''Shark! Shark!'' is an
Intellivision
The Intellivision is a home video game console released by Mattel, Mattel Electronics in 1979. The name is a portmanteau of "intelligent television". Development began in 1977, the same year as the launch of its main competitor, the Atari 2600. I ...
game originally designed by
Don Daglow, and with additional design and programming by Ji-Wen Tsao, one of the first female game programmers in the history of video games. The player is a fish who must eat smaller fishes in order to gain points and extra lives while avoiding enemies such as larger fishes, sharks, jellyfish, lobsters and crabs. After eating a certain number of fish, the player's fish grows in size and is thus able to eat a larger selection of fish. However, while the larger fish becomes a bit faster, he is less agile than the small fish and has a harder time avoiding enemies.
''Shark! Shark!'' was originally considered by Mattel to be a cute game for kids and unlikely to make strong inroads into the gaming community. The game was unexpectedly popular, forcing Mattel to quickly manufacture another batch of cartridges. The original cartridge run was only 5,600 units.
Legacy
* ''Shark! Shark!'' was made available for the
PlayStation 3
The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...
through
PlayStation Home
PlayStation Home was a virtual 3D social networking, social gaming platform developed by Sony Computer Entertainment's London Studio for the PlayStation 3 (PS3) on the PlayStation Network (PSN). It was accessible from the PS3's XrossMediaBar (XM ...
in fall 2012 in a collection titled ''Intellivision Gen2''. In addition to players being a fish eating other fish trying try to take down the shark, their food and foes will both swim in a wide variety of new patterns. It was also released on
Microsoft's ''
Game Room'' service for its
Xbox 360
The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generation ...
console and for
Windows-based PCs in May 2010.
* An updated version of ''Shark! Shark!'' of the same name has been announced for release on the
Intellivision Amico video game console. It is one of the six games that will be included with the console.
Bugs
The bubble sound effects do not work correctly on the Intellivision II.
Occasionally, when pressing the sprint button, the player's fish will go in the opposite direction from that instructed—usually with disastrous results.
References
External links
Shark! Prototype for the Mattel Aquarius Computer
1982 video games
Action games
Intellivision games
Intellivision-only games
Mattel video games
North America-exclusive video games
Video games developed in the United States
Video games with underwater settings
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