Review: Hungry Shark - More Of Shark Day
by Staff Writer
July 19, 2010
Overview
Hungry Shark is an adventure game mixed with casual endless mechanics where you control a shark who needs to eat constantly to stay alive. There are all types of aquatic creatures in sprawling sea landscapes with tons of area to explore. There are multiple caverns, crevasses, and areas to discover including caves of doom, tropical surface, and Antarctic waters.
Features
You control your shark via tilt controls, and keep up your health by eating, and trying not let your health deplete or its game over. The main original game is part one which is a separate playable area from the new part two recently introduced in an update. The large seascapes have ten hidden items you try to collect while going for as high of a score as you can to compete on the online high score tables.The Good
The game has a simple objective of simply eating to survive as long as you can. There is an easy mechanic as well as you simply tilt, and the shark eats automatically when running into fish. This could be simply another casual endless game, but the huge sea area to explore with multiple things to find makes it much more than that.
You can begin in the shallows going for easier prey to work your way up to the bigger prey down below, or just go straight to the tough parts. As the shark eats more and more it grows which makes it stronger, but also tougher to maneuver. You will face regular fish, and swimmers, but also fish and humans that can damage you as well as a few mines.
Part one gives you ten hidden items to find which are located in a very large area that will take quite a long time to explore. You can't simply go out exploring as you need to keep eating or you will starve to death. As you're eating you can build chains with eating a lot in a row, and you earn more points for eating tougher enemies.
Part two is similar to the first in most regards with the main difference being the inclusion of crabs. The crabs come in all sizes including a monstrous boss crab that takes considerable time to get to. There are ten new items to find, and the seascape is different.
The game is simple fun for anyone, that can have you playing over and over to better your score, and find all ten items in one run. It's a great mechanic that makes you feel as though you're playing as Jaws in a game style that is relatively unique. The game is designed very well with the art style of all the fish in the foreground, and the various seascape backgrounds.
The Bad
The game is somewhat repetitive each time in as you need to eat to survive, and explore the depths. The mechanic is simple which is good in some ways, but does become bland after awhile. Exploring the depths is tedious and frustrating as you can often get lost. On top of that there's no way to track where you've been or what you've done or how much more there is to see. It gets boring mindlessly searching through the caves with fewer and fewer things to eat.
Part one and two aren't very different, and the with the boss crab being the main difference it's quite disappointing that it's so difficult to get to it. You seem to swim forever, and eat all kinds of sea creatures, and still be no closer to getting to the crab boss. You can find it eventually if you head deep and left, and then follow the signs, but you have to level up a lot to be ready to face it.
Many players may not make it that far, or won’t be leveled up enough. This leaves part one and two so close on top of a mechanic that gets stale quickly which really hurts the game overall.
The controls aren't the most precise tilt controls around, and will feel a little off from time to time. There are only the munching sound effects of the shark eating with no other music in the game.
