11 Jawsome Games to Emulate during Shark Week 2024

Shark Week is my favorite week every year. So much so that I take the week off work and just set myself close enough to the tv I can feel the water splashing on my face. I’m coming to shore for a bit to publish this list of games for you to emulate this week solely to help you enjoy Shark Week just a little more. In the past we turned Shark Week into a drinking game but as we get more seasoned we started looking for games that don’t brine our internals for the Great White. Here are some classics along with a couple new’ish titles worth checking out:

Killer Shark: Sega – Arcade (キラーシャーク) is a 1972 electro-mechanical hunting game produced by Sega. A shark moves around the playing field and the player shoots it with a spear gun. It has a series of slides on a wheel that makes the shark move and thrash around when shot. The game features electronic sound and an 8-track player. It is essentially the same game as Sega’s Sea Devil, but Sea Devil has a manta ray instead of a shark.

Interestingly there are still cabinets out there for Killer Shark from back in the 70’s. I tried to win one on an auction once but was quickly outbid with someone with pockets… yeah they didn’t need to be deep pockets at the time they just needed to exist. I have been able to emulate this game but I would love to give it some Arcade love some day in its native form.

Shark Attack: Game Plan – Arcade You control a great white shark who attacks scuba divers armed with spear guns. Devour all divers and avoid all spears. Levels are numbered and indicated by flashing skulls. Shark Attack was the first Video Game to have Quadrofonic sound.

I have no idea what Quadtofonic is but I’m here for it. This is one of those games that lived off the fears of Sharks long after the Jaws movie release but at least you get some revenge hunting down some of those that tried to hunt you into extinction.

Shark Shark: Mattel – Intellivision 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.

This game has been so popular that in 2012 it made an appearance on PS3 on the Intellivision Gen2 collection through PlayStation Home. As a game Mattel thought would be visually appealing to children it became a favorite amongst adults do to its challenging gameplay.

Jaws Unleashed: Majesco Entertainment – PC, PS2 & XBox Open World where you as the player assume the identity of a great white shark. Swim freely in the open ocean eating everything from fish to humans while wrecking everything in your path. There are some similarities in the plot to the Jaws movie from what I gather but all I remember from this game was gobbling up all the people I could find.

Sharks: Nintendo – NES “You are a Frogman and must collect rare marine creatures and recover lost treasures at the bottom of the sea. You have your stun-gun and can always retreat into your electromagnetic base that repels sharks and the rest of the enemies. Your diving suit can only survive a few shark bites and is useless against the deadly jelly fish.”―Action 52 instruction manual

I’m not even going to pretend that I remember this game prior to making the list. I did however find it in my collection so I either picked this up in a bundle of carts or someone snuck it into one of my prize boxes at my Annual Shark Week Party. You know now that I found it I will be putting all my 8bit frustrations into completing it (mom leave the NES plugged in and on please).

GameShark: Mad Catz – Nintendo, Playstation and Xbox I know this isn’t a game but lets be honest. For a lot of us growing up this was the only way we could complete some games. Also if you were too slow at button mashing on Konami home screens you were still able to get 30 lives in Contra or whatever was offered in the game you were playing with this piece of Retro Video Game history. New generations might just be able to enjoy the cheating fun of GameShark as the company has started development for some sort of current generation offering.

In The Hunt: Irem – Irem M-92 (Saturn, Playstation and PC) is a 1993 scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and published by Irem. It is the third installment of D.A.S. Tetralogy. Versions for the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, and Microsoft Windows were also released. The player assumes control of the Granvia, a submarine tasked with overthrowing the Dark Anarchy Society before they activate their doomsday device. Gameplay involves shooting enemies, collecting power-up items, and avoiding collision with projectiles. It runs on the Irem M-92 hardware.

Ok so In The Hunt I honestly thought was a shark game its been a while since I played it. That being said there is an awful lot of subs and other submersibles during Shark Week so I think it still deserves a spot on this list?

Finding Nemo: THQ – GBA, GameCube, PC, OS X, PS2 and Xbox The goal is to complete different levels whilst playing as the film’s protagonists Nemo, Marlin or Dory. Whilst most levels are played in a left to right side-scrolling manner, the game also continues a number of minigames and other alternate It includes cutscenes from the movie, and each clip is based on a level, e.g. hopping through a batch of jellyfish. Most levels have optional tasks to complete to obtain Gold Starfishes, which will allow the player to play a bonus level.

