Octopus

Octopus

released on Jul 16, 1981

Octopus

released on Jul 16, 1981

Octopus is a Game & Watch game that was released on the G&W widescreen series. In the game, you, the diver, must get around an octopus whom is trying to capture you and get to the treasure. When Mr. Game & Watch returns to the salvage ship, he gets three extra points. The player's three chances are measured by extra divers on the savage ship. When one is attacked by the Octopus' tentacles, another takes his place.


Also in series

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Egg
Mickey Mouse
Mickey Mouse
Chef
Chef
Popeye
Popeye
Parachute
Parachute

Released on

Genres


More Info on IGDB


Reviews View More

Striking but sparse. A savage death beneath the seas

YO, I never knew Mr. Game & Watch's final smash had his own video game! Good for him, man, he deserves it. He worked hard for this moment.

Game #135

Not bad! It's a pretty well balanced game that doesn't get too unfair in the later levels. It's another solid handheld.

Interesting risk/reward with the treasure system, but it's ultimately too easy to just stay underwater forever and collect as many points as you can. I'm unsure if it would have been technically possible, but there should have been a time limit/air system that would make you return to the surface which would add an extra layer to the risk/reward mechanic.

The artwork on display is nice and memorable as always.

Octopus despite the iconic appearance from the octopus itself in the Super Smash Bros. series of video games to be frank is not a fun game and honestly one of the worst Game&Watch games I've played.

In Octopus you play as Mr. Game & Watch as a scuba diver trying to collect treasure from a sunken ship while avoiding octopus tentacles. What I do love about this game is the simple complexity it has with the Sunken Ship. You can collect as much treasure as you want from the chest, but the longer you stay the longer the chance you have to get hit by an Octopus tentacle making you lose one of your three lives. You can also stay underwater the whole time to try and collect a lot of points at once or you can return to the surface sometimes to collect 3 extra points no matter how much treasure is in your bag. This is easily my favourite part of the game as you have to balance out the risks and rewards.

However, this game has a major issue which really makes this one of the worst Game&Watch games I've played. For a game that's supposed to be like a 5 minute-break kind of game, there should is a lot of waiting to progress. The waiting to progress can make this game frustrating especially under a short time frame. It makes the game confused on what it wants to be, does it want to be a game that's short and fun or a fun game that requires some time to play? The reason for the waiting to progress puts you at a complete standstill if you're waiting for tentacles to move (they only harm you all of the way down) and it can put you at a complete standstill sometimes. This waiting to progress helps makes this game feel a lot more repetitive than it should be and more boring. I'm not arguing either the waiting to progress is a bad thing in general, it just doesn't work for these simple arcade-like games and at least in other games like Donkey Kong (G&W) you're still doing something while waiting to progress most of the time.

Overall, this game should've been great, but it falls flat with having to wait to progress a lot which makes it feel very confused on what it wants to be.