Jaws (Video Game 1987) Poster

(1987 Video Game)

User Reviews

Review this title
6 Reviews
Sort by:
Filter by Rating:
5/10
Nope, Nope, I was wrong.
The_Light_Triton4 March 2006
At the tender age of 15 I reviewed this and pretended to be an Expert.

Yeah, I was going through a phase in high school that eventually got a name - Trolling. That explains why a lot of my earliest reviews suck.

But here's the funny part. I actually liked this game. Really, I did. I still kinda do. it's got that little bit of charm and fond memories of playing NES titles back in the day that allowed you to be the character in a movie, but also the frustration of getting annihilated in one hit and losing virtually everything you earned.

So, here's my adult, mature, Troll-free review.

Jaws puts you into the wetsuit of a scuba diver. His job? Kill Jaws and save amity from the horror that is a 25 foot long behemoth of a shark. To do so, he'll be sailing across the waters, looking for the shark.

To try and save this game's good points, It did incorporate something that a lot of popular RPG's in the 1990's did - Random Encounters and levelling up. How so? Every few moments, your boat will hit something, and you're forced into the water to kill Jellyfish and stingrays. Unless you think killing the same 2 enemies over & over is boring, you're going to enjoy most of the game, because 80% of the time, that's what you'll be doing. Also, you'll be collecting Conch shells, these are your XP points. when you're on the world map, sail into a port (Marked by an Anchor on the map) to collect the Scanner and level up. The higher your level, the stronger your speargun gets. Quite often, Jaws shows up and if you hit him with your ship, you're forced to fight him, and unless your power level is around 5 or 6, it'll be a long, boring, tedious fight which won't even end because jaws just swims away before you get a chance to deliver the final blow.

However, here's possibly the most painful part of the game. Get hit once by anything, and you lose half your power level and one life. and oh yeah, you get three lives only.

Now, my Stats review.

Music & Sound - 3/5 - Probably the best part. Hearing the Jaws theme in it's 8-bit chiptune glory is worth the 3 bucks you'll buy it on ebay for (Or just download it free off a ROM site like the rest of us.) Gameplay - 3/5 - For the time, the random encounters and levelling up was somewhat new, but it was done with all the kinks still in it.

Controls - 2/5 - The sliding swimmer sucks.

Graphics - 4/5 - I have to Admit, the Graphics for the NES are good, right down to the title screen. It looks great in 8-bits.

Characters - 1/5 - Your diver's nameless, the enemies are pathetic, and Jaws is even more pathetic.

Overall - 2/5 So, there's my review of the Jaws Video game for the NES. If you wanna play a jaws game that makes you do what you really want to do, Play Jaws Unleashed on the PS2.
4 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
6/10
Fun Little Game
peaton-113 May 2002
All in all a nice little distraction, and somewhat tough to beat, but as far as today's standards go its almost nothing. A good installment in the regular old Nintendo Game System that we all know and love. It also takes some sound effects from "Jaws: The Revenge", which is scary in its own special way.
4 out of 5 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
4/10
Battle Jaws and all other forms of sea life!
Aaron137510 March 2012
When they decided to make a video game version of Jaws, I want to know whose bright idea it was to base it off the horrible Jaws IV: The Revenge, rather than off the first movie. Hell, a game based on the second or even third film would have made for a more entertaining game than what we get here. It would not be bad if it were an Atari 2600 game as that is a system where you expect to do the same thing over and over, but this is an NES game and you should be doing more than sailing from port to port and shooting sea creatures in a locked screen.

The story, three men go out on a boat to hunt the great white! No, they decided to make this one based on the amazingly bland character Ellen Brody adventure Jaw: The Revenge! So we are in the tropics and we must hunt Jaws using boat and submarine, but mostly just a diver with an amazingly weak speargun; however, thank goodness it is weak at first, otherwise this game would be won in minutes!

