Jaws

Jaws – Help stranded swimmers to safety

This game starts out much like the cinematic titan of the same name with the classical musical score and iconic image from the poster.

Starting with a simple challenge of getting all the swimmers out of the water to the safety of the dry land, you must act and think fast to avoid the carnivorous attention of Jaws from turning your swimmers into a light bite. To do this, you must ‘flick’ your swimmers towards the direction you wish them to take. As swimmers move they get tired and even more panicked – which causes you to get more attention from Jaws, and having the monster of the deep return to snap up another unsuspecting victim if you’re unlucky.

As fun as it is to see swimmers getting pulled under and disappearing in a red mist in the water, or enjoying the more acrobatic attacks Jaws pulls off, the game has a point – saving as many (or better yet, all) swimmers without any losses. If you succeed in the level you will receive up to three stars. To progress to the fifth level you must get a minimum of nine stars to unlock this level. This entails you have to pass the four previous stages with nearly a clean sheet – which is no mean feat when the killer of the sea does what it does best, kill!

The swimmers are quite responsive but sluggish (particularly when they get tired) to your ‘flicking’. The game starts to get more complicated however as you not only have to guide swimmers but the rescue boats which drift around the water picking your straggling surfers up as they go in the levels. You must avoid colliding the boats as you go, or else you’ll sink them and all the rescued swimmers will be back in the water – and can be eaten once more!

Fortunately for some levels you can even up the score by using a gun ship to target the advancing shark and although shooting Jaws won’t kill it, you will give your swimmers more breathing space as it puts it off its attack. Again you must be careful not to let any rescue ships smash your gunship and also not to shoot swimmers by mistake (although this may be a more humane way of going than being in Jaws’ belly!)

As you progress through the game, it will get harder and more unpredictable. To be honest, it’s just about impossible and will be demanding to some of the most experienced players. To less experienced this game will be quite a learning curve but with all the entertaining goings on on screen with all the sounds, you are really immersed and hooked.

This game is fantastic and very enjoyable and should be one for your collection.

Rating 89%

Positives

Enjoyable and captures all the good bits from the film

Unpredictable and entertaining

Fun if not a little sadistic

The boats act in ways you’d expect (speedboats quickly, yachts slowly etc.)

Negatives

Perhaps a little too hard to progress for some players

Some swimmers and boats are just stupid and deserve to be eaten

Could have done with some scenes from the film