Games You (Probably) Should Have Played – J

The Console Wars are in full swing. To celebrate, I’m taking this time to go back and pick the best games of all the previous generations that I think You (Probably) Should Have Played, one letter at a time.

Check out all the other entries in the Games You (Probably) Should Have Played series if you haven’t already.

Jaws (NES – 1987)
Licensed games based on movies are almost always terrible, with a few exceptions (Terminator 2: The Arcade Game springs to mind). LJN toys turned making shitty games based on movies into their entire business model (see the Back to the Future games, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Alien 3, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Beetlejuice , all for the NES for other examples, all of which are pretty much garbage). But this game was the worst example. While marketed like it’s based off of the original Jaws, it’s actually based on Jaws IV: The Revenge. Since no one ever actually saw Jaws IV, the game makes absolutely no sense. You just swim around shooting jellyfish and collecting shells endlessly. I never knew it had an ending until years later when a friend who had actually seen the movie showed me how you are supposed to play. Apparently you are supposed to collect shells which act as currency (of course they do!), then alternate between two ports to upgrade your weapons and buy a submarine, then use the upgraded weapons and sub to attack Jaws, until he’s weak enough that you ram him with your boat and he explodes. If done right, you can beat the entire game in under 10 minutes. This is a perfect example of how crappy a game can be when it’s designed as a quick cash in, and how far games have come. It’s no E.T., but it’s of a similar ilk.
 

What part of the movie was this from?

JohnScott is the proud owner of a life size replica Captain Kirk Chair. He is a hoarder of Comic Books, Transformers, and Star Trek action figures. He attended Space Camp as an adult. He has taken vacations to the closing of the Star Trek Experience and the final night Shuttle launch. He has been known to yell at his television when the kids can't put together the damn statue in the Shrine of the Silver Monkey. When not writing for InsufficientScotty, he is a Software Engineer for a major healthcare communications company. You can Email or follow on Twitter @NotEnoughScotty or Facebook