Ever want to be a big fish in a big pond? If so, you can identify with Oscar, the lead character in Disney's Shark Tale. And if you haven't seen the movie, then you have another opportunity to experience it by playing the computer game. If you've seen the movie and loved it as much as my family has, then you'll really like being Oscar in the game.
Normally I don't enjoy arcade-style games, even ones that I can play on the PC rather than on a console, but Shark Tale has been an exception to this rule. This game is just plain fun. From the moment you start a new game and have Katie Current talking you, through the basics of game play, to the first time you have to prove that Oscar has all the right dance moves, I just laughed my way through this game. When the game starts, Oscar is being evicted from his apartment, just like in the movie. After a short cut scene, Katie Current shows up to teach you the basics of how to play the game mixed in with her news stories. Oscar himself also talks directly to you, the player, during the first challenge. It's a fun way of making you feel really involved in the action.
The point of the game is much like that of most arcade-style games; complete challenges to earn points. In this particular game you are doing "jobs" to earn "fame." Oscar, of course, wants to become a famous fish. So you talk to other creatures around the game world and they give you jobs to do.
There are really just four types of jobs. The first one you encounter is the "Chase" sort. Oscar hasn't paid the loan shark (literally, in this case), and so the shark comes to collect. Oscar has to out run and out maneuver the loan shark or he's going to become the very definition of sushi. If you've spent some time familiarizing yourself with how to swim, this shouldn't be too hard to get past. When you trap the shark in the metal grate, you've escaped. Oscar comes out of this job with a bit of fame, and finds himself face to face with Angie. Angie isn't too pleased with Oscar, because he's playing hookie from work. While they're talking, a crab "pinches" Angie's purse, leading you to the next chance to earn fame. This sort of mission is called a "Stealth" job. Oscar has to make his way through a warehouse guarded by flashlight wielding crabs and barracuda to find her purse. Again, not too hard if you just take your time and watch where you are going. The next job type is one that I had to buy into, the "Sewer Race." In it, Oscar is racing against two other fish in an underground sewer system. This job is the second hardest for me to complete. I found that Oscar frequently became "stuck" above a tunnel or on some other object, and lost a lot of time trying to get him unstuck. To win this race I had to combine both the movement and "look around" keys, so became quite dizzy before the race was done. Fortunately, even if you come in second place you earn at least some fame, so all is not lost. And winning a sewer race isn't nearly as hard as winning a dance contest. That's the last category of job that Oscar can do. Oscar thinks he has great dance moves and is a sure win in the competition. The best way to describe the dance contest is to say it is Dance, Dance Revolution for your fingers. Just like in DDR, you have to follow the arrows and try to time your movement to the beat of the music. And just like DDR is for me, this isn't at all easy. I honestly can't figure out if it's just that Oscar isn't as responsive as I'd like him to be, or that I'm a little slow in pushing the buttons, but in any case I tend to lose more than win these contests.
Sound is a "must have" for this game. Though the dialogue does have subtitles, you'll really miss much of the game if you don't have sound capability. I mention this because I play most games without sound turned on, but this is one where I had to connect the speakers. The game interface itself is pretty much what you'd expect from a PC game that is also a console game. You use the mouse to control movement, with a few keyboard keys used for things like firing urchins and looking around without moving. It took me probably 15 minutes to get used to how Oscar moves around, and a much longer to move him precisely enough to win something like the sewer race. Not bad for someone who doesn't usually play console games, I think.
My kids like the game a lot more than I do, but we've all enjoyed playing it. They love the chance to experience parts of the movie for themselves. My 10-year old has played through most of the game, or at least from what I can tell he has. It isn't a game he rushes home to play, but it also isn't one where I feel like, "Why'd we buy this if you aren't going to play it?" either. It hasn't really appealed to his friends that are a couple years older than he is, and I suspect that is because it is just too easy for them. What is a challenge for me is so easy for them that they look at me and think, "You can't do this why?" because they are such experienced console gamers. Personally, I've had fun just chuckling at the same jokes and sense of humor that I found in the movie, and for that reason alone I'd plan to play the rest of the game. If you enjoyed Shark Tale the movie, then I think you'll enjoy the game. You aren't exactly following the plot of the movie as you do with some games which came from a cartoon movie, but it's obvious that the game developers kept the same humor as the movie writers had.
I’ve played computer games since college, addicted first to story type games like Might and Magic. I have 3 children who also love computer games. My oldest son is a typical kid who loves the challenge of pressing the right combination of buttons and levers on a joystick in just the right way to make something happens, and frequently gets frustrated with mom’s slow fingers. ;) We use computers for both education and entertainment, and sometimes even bribery for good behavior.
The “glory days” of computer gaming for me were when games like Spectre Supreme, Pirate’s Gold, the Might and Magic series, the original Prince of Persia… those sorts of games were coming out on a regular basis. Back then I owned a Macintosh and was a die hard Mac fan. I was one of the first in my area to buy an iMac and on it learned the joy of playing games on the internet like daily crossword puzzle and “mind bender” type puzzles. My first online RPG was given to me for Christmas the year EQ was released, and I was hooked from day one. I played EQ for about a year. I started playing DaoC during late alpha testing, and was hooked on it.. well, to be honest I still am. I’ve tried pretty much every MMORPG I can get my hands on, from big names like EQ, to more obscure ones such as Underlight. I’ve been writing for IMGS since the first DaoC guide, and find I love the challenge of learning a game and presenting what I’ve learned (and sometimes my opinions), to other players.
I’m not a very strong player as far as learning PvE or quick reaction times, so I tend to stay away from games where I’m pitted against someone else in a way that requires physical (rather than mental) response. I still enjoy story and puzzle games, and in a way that’s how I still approach online games. I would much rather spend hours working through a quest than 5 minutes in combat against another player. I still get lost in simulation type games, obsessing over them until I’ve gotten them beaten. And I like being able to sit down at the computer when I’ve got less than half an hour and playing through a few levels of a puzzle game. I tend not to like first-person shooter type games, or anything with person to person violence, so I steer away from them unless they are fantasy based settings. All in all, I enjoy computer gaming so much that my life feels incomplete somehow when my computer is down.
