MANEATER: GTA OF SHARK VIDEO GAMES
Jaws Unleashed has long been a guilty pleasure on our PS2 here at The Daily Jaws Towers, so we were thrilled to see the announcement of a spiritual sequel of sorts (think Perfect Dark being a sequel to Goldeneye over on the N64) with Maneater.
The title says it all really, and the really interesting think is that you aren’t playing a Great White Shark, instead you are playing a Bull Shark.
Bull Sharks are one of the few sharks to be able to swim in both saltwater and freshwater, which is perhaps why they are are seen as notorious killers. Just recently 60 (!) were reported feeding at the open mouth of a river is south Western Australia, which caused alarm.
It is now widely believed that it was in fact a bull shark that was the predator in the jersey shore shark attacks of 1916 - as mentioned by Matt Hooper in Jaws - rather than a great white.
First things first, you are the shark and you get to chomp people as part of your actions in the tongue in cheek shark game that doffs its cap to grand theft auto in its gameplay.
It’s a shame another Jaws game wasn’t on offer though, as at the end of the day it may be great playing as a bull shark but in reality we all want to play as Bruce. Not A shark, but THE shark.
There have been other Jaws games before on previous platforms, which we explored here: READY PLAYER JAWS
Who knows perhaps if Maneater is successful we may get that at next years E3, it will be the 45th anniversary of Jaws after all. But let’s give the Jaws fans what they want.
Of course we all want to play as Bruce, but equally we want to explore Amity and play as Brody, Quint and Hooper as well - we want to drive the boat, tie the barrel and blow up the shark. Not to mention ‘swim’ with Ben Gardner
We want to explore Amity in Brody’s car - think grand theft Amity. That’s what we want (the Jaws board game by Ravensburger delivers that at a basic level - but that was what was joyous about it). Catch us playing it here:
We want Alien Isolation by the way of Grand Theft Amity. Jaws could still have serious bite (byte even) as a computer game for its 50th anniversary. I’d gladly pay my summer dollars to play it.
Words by Dean Newman
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