JAWS
Ah, good ol JAWS. This
was one of my favorite games
on the NES when i was young.
Maybe it was because I could finish it in around 10 minutes without a
hitch. Sometimes I could do it in around 5.
Many collectors
hate this game and suggest
that it is impossible due to the final battle with Jaws
on the boat,
but it still holds a special
place with me.
The gameplay itself is rather simple and unique,
actually. You begin in an overview,
above water, in control of a boat, and you ride
around waiting until
something randomly
hits you. Upon being hit by Jaws or
another sea creature, the
game goes into underwater
side-scroller mode, in which you begin killing
jellyfish, sting rays,
and tiny sharks in an
effort to stock up on crabs ( speed boost for your diver ) and sea
shells ( this games
currency). After being in side scroller mode for a couple of
minutes, the game will revert
back to the overview and then its off to the next port to spend your
seashells buying a
transmitter which you will use to track jaws. Personally I
find this device to be a waste,
as usually I could care less about HEARING how close jaws is when
you can see his fin
coming up and down anyways, but you have to get it in order to be able
to purchase
the weapon upgrades which are very much needed to kill jaws.
After collecting
the transceiver to
track jaws,
gaining some more shells in the side scroller
and the Bonus Games ( in which you pilot an airplane and bomb jellyfish
for a shell bonus
at the end ), you work on getting up to power level 3 or 4 so you can
really put a hurtin on
jaws. Ive been able to kill jaws on power level 2 before, buts
its just not worth it. Anyways,
when you are powered up enough to where you think you can kill
this big fish, you simply
have to stay put in one spot on the overhead view and jaws will come to
you, which is nice
because unlike when you are hit by the random sea creatures, when jaws
himself hits your boat,
instead of turning into the diver, you stay as the boat and can bomb
him for a bit. After he
touches the boat in the side scrolling screen it will become the diver
and it is time to lay into the
B button and open hell on jaws. A turbo button is very nice
here. Jaws has a fairly large power
bar and without pwr lvl 3 or 4 it can take an awfully long time to put
a dent into him, and
whats worse, the way the game is programmed , after you collect x
amount of points in each
side scroller section, the game will revert back to the overhead
screen. Well, when this happens,
Jaws will have regained a good deal of health the next time you battle
him, and points rack up
fast when you are blasting him.
Once you have JAWS power bar down to 0, it will
flash for a few seconds and you will
go into the final battle scene where you are in the boat looking
forward out at the ocean,
with jaws moving towards and away from the boat in various
patterns. This is the only thing
about the game that i find to be a nuissance. There is a trick
though. Pretty much every time
this sequence begins, jaws will come either directly toward the boat in
a straight line, or will
come slightly down at an angle and then come directly toward the boat;
either way this is your
freebie. Wait until Jaws' fin is roughly touching the mast on the
front of the boat and hit your A
button to cause Jaws to jump out of the water, and immediately hit B to
finish off the beast.
Thats it. However, it can get really frustrating if you miss this
short window because after that
jaws gets really hard to figure out, and after 3 strobes ( the chances
to stab jaws by having him
pop out the water), the game reverts back to the overhead screen
and jaws is back with full
health again.
If you are looking for a great ending
for this game, look elsewhere. Unless a simple screen
with THE END is your idea of great, the ending blows hard.
However , the ending tune is
catchy and creative, so i guess its not all bad.
The games graphics are pretty well done, and
the sound is easy to listen to so you wont
feel like turning the volume down during play.
PROS: decent graphics and sound
fun,
simple gameplay
nice
bonus game
CONS: somewhat difficult final level
when you die, you lose receiver, one power level and half your hard
earned shells
cheap ending
Im not a big fan of LJN games, but I will
have to give them 2 thumbs up on this one.
Great Game overall.
DIFFICULTY EASY
GRAPHICS
7
SOUND
7
GAMEPLAY 8
FUN
8
OVERALL
8
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