GRAPHICS SOUND CONTROL FRUSTRATION FUN FACTOR OVERALL

NES Action/Platformer 1 Player No Save Feature Although I've only seen the actual movie once (and didn't enjoy it), I consider myself familiar enough with the movie to do a review on the game; and if I'm not, sue me! Moving right along... Yes, I know, Jaws is made by that ill-fated company LJN. Don't let that fool you into thinking it's not playable, though. The game is very playable, and very fun, albeit a bit short. There are a handful of different play modes throughout the game. To start with, you must navigate your ship from port to port, receiving power-ups that will make your shark slaughtering a little easier. In exchange for these powers you must find and trade in conch shells, which act as the game's currency. Obtaining conch shells is done in the next mode of play I'm going to describe: underwater fighting. On occassion, your ship will hit something and you must dive down to investigate. Armed with your trusty spear gun (at least I think that's what it is), you'll encounter jellyfish, manta rays, sharks, and even Jaws himself. Upon defeating these creatures of the deep, you can obtain the said conch shells, and crabs which will boost your speed. The enemies mentioned above are all easily defeated with a few shots from your spear gun, with the exception of Jaws himself. His life meter is always present at the bottom of the screen, and takes forever to deplete. To speed up the process, you can increase your power level by way of trading in conch shells, but it honestly doesn't make enough of a difference. The only way to beat Jaws is to have fast fingers and a lot of patience. After you manage to beat Jaws, you must stab him with the end of your ship to beat the game. This is done by way of a first-person view off the front of your boat, and you must time your stab exactly. You get three attempts, and if you miss him all three times you must beat him all over again. Yes, that's right, he gets all of his energy back. In other words, don't mess up this part! Graphics: The graphics in Jaws are actually very nicely done, especially for an LJN game. Animations are smooth and they actually look good. I've never experienced any slowdown, and sometimes the screen can get pretty darn crowded. The first-person scene at the game's end is done nicely as well. I can't find any gripes here. Sound & Music: You can't go wrong with the Jaws theme music, right? Wrong. The title screen features a horrible rendition of the tune, which is barely recognizable. The sound effects consist of bloops, blips, and bleeps, which isn't exactly what I want to hear when shooting a shark with spears. This area of the game is lacking, severely. Gameplay: While the stages of the game are presented well, they do get awful repetitious. The further you go, the more often your ship "hits something", and the more often you have to fight the same simple enemies over and over again. Fighting Jaws is no easy task either, and requires a lot of button mashing and patience. In between each encounter, Jaws regains about one fifth of his life meter, which is extremely annoying. This game has led to many frustrations for me and my friends alike. Replay Value: It's hard for me to rate the replay value of this game. At times, I want to just sit down and play and play and play until I finally beat Jaws, but other times I get frustrated so quickly that I put the game down for days without even thinking about it. I'll have to play it safe and give it a decent score, for this reason alone. Nostalgia Value: Honestly, I have horrid memories of this game from when I was a wee lad. I remember never being able to damage Jaws whatsoever because he takes so many hits to even weaken it's pathetic. I remember I'd brag to my friends if I got two of his energy bars to disappear, and it impressed them. Nowadays, I can beat the game in about 30 minutes, and it always makes me laugh at how hard I thought the game was. Again, I'll have to give it a decent score. Learning Curve: The learning curve in this game is so steep it's frustrating. The first few underwater scenes are simple enough, but after those few they become overpopulated with sea creatures. Jaws is always a challenge to defeat, due to his ever-regenerating energy and hordes of enemies that you must deal with alongside him. Many-a-friend of mine have been turned off because they don't want to sit down and learn the game. ......BOTTOM LINE: All in all, Jaws isn't nearly as bad or good as it could've been, and comes off as just a mediocre game. Not much else to say really. -FlowingMindspin