Screen 7
£9.99 cass/£14.99 disk
Reviewer: Jackie Ryan
Yikes! Jaws on the Spectrum! it's enough to make you tiddle in your trunks! I mean nobody wants to tackle an amphibious maneater at the best of times, but now he's arrived on the ol' Speccy, you can't exactly avoid him, can you? Mind you, avoid him you must in this, the first game from new label Screen 7 (actually Martech re-launched, fact fans), 'cos if you fall in front of this fish's mandibles it'll be fangs for the memory for sure.
Just like Jaws the film (Steven Spielberg's first blockbuster), Jaws the game is set in the blood-stained waters around Amity Island where a Great White shark has been attacking unsuspecting swimmers, the scamp.
You play Brodie, the island's chief of police and it's your job to rid Amity Island of the Great White scourge before he ruins the tourist trade. You've already made a bit of a start on the task in hand, having signed up the services of Quint, a local fisherman. Hooper, an oceanographic expert, and a team of three divers. But unfortunately your clean-up campaign has already run into deep water, 'cos the equipment and gun needed to kill Jaws were lost in a reef off the island. So you and the rest of your team must collect the four pieces of the gun from the bottom of the reef (there's one to be found in each level), before going out to kill ol' razor teef himself.
You being this four level, maze like shoot 'em up bobbing on the calm blue water in your boat. This is the information screen which gives you up-to-the-minute wateher, shark and mayor reports. From here you can keep an eye on how well the mayor thinks you're doing, flick to a close-up of the map of the island (where you can close any beaches you like) or plunge into the murky depths below. It's better to wait around a bit, check the weather (if it's stormy or sunny Jaws seems to get a bit more active), wait for a sighting of the Great White, close the beaches near to where he was last seen and then dive in. Splosh!
Coo! it's another world down here, bobbin' along, bobbin' along on the bottom of the beautiful briny sea. Down you plunge in your diving bell, which spurts up cute little air bubbles at intermittent intervals. The underwater world of Jaws, see, is a flip screen, scrolling maze, shoot 'em up affair. Now it's time for dodging and weaving amongst the sea creatures. Blast them to kingdom come, picking up the bonuses, extra lives, points, invisibility modes and smart bombs they leave behind, and map your way through the maze-like reef in your search for the first part of the gun.
The animation of this mazey shoot 'em up bit is excellently done. Although your craft moves and fires fairly slowly through the deep (s'pose it's realistic) water, the sea creatures are bright and colourful, pretty fast moving and spray out deadly amoeba stuff in all kinds of wild and wonderful patterns. And the feeling that Jaws is always menacingly close is also well conjured up 'cos there you are, floating along, when all of a sudden you here 'daa dum, daa dum, da dum da dum da dum da dum' and one of the 15 swimmmers frollicking foolishly in the sea bites the sand. Cripes! Toggle back to the info screen via the space bar, check out where the attack took place and close the nearest beaches.
You have six men, so you get your six lives before finally having to give up your fight. You can play for points or prizes and as there are four levels to map and blast your way through, there's plenty of gameplay here. The graphics are good, the sound (on the 128) is nice, with the jaws tune and lots of phutty motor boat sounds, and all in all it's a fabbo start for Screen 7. Yes, I like it! Chomp!
Who needs a torch for the dark when you're wearing pink and yellow day-glo flares? 'Ever Ready' RICH PELLEY shines some light down the...
BARGAIN BASEMENT
Alternative
£2.99
Reviewer: Rich Pelley
You've read the book (er, if there was one), seen the film, peeled the onion and been round to your granny's house for tea. So, er, now play the game. If you haven't played it already that is, because (quelle surprise) this is yet another re-release.
An arcade adventure re-release to be exact, bargain hunters, where you have to flip-screen left and right in a small submarine (avoiding/blasting deadly fish), locate the four bits of a special shark gun, catch up with shark-breath himself and give him one right up the botty. And that's about it really, at least for the 48K members of the audience. 128ers however have also got the beaches to worry about - you have to keep an eye on where around the coastline Jaws is. and shut/close the relevant beaches (for obvious safety reasons).
I haven't actually seen the film (that sort of thing's a bit too scary for me) so I can't tell you how relevant the game is, but I can tell you that it's quite good. Loads of colour, weapons and treasure to collect, puzzles to solve, nicely presented, addictive, playable, and, if perhaps a little tedious, it still makes a pretty tasty barg to snap up (ho ho).
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