Steven Spielberg's original Jaws had an entire generation afraid of getting in the water, and this game will leave you feeling the same way. The difference is, in Jaws Unleashed, you're the shark.
Initially, there's some gruesome satisfaction in sinking your teeth into unsuspecting swimmers, but nagging control issues will start to make you wonder if you've got all your fins. Aspiring to be an aquatic Grand Theft Auto: Amity Island, Unleashed lets you explore an open-ended sea, diving into story-based missions whenever you please. The story, however, makes Jaws 4 look like Shakespeare. And your assortment of attack moves, which include beaching yourself to get at sunbathers, tend to look ridiculous. For some reason, even the famous John Williams theme sounds cheesy when heard underwater through your tiny shark ears.
Those looking for gory fun in Jaws Unleashed will only find poor controls, a frustrating camera, an assortment of bugs and bad music. This game is clearly a bottom-feeder.
TABLE TENNIS by ROCKSTAR (4 stars)
Platform: XBOX 360.
Rated: E.
First, Rockstar took us on a tour of Grand Theft Auto III's expansive crime world, then it put us in the blood-stained shoes of Manhunt's sadistic killer, and now it's giving us ... Ping-Pong? Table Tennis proves that it's great design, not ultraviolence, that makes Rockstar the powerhouse developer it is. With tight, realistic controls, this simplistic game is an exceptionally addictive thumb-twitcher ... even without the benefit of hidden sex scenes.
FIELD COMMANDER by SONY ONLINE ENTERTAINMENT (4 stars)
Platform: PlayStation Portable.
Rated: T.
Between Advance Wars and Fire Emblem, Nintendo has pretty much held the monopoly on grid-based strategy games for handhelds, but Sony's Field Commander aims to blow that monopoly to smithereens. With a variety of different vehicles and landscapes, these skirmishes offer variables far more complex than what you find in the usual rock, paper, scissors formula. You can level forests, making way for heavy vehicles, or crash aircraft into targets, ejecting your pilots to battle on foot. Master tacticians, eat your hearts out.
TOP GUN by MASTIFF (1.5 stars)
Platform: Nintendo DS.
Rated: E+10.
This game takes off promisingly enough, with Harold Faltermeyer's Top Gun soundtrack gleefully reminding you of the days before Tom Cruise went crazy. But then you'll start to hit some turbulence in the form of muddy graphics and repetitive missions. And by the 40th time you hear your wingman yell, "He's got a lock on you!" during an insultingly easy dogfight, you'll be reaching for the EJECT button.
Matthew Scott Hunter has been known to mumble, "Up, up, down, down, left, right, left, right, B, A, start" in his sleep. E-mail him at [email protected].