Jaws Revenge iOS review

According to the App Store description, Jaws Revenge is “The long anticipated sequel to the iOS smash hit JAWS”. There was a Jaws game?

I’m happy to report that Jaws Revenge has nothing to do with Jaws: The Revenge, the ill advised fourth Jaws film featuring Michael Caine, and currently rocking an incredibly generous 2.7 rating on IMDb.

So what’s the deal? Well, in Jaws Revenge, you control a ludicrously sized great white shark in a side scrolling ocean, and the aim is to eat people and destroy stuff. Excellent.

At any one time, there’s a ridiculous amount of stuff on screen in Jaws Revenge, whether it’s swimmers or divers or snorkelers or boats or seagulls or fish or speedboats or jet skis or windsurfers or paragliders or helicopters or planes or mines or.... You get the idea.

Jaws Revenge is divvied up into four groups of 10 levels, encompassing Amity Island, Cancun, Barcelona, and BlackBeard’s Bay.

In each of Jaws Revenge’s 40 levels, there’s a pair of goals, such as eat X swimmers or survive X mines before buoy Y. That kinda thing. In a neat feature, if you hit one of the goals but fail the other, you only have to aim for the latter next time around.

In the bottom left, you’ve got the Frenzy meter (unleash Frenzy to jump higher and earn megapoints) and the health bar (keep eating or you’ll very quickly die of hunger).

Each level offers particular rewards, such as score multipliers and gold coins, the latter being used to upgrade – yes upgrade – your shark. You can increase your bite strength, skin (to protect against damage), frenzy time, lunge distance, and health. Just like real sharks.

Phew; and that’s Jaws Revenge. Now for a quick rant about the glaring negative aspect.

See, Jaws Revenge is free to download, which means – you guessed it – freemium stuff, yay! Essentially, each world has a prerequisite shark level, and getting there is no mean feat.

Option 1#: play the open mode ad nauseam until you grab enough coins to upgrade. Warning: it takes ages.

Option 2#: get your virtual wallet out. You can also do silly stuff like watch videos (ads for apps), post to Facebook and twitter, and sign up to various services - all to get free coins. Meh.

Freemium stuff aside, Jaws Revenge is pretty good, if a little samey. Worth a look.

Pros

• Lots of stuff to eat
• Lots of stuff to explode
• Four worlds

Cons

• Very samey
• The freemium junk
• Not exactly a looker

Summary: Jaws Revenge is good old-fashioned control-a-shark-and-blow-up-helicopters action.

Developer: Fuse Powered Inc

Requirements: Compatible with iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (3rd generation), iPod touch (4th generation) and iPad. Requires iOS 3.1.3 or later.

Price: free @ App Store