (hooper, isn't it?) swims through the water, throwing spears at jellyfish and stingray. Occasionally, when the animal dies, it will leave a seashell behind. If you can swim over and pick it up before it disappears (you get 3 seconds), you pick up the seashell.

Apparently, these seashells are used as a currency, because if you sail to the other side of the bay, you get a ''jaws radar'', and if you sail back to the other end, you get a weapon upgrade. You continue to swim back and forth, getting weapon upgrades until you finally pick up a submarine.

Now, the reason you need weapon upgrades is this- if you don't get weapon upgrades, jaws has about 500 health, and you get 5 minutes to kill him. If you dont manage it, he regains about 100-200 of it, and it could take years to do.

Oh, and I almost forgot to mention- they added in a ''baby jaws'', and whenever you see it and kill it, you get a bonus stage, during which you fly overhead in a plane and kill jellyfish for bonus points and seashells.

Ultimately, you kill jaws, only it's not over yet! For those of you who saw the 4th jaws installment, you'll recognize this one. You put an electric charge into the water, and jaws jump up. You then have to skewer him with your boat. I know, this has no relation to the first movie, but that's ok, because it's Nintendo.

Music and Graphics were mediocre at best. Music was repetitive, and graphics were NES quality.

This game was HARD. The only reason I ever managed to beat it was because I ended up downloading it on my computer and autosaving every 10 seconds. It was hard even then. I wouldn't even dream of playing it a second time....

Overall, just stay away. If you liked jaws, it may soil your respect for it forever.

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 02/24/04