2008 Competition Results: (6:We Like It Retro)

9th Place – Sewer Shark – Total: 201

Ian:

Ack! Three horrible games in one! Actually, it’s one game in three different 8bit format styles; Amstrad CPC, C64 and Sinclair Spectrum. None of which are fun.

What we have here is a demake of the 16bit Sega MegaCD FMV game Sewer Shark.

The original game had you speeding through lots of grainy FMV sewers in a futuristic spaceship zapping rats. This version, being an 8bit demake styled game, presents you as a tugboat chugging away through endless straight sections of sewage pipe, shooting rats with a spud-gun. You also have to avoid pipe-work and sliding blast-doors. It really is as exciting as it reads.

Now to say that the game is piss easy (and dull) is an understatement. I got to level 10 without losing a single life, and then I only died because I wondered if you actually could. I hasten to add that that was the first and last time I died and that was the last level I played. I just couldn’t bring myself to play properly after that. I did a quick check of the C64 and Spectrum styled versions (natch, being an Amstraddict, I checked out the CPC version first). Not surprisingly, the C64 style suited the game best, with its “brown” colour palette. The CPC, whilst nice, just looked too clean and bright. The Spectrum version was more or less unplayable after 30 seconds as everything was dark blue on a black background, with badly animated tiled water – just enough time for eyestrain and a headache to kick in.

This is one of the most boring and repetitive games you’ll ever play. Nothing really changes in-game, other than the colours of the sewage pipe you are drifting through. The routes do get slightly more complex as you have to weave in and out of more doors, but what you see in level one is exactly what you’ll see in level 10. The only noticeable difference was that the rats increased in speed. There are no new enemies, no different obstacles and nothing to keep your interest.

The game is competently coded, with good (but not great) graphics and suitable sound, but the level design is tedious and uninteresting. It looks like the authors took too much inspiration from the original dull game, rather than coming up with a few new ideas of their own. Shame.

60%

Spray:

Argh! – It’s making my eyes bleed!!!!! – What the Elephant is going on with those bricks in the background?

Sewer Shark is you common-or-garden vertical shooter, nothing more, nothing less, it’s a fairly standard scenario too so what’s in there that’s different?

Well, apart from user selectable tile sets, nothing really. It’s bog standard vanilla flavoured shmup.
And I really did feel nauseous after playing it for 5 minutes, come on, sort the back wall out!

54%

Geekay:

As with today for the Xbox 360, PS3 & PC, many games were released cross-platform for the 8-bit era too. The 3 top dogs of Spectrum, C64 & Amstrad CPC saw a multitude of titles that was not specific to one machine.  Sometimes the games varied completely, other times the 2 remaining “rivals” saw lazy ports.  Sewer Shark cleverly pays a little tribute to the non exclusive title and gives us 3 versions of the game for the aforementioned 80′s platforms.

As nifty an idea that this is, the game sadly fails to be anything beyond an exclusive Sinclair User cover mounted game.  The game is a monotonous race-come-shooter fiasco.  Think a crap LED Storm and an awful Flying Shark and you come close to imagining this game.  Each progressive level is pretty much the same as the last apart from a colour change.  This goes for all 3 versions of the game.  The only minions to either destroy or avoid is rats.  The only other obstacle is opening and closing sewer gates.  Not much variety in here I’m afraid.

Playing the game is fine in terms of controlling and shooting, it handles really well.  The visual styles is the games most endearing quality and saves it from being flushed down the drain itself.

The game could certainly be improved if expanded upon and made each level a bit more different and challenging.  Some other baddies to shoot wouldn’t go a miss either.  I would have also liked to have had various retro sounds and music that is idiosyncratic to the particular version of machine mode you have chosen.

The version released for the competition shows potential, but doesn’t warrant even taking it off the cover of Sinclair User.  Leave it attached.

41%

Oogy:

The sewers are infested with rats. What else is new? But apparently someone decided to do something about it and commissioned you to deal with this invasion. It’s too bad your job is shitty, maybe you should’ve gone to college like your dad told you to.

And “shitty” is pretty much a good description of the game itself. You get to choose from three graphics-sets at the start of the game, but it doesn’t change the game at all. I opted for mouse control, and it was responsive enough to play comfortably. Cruizing through the first level, I decide to slow down a bit and take in the scenery. I say scenery, but it’s really just a brick-tube with sliding doors every once in a while and e few rats strewn about for you to shoot at. Investation? I have more rats in my cupboard!

Slowing down seems to have been a bad idea as well, as I trun out of time and have to play the entire level over again. This time I go full-speed, but I ask the question, why allow the player to slow down when he (or she) can’t complete the level in time then? Don’t allow me to slow down if you’re going to penalise me for it!

Finaly i reach the second level, and guess what. Looks exactly like the first. Plays exactly like the first. In fact, I think it still IS the first. Same graphics, same gameplay, nothing has changed at all. Maybe the placement of sliding doors, but they could as well been just randomly placed at the start of the level. I manage to reach the third level, and it’s the same thing. No incentive for me to keep playing much more.

Reaching level 5 (I think it was) things speed up a bit and I guess this is where you need to slow down sometimes to be able to get through the doors intact. But if an increased speed is all the author could think of when designing this game, I’ll pass.

46%

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