It’s time for another exciting Amico deep dive, and what game is more appropriate to dive deeply into than Shark! Shark!?

Unfortunately this deep dive trailer is distressingly normal, without any stolen assets (as far as I know) or self-aggrandizing claims that routine game features are somehow special or unique. What it shows is a game that would be better suited to mobile phones from 6 or 7 years ago, but other than that there's nothing notable about it.

This game actually looks like a finished and fairly normal software product. It’s a 1 to 4 player game where you control a fish moving around an underwater scene and eating other fish while trying to avoid being eaten yourself. The original Shark! Shark! was an Intellivision title, but there have been other iterations on the concept since, most famously with Popcap’s Feeding Frenzy games but also Ubisoft’s Hungry Shark World games.

There’s not as much weirdness in this trailer as there is in Astrosmash. Tommy touts that there are up to 4 players in this version but doesn’t act like that’s some shocking or amazing feature. John Alverado, his co-pilot in these trailers, brags about the Amico’s control disc having 64 directions and how you can smoothly rotate it, which is also true of modern analog sticks, but again they don’t pretend it’s unprecedented. They talk about how as you get bigger you get slower and explain that this was done so that players who were smaller could escape getting eaten by the larger players so they wanted some kind of competitive balance. That’s actually a reasonable design decision and it’s explained succinctly and well. They also mention that they made the player fish “seem more alive” by having eye animations when NPC fish don’t, which is again a real and reasonable design decision explained well. Similarly they say that the shark always pursues the player with the highest score and that the player in last place gets a warning on their screen about where the bonus pearls will appear to help them catch up. This is both a value add from the controller and yet another reasonable decision. It’s all distressingly normal.

The main issue here is just that the game looks boring and ordinary. The art style is…fine. The gameplay looks…fine. It’s like an Iphone game from the mid 2010s that you might download for a couple hours of amusement on a plane flight. There’s nothing super wrong with it, but it once again raises the question of why anyone would spend $250 to play stuff like this. This would work well as a free to play or $1 game on an Apple TV or Amazon Fire Stick, something for non-gamers to enjoy on their non game system. It would work on a smart TV. As a game on a dedicated gaming system it looks like a solid 5 out of 10. There appears to be next to no variety in graphics or gameplay, and it has that cheap mobile game look. It wouldn’t be worth $10 on the Switch, let alone something you’d buy a whole system for.

Even as the Intellivision Amico trailers start to look more and more normal they fail to make any kind of case for the system itself, especially at the price point it’s being offered for. $250 is a lot of money. Telling me that you’re packing in a game I might have messed around with for free in 2014 does not make that price tag go down easier.

I mean yeah this is a little sedate, but then again according to Tommy Tallarico the other platform holders release games full to the brim with children being sexually assaulted and brutally murdered. Maybe this is just a balm to rubes parents concerned about their children being exposed to those lurid Nintendo first party games.

@jeffrud: I've played Snipperclips. Tommy is, if anything, understating the danger.

Genuine question: At this point do we think Tallarico believes the crazy shit he's saying or is he just desperately trying to move his product? I realize the answer could be both.

wasn't there a game exactly like this on xbox live arcades early days?

@el_blarfo: I think Tommy is the kind of person who believes whatever is convenient for him to believe. He doesn't seem self aware that he's peddling something nobody really wants but he also doesn't actually seem all that enthusiastic about the product. I don't think it really matters what his genuine objective thoughts about the Amico are, least of all to thim.

@darkvare: I think you're thinking of Feeding Frenzy, which I mentioned in my post.

Day one purchase for me.

The original Shark! Shark! is a masterpiece of visual storytelling and interactive game play. This reboot looks to retain everything about the original, but adds so much more! Unlocking fish?! Simply incredible.

Tommy just "gets it", and on top of that he's so clever. I was wheezing when he said "soFISHticated". LOL!

Honestly, 20 minutes is not a long enough video to showcase the depth of this game. The controller buzzes to show what calm will open next? Just pure genius!

I have two Amicos on preorder, one normal and one wood grain (what can I say, I love nostalgia!). I can't wait to play this, Nightstalker, SKIING, and so much more. Maybe a stealth drop of Utopia 2?!

I see what you did there you saucy knave!

i admire the ability to create 30 minutes of footage around such a basic game. Good to hear that the great reveal at the end of the game is getting something added to your menu background :)