So the game play consists of you sailing from port to port while getting stopped RPG style and doing battle with sea creatures. You pick up seashells which are used as currency to make your speargun more powerful and at times a sub appears and you have maximum firepower to battle Jaws with. After you fight Jaws at times, you get a mini game where you drop bombs on jellyfish from a plane and when you take Jaws down to 0 health, you get to play a game where you try to impale the shark with your boat.

So, totally monotonous and one wishes they had simply made the game based on the first film, or perhaps all the films. Nah, that is crazy talk, then the game would have been too varied as this is a game made by LJN after all. Known for making games based off movies with the minimal amount of levels like Karate Kids four stages! This one is simply piloting a boat back and forth with roughly the same thing happening over and over so they outdid themselves!
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
Jaws!
Movie Nuttball9 May 2005
Jaws is one of the one of the coolest action video games! The characters and animals, the action, and the sure thrill of adventure makes this game a fun non-stop playing time! Below is a brief look how I think the game is!

Game Play: The game play is very good. There is really basic controls here and is easy to perform. Novice gamers should have a good time here!

Graphics: The graphics are wonderful especially for the first Nintendo. The backgrounds are really beautiful! Difficulty: The game is easy but as it goes on you find out that it will become more difficult!

Music: The music is great! Just fantastic catchy tunes through out the game! In My opinion its some of the best music ever in a video game!

Sound: The sound is great. Nuff said!

Overall: I have always loved Jaws! If you like excellent adventure games, monsters, and more then I strongly recommend you play this game!

To purchase this video game check out Amazon.com!
2 out of 6 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
This Video Game is the coolest NINTENDO game!
rogelioduron10 October 2002
This is a cool nintendo videogame,as a matter of fact i lost it somehow but tomorrow when i get payed im gonna buy it again on this place near my work,it´s kind of a flea market and it´s about 4 dollars...it´s very old,anyway,I love how exiting it is and how you get to fight the big shark (Bruce) and you get into the action a la Jaws:The Revenge,The ending is not very long but you´ll fell good about finishing the game. Im a big fan and after 10 or more years that the original Nintendo Entertainment System stopped being sold i bought it on a flea market just because of JAWS and my love to the movie,It´s worth it.
1 out of 4 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink
A very entertaining NES game based on a classic 80s movie
lifeispeachy321427 May 2006
I first played this game when I was a kid, in the days when NES was still the best. My neighbor had it and I loved to go play this game at his house after school. I recently got it again on my NES emulator on my XBOX and there it made its way to my favorites list. It is based on the ridiculous 1987 movie JAWS: The Revenge, in which JAWS chases the Brody family to the bahamas in a personal vendetta to kill them all. The gameplay is very simple but yet entertaining also. It only has 1 game mode in which you are sent to a map screen where you navigate a sailboat( the one which Elen Brody uses in the movie to kill the shark) through the waters until you are forced to go into another screen. ( much like a final fantasy type deal ) The other screen involves a underwater view similar to the mario games in which you are a diver with a spear gun. You have to shoot and dodge sting rays, jelly fish, and smaller baby JAWS' getting points and conch shells. ( if you've seen the movie you know that Michael Brody goes to the bahamas to study conch behavior) After a while you will be sent back to the navigation screen. On this screen there are 2 ports that you have to sail back and forth to and turn in the conch shells at, doing so will give you power lvl ups which you need to kill jaws. Jaws is present at all times in the game, you see his fin going through the water in the navigation screen and he will try to attack you. When he attacks you go into the underwater screen and you have to spear him, this is why you need to have more power lvl ups because in the beginning you wont do much damage to JAWS. If you get JAWS' health down to zero it takes you to a screen where you're driving the sailboat from a 1st person perspective and you and JAWS are headed straight into each other. You have to shock JAWS to jump out of the water and spear him with the sailboat. ( If you've seen the movie you'll know its how Elen Brody kills JAWS) Overall its an entertaining simple games with bonus menus also and a hidden submarine that you can use to help you kill JAWS thats really fun to use. One of my favorite NES games.
0 out of 0 found this helpful. Was this review helpful? Sign in to vote.
Permalink

See also

Awards | FAQ | User Ratings | External Reviews | Metacritic Reviews


Recently Viewed