[Played on Retron 5 with the original cartridge]
Jaws on NES is extremely frustrating, not because it's not fun, but rather because it feels like this game was so close to being at least good.
The main issue that holds this game back so much is how much you're punished for losing lives. You don't just lose your live, you also get docked down a power level, lose your Jaws radar, and your shell count (the currency needed to up your power level) is cut in half. That's a HUGE setback, and it gets to the point where you might as well just reset the game and start over. I believe the reason this was done was because this is a pretty short and easy time otherwise. Like the only way they could introduce challenge into this game was to fuck you over and punish the shit out of you for failing rather than implementing alternative gameplay challenges like so many other, better titles do.
You only ever contend against 3 enemies in the ocean levels. I think that's part of the issue. The game only ups challenge in those sections by altering how the jellyfish move and adding to the enemy count. I think adding more enemy varieties could have helped keep the gameplay fresh and exciting throughout.
Once you shoot down Jaws' health bar, you have to spear the boat through him (I haven't watched the films but I can assume this matches one of the movies' climaxes. If so, cool) and you only get 3 shots. If you fail, you have to shoot down Jaws all over again. This seriously bothered me a bit because I kept failing and failing. though the benefit here is that Jaws always comes to you, so you don't have to hunt him down, you just have to wait for him to come to you and then spam him to death (he doesn't really fight back). I think I would have preferred if this final leg of the game wasn't there, or rather that it was retooled into something more entertaining to play through.
I don't know. With the flaws that I see here the game just becomes nothing. I wouldn't say it's bad, but I wouldn't say it's good either. Just a passable title. I'd skip it if I were you, but I don't think you'd have much of an issue with picking it up, as I got my copy at a very cheap price.
5/10
Jaws on NES is extremely frustrating, not because it's not fun, but rather because it feels like this game was so close to being at least good.
The main issue that holds this game back so much is how much you're punished for losing lives. You don't just lose your live, you also get docked down a power level, lose your Jaws radar, and your shell count (the currency needed to up your power level) is cut in half. That's a HUGE setback, and it gets to the point where you might as well just reset the game and start over. I believe the reason this was done was because this is a pretty short and easy time otherwise. Like the only way they could introduce challenge into this game was to fuck you over and punish the shit out of you for failing rather than implementing alternative gameplay challenges like so many other, better titles do.
You only ever contend against 3 enemies in the ocean levels. I think that's part of the issue. The game only ups challenge in those sections by altering how the jellyfish move and adding to the enemy count. I think adding more enemy varieties could have helped keep the gameplay fresh and exciting throughout.
Once you shoot down Jaws' health bar, you have to spear the boat through him (I haven't watched the films but I can assume this matches one of the movies' climaxes. If so, cool) and you only get 3 shots. If you fail, you have to shoot down Jaws all over again. This seriously bothered me a bit because I kept failing and failing. though the benefit here is that Jaws always comes to you, so you don't have to hunt him down, you just have to wait for him to come to you and then spam him to death (he doesn't really fight back). I think I would have preferred if this final leg of the game wasn't there, or rather that it was retooled into something more entertaining to play through.
I don't know. With the flaws that I see here the game just becomes nothing. I wouldn't say it's bad, but I wouldn't say it's good either. Just a passable title. I'd skip it if I were you, but I don't think you'd have much of an issue with picking it up, as I got my copy at a very cheap price.
5/10