I’ve played the game but I have never gotten to the shark I don’t believe. I have however seen the movie and so I know there is a shark hiding in plane site somewhere along the way. There was also different versions of this game by different studios which is somewhat confusing because they were all published by THQ and reviews are wildly different by studio.

Shark Tale: Activision – GBA The player plays Oscar, a fish who decides to lie about his abilities to become wealthy and famous by fighting with his shark friend as the ‘Sharkslayer’. The game shares a similar plot to the film. There are 25 different missions set in movie-based locations. The game features several gameplay styles, including an exploration mode, action/fighting sequences, chasing/racing challenges, and dancing.

This is a fun little game. It has some interesting fight mechanics but after a bit of messing around with how you should knockoff the (if memory serves me right crabs maybe) along the way its a fun game with the kids at its heart. The game doesn’t exactly follow the movie though at times it seems like it tries to but it take place at minimum in different scenes from the movie. I think I might need to go back and finish this game at some point (this week I need to finish it this week).

Endless Ocean: Nintendo – Wii In Endless Ocean, the player plays as a scuba diver exploring the Manaurai sea,^{[Note 1]} a fictional sea in the South Pacific, in search of sea life and sunken treasure^[7] under the guidance of their assistant, Katherine Sunday.^[8] In the sea, they will encounter several marine species, ranging from smaller fish and penguins to whale sharks, manta rays and sperm whales, as well as dolphins and other cetaceans that can be trained to perform certain behaviors and become companions. Species such as sharks are also present; however, they pose no threat to the player. 

Interestingly enough this game definitely has sharks in it. Imagine that a game that takes place in the ocean that has sharks. The sharks in this game however are whale sharks and pose no real threat if I remember correctly. A lot of this game is like looking into a Sea World aquarium and just taking in the scenery. So if you are looking for a more cozy game involving sharks it doesn’t get much cozier than this. Nintendo also just launched a new version of this game for the Switch so if you have one of those you can take your aquarium with you.

Street Sharks: David Mills – PC I could have sworn this was a game back in the day and not just a cartoon. I even found cover art for SNES and Genesis and yet I can’t find any info on the game. But now we have a game to pickup over on Itch.io that fills that imaginary void in my brain.

Fight through the city streets, down by the fishing wharf and deep under the sea in a genetic slamming secret lab! Take to the streets – or dive UNDER THEM using your STREET SHARK ABILITIES

Hungry Shark: Ubisoft – iOS, Android, Switch, Playstation XBox & PC I thought it appropriate to end this with a Shark game updated for the times. There really isn’t too many places you can find this game isn’t available. Newer versions of the game are also Free-To-Play so there really isn’t any good excuse not to be playing a shark game during commercial breaks this year during Shark Week.

Hungry Shark is a series of arcade-style RPG games developed and published by Ubisoft London (prior to Hungry Shark Evolution) and Ubisoft (since Hungry Shark Evolution).^[1] The games allow players to control several unique species of sharks, including mako sharks, great white sharks, hammerhead sharks, reef sharks, megamouth shark, megalodon, basking sharks and whale sharks. To progress, the player must consume other marine animals and grow in size until the next, more powerful shark is available for purchase. In May 2016, Hungry Shark World was downloaded 10 million times in six days,^[2] reaching the top 10 free iPhone and Android apps.^[3] In 2018, Hungry Shark World was released for the Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch. It featured better graphics, and the complete removal of micro transactions. In 2022, it reached 1 billion players.

There are plenty of other shark games out there but this list is long enough and if I post them all here what am I supposed to tell you to play next year? I hope you are able to find something on here you like. I’ll be posting a gameplay video up on the YouTube channel that may or may not have some other games for Shark Week I haven’t sorted it all out yet but you will be able to find it here!!

Shark Week is the most amazing week of the year brought by the Discovery Channel to show innovative research being done to help preserve sharks and their habitats after many species have been hunted to near extinction. If you would like to learn more about these amazing creatures and how you can help in the preservation efforts checkout the Shark Week Website on Discovery.com.

Hope you find sharks as Jawsome as I do!!

GameOn

CellPhish

_{All posts have links referencing back to published content used in the writing of this post. No Sharks were injured in the making of this list!}