Due to lack of creativity and a chance to cash in on something popular, the video game industry has always taken ideas from Hollywood. With movie franchises being the money making machines they are it is only natural to make video game spin offs. Some times the end results are good like The Warriors, The Matrix and Disneys Aladdin on the Super Nintendo, but 9 times out of 10 the end results are shocking. Seeing as this week is Jaws week here at Lost Entertainment we will take a look at some of the Jaws related video games.
KILLER SHARK
Although Killer Shark is not a video game about the movie Jaws it does have relevance to the Jaws movie. This is the arcade game the kids are playing on the beach during the film. The game was and old school point and shoot game using light discs and a hand gun attached to the front.
MANEATER
Oh oh there she goes she's a man eater! This crappy black and white video game was released soon after Jaws and has nothing what so ever to do with the Jaws franchise. It has a brilliant arcade cabinet though so I will let it off. They used to have one of these near an ice cream stand on a beach in Malta when I was a kid.
JAWS THE NINTENDO GAME
Just after Jaws the Revenge was made Jaws the video game landed on the NES console. The game was made by LJN a company which made amazing wrestling figures but shockingly bad video games. LJN made many awful games to cash in on movie franchises. They made awful games of Terminator 2, A Nightmare on Elm Street (click here for my review) and even Friday the 13th.
The game is a mish mash of an RPG adventure and a side viewed shoot em up. In the game you travel around the map in a boat which constantly stops due to a message which reads "you've hit something". You then have to shoot Jellyfish and collect shells to level up. When you level up it gives you more of a chance to land more devastating blow to Jaws (yeah they named the Shark Jaws in this game).
The life bar of Jaws is ridiculous and it takes forever to level up to fight him. You encounter the Shark all the time and will have countless boss battles with him to no avail. You must continue collecting shells and shooting Jellyfish until you lose the will to live.
Once you have leveled up enough you then get to the final boss stage where you have to stab Jaws with the front of a boat. The ending is just like the ending from Jaws the Revenge. This game is also like Jaws the Revenge in the sense that Jaws the Revenge was the worst film in the series and Jaws the video game may have been the worst game EVER on Nintendo.
JAWS UNLEASHED PLAYSTION 2 AND XBOX
Now this is one game that I feel is very misunderstood. If you read a review anywhere it will get ridiculous scores of 1/10 and even got voted "the worst game that everyone played in 2006" by Gamespot. I personally think Jaws Unleashed is great fun and should not be taken to seriously. In this game you are the Shark in an open sandbox world just like Grand Theft Auto. You can feed off of hundreds of different sea creatures as well as chomp on humans.
The game has a Great story mode which actually makes the Shark a hero where he ends up fighting pollution. But don't think that Jaws has gone all hippy on us though, as there is an incredible level of gore in this game like nothing you have ever seen before. The game has some pretty cool boss battles including fighting a Killer Whale in Sea World and a Giant Squid in the ocean.
The game milks as much as it can from its license and makes many nods towards Jaws and its sequels. There is a great level where you have to escape from Sea World via the glass tunnels just like in Jaws 3. This game is just good fun and if your a fan of the movies then you will definitely enjoy this. This game can be picked up for like £2 online and it is worth every penny. As I said earlier don't take this one too seriously and just enjoy it for what it is. Grand Theft Auto with a Shark.
JAWS FOR THE IPAD, IPHONE AND IPOD
A new side scrolling Jaws game has recently been released on the Apple store and it is good fun. once again you play as the Shark and must eat everything in sight.
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