PrinceWatercress plays Jaws

Believe it or not, at least LJN gave a decent effort on this one. It's really not that bad.

This game, despite being named after the classic 1970s killer shark flick, is based on the fourth (and as of this writing, final) film in the Jaws series, Jaws: The Revenge.

The aim of the game is simple. You'll be moving back and forth between docks, and having random encounters as you go. You'll need to fight off all the marine life with your harpoon gun and collect shells to trade them for radar to track Jaws' relative location to you (at first) and more power.

The enemies are pretty easy. You have manta rays swimming from one side of the screen to the other, while the jellyfish go up as they move around. As long as you don't let these enemies touch you, you should be fine. Just remember that if you do die, you'll lose half your shells and start over at the last dock you stopped at. If you have an odd number of shells when you die, the game rounds up. You'll also go down a power level and lose the transceiver. Also, Jaws gets all of his health back. Thanks, game.

There are smaller sharks in this game, and while they take a bit of shooting at to get rid of, the points from both shooting at it and killing it can be appreciated. They also always leave a shell when you kill them, making fighting them worth it.

If you're near land when you get a random encounter (or hit Jaws), you're not going to have a lot of room to maneuver. At least you can use your boat to launch some cannon balls at Jaws at the outset, but once the boat gets hit by Jaws, you're underwater. Being in shallow water isn't good, as it's easier to get hit by the jellyfish instantly when they appear out of the ground.

The crabs and starfish give you more points, and the crabs will also increase your movement speed. You'll need points for extra lives.

If you see a shark fin on the overworld screen, it's Jaws. He's pretty big, and he also has the ability to vertically track you.

You can beat Jaws on Power Level 1, but you will have to pump Jaws full of harpoon gun ammo really quickly. If you don't kill him in time, his power meter will go up just a little bit and you'll have to hunt him down again.

Sometimes, after the end of a random encounter screen, you'll get a bonus stage. It takes a bit of practice, but you can get the timing to destroy all of the jellyfish from a plane down to a science. The more you hit, the more bonus shells you'll get. Hit them all for bonus points! Hold the Control Pad the direction opposite you're flying to slow down, and hold it the direction you're flying to go faster.

When you get five shells, go to a port. You'll get a transceiver that lets you track Jaws. If you have three more shells, go to another port to get your first power upgrade. (You can't return to the same port multiple times to upgrade, as the game keeps track of the last one you went to to keep you from cheating.) With power upgrades, you can destroy smaller sharks (and Jaws) with less shots from the harpoon gun.

Five shells give you Power Level 3. Each Power Level you get will require more and more shells to get. The highest level you can get is nine, and if you keep going back to the ports with enough shells after that, you can keep getting bonus strobes for the final battle with Jaws, which will give you move chances to beat Jaws in the final battle.

After enough time in the game, you can see the submersible on the map between the two ports. If you can get it, you'll be able to get an extra hit in a nice ride that gives you less slippery maneuverability as well as slightly stronger weapons.

As you spend more time in-game, you'll see the smaller sharks more often. Shoot them down when you can, since they'll usually drop a shell upon death. Also, the jellyfish will stop moving straight up and will actually move slightly to the side. It's just enough to throw a kink into your movements and cause some near-death situations, so be careful where you swim!

When you get Jaws's power meter to blink after you bring it all the way down, it's on to the final battle! You have three tries to get Jaws to come out of the water so you can ram into him with the front of your boat. If you miss three times, you'll have to fight Jaws underwater again.

Press A to activate one of your three strobe lights when Jaws is directly in front of you and on the bottom-most blue line. When you see the white of his belly show up, press B to ram him as soon as he starts spinning. This takes some practice, as Jaws has to be directly in front of you, and he can move to side at the last minute as he moves back towards you. The hardest parts about this battle are not just Jaws moving to the side at the last second, but also the timing at which to hit him, as you have to be able to hit Jaws right away when you get him above the surface right in front of you to defeat him. Jaws will move up and down the screen, but that's all he does. He won't attack you at this point, so take your time. If you run out of strobes, you'll have to face Jaws in the water again, but at least you'll be able to increase your power level even further and even increase the number of strobes you have up to nine if you're patient enough at that point.

When you get Jaws, it's over. Enjoy your two-screen ending.