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Jaws Unleashed 
Release date: May 2006
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Swimmin wit' the fishies...
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Movie to videogame transitions have, more often than not, been flops over the years but when the videogame version tries to do something different with its franchise then occasionally a good game can manifest itself. The best example of this is probably Goldeneye for the N64, a game that, despite its age and its somewhat illogical multiplayer component (Mr. Bond works alone, baby, hot female sidekicks notwithstanding), is still held up as one of the best examples of what happens when a game developer “gets it right”.
Jaws Unleashed, the upcoming movie tie-in from developer Majesco (for PC, XBOX and PS2) will try to be another exception to the movie-videogame transition rule. Seems as if the original Jaws is poised to celebrate its 30th anniversary, and Universal Studios thinks they can squeeze a few bucks more out of the classic tale of blood and fins. Jaws got a game treatment years ago on the original NES with expected, disastrous results. Unlike that 8 bit version, however, Majesco (and their partner, Appaloosa Interactive) look like they want to try to make something more like Golden Eye than a simple recreation of the movie’s script, a game that expands the story rather than simply re-tells it.
The success of the movie blockbuster was due in a big way to the almost racial fear that humans have of sharks. Spielberg’s movie tried to capture that fear and feeling of being prey to an ancient predator in a habitat alien to humans: water. It worked wonders precisely because that atmosphere is different form the everyday world on land. The suspense was created with not only the visual atmosphere but with the film’s immediately recognizable, pulsing soundtrack.
Of course, many people enjoyed Jaws for dual reasons: partly to root for the three people setting out to hunt and kill the murderous Great White in their battered fishing boat, but also to simply enjoy watching the shark shred that same boat and attack people. It’s that combination of fear and fascination that can be so alluring. Nowadays, moviegoers most probably would have rooted for Jaws to kill every living creature in its path (ed- didn’t the shark pretty much do that in the film anyway?  ).
This leads to a window of opportunity for a videogame to capture what a movie cannot: not only see a shark being destructive but to be able to actually play as the shark in a destructive mode. The folks at Majesco are aiming for that secret dream of being a predator and see how it feels to hunt and kill as one, for in Jaws Unleashed you play not as the fragile humans on their boat but as the shark itself. Seems as if you ate the wrong swimmer during one of your recent beach-buffets, because the head of a local corporation, the father of the son you made a snack of by the way, is steamed with you. In response, he’s hired a professional shark hunter (Cruz Ruddock) to bring you in. Accompanying him is marine biologist Michael Brody, son of the character from the first film.
In an interesting twist from the usual convention, it is you that are the “mindless eating machine bent on destruction” and these computer-controlled enemies are the ones that must try to stop you before the inevitable 4th of July beach showdown. Will they be too late to stop your attack on the crowded beaches of Amity Island, or will the tide run red with the blood of your next meal?
To create the best sub-aquatic environment possible, Majesco has partnered with co-developer Appaloosa Interactive, the team that just so happened to work on another acclaimed aquatic adventure, Ecco the Dolphin. In that classic game the gamer experienced the life of a shark’s nemesis: a dolphin. The speed and agility of these marine mammals were the weapons the gamer had at their disposal.
Thinking of the work done by this team in Ecco the Dolphin it is hoped that they will deliver another awesome, entertaining and very fluid (ed- ooooh, please tell me that was a pun…) gaming experience. From the screenshots we’ve seen, the game is shaping up nicely: the watery scenarios are crisp and very life like. The real wild-card with Unleashed will be its game play: since the goal is to hunt down and kill living creatures while avoiding death at the hands of Ruddock and Brody, the smoothness of controlling the shark will be a must for the game to be enjoyable. The potential for an awesome game is there but will it be fun to be Jaws?
Majesco is promising a diverse gaming experience, utilizing a mix of mission-based and free-form content to frame your everyday tasks of eating, fighting killer whales, eating some more, stealth and chase missions, eating even more, destroying environmental objects like piers and boats, eating those same piers and boats… think GTA: Amity Island and you’ll be on the right track.
Whether or not this will be enough to justify a complete game, however, is something that we will not know until the game’s release in early 2006.
Preview by Carlos Legorreta Pozo on 29 Aug 2005
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