Shark Tale - Review

Added October 12th, 2004 by Sallizar

Introduction:

The video gamer generation has been maturing over the last ten years and many gamers are old enough to be spawning little gamers of their own. If you’re unsure of how and why that happens, you may want to go ask your parents. Tell them Talk Xbox sent you. Unfortunately, while the Xbox is becoming the console of choice for great games intended for mature audiences, it’s a bit lacking in the children’s game department. So, when Activision slid a copy of Dreamworks' Shark Tale game across my desk I decided to give it a whirl and see if kids game based on movie is worth forking over the fifty clams you could be buying Dead or Alive Ultimate with.

Gameplay:

Shark Tale seems to be inspired by some of the best games of the last few years. It’s divided into four different types of game play modes. The fights with sharks and various other scary sea creatures is a rail shooter mini-game reminiscent of Panzer Dragoon Orta. The adventure sections are laid out in a side-scroller platform game style. Race mode reminds be a little of a kart game like Mario Kart or Crash Nitro Kart, but isn’t nearly as fast paced as either game. Lastly, the dance mode came as a bit of a surprise to me. The last thing I expected was a Dance Dance Revolution clone in a movie license game.

I know absolutely nothing about the movie itself but apparently the main character, Oscar, is known for beating up sharks. Of course the game is going to have some shark fights then. These sequences, while incredibly easy, are some of the best looking in the game. The levels consist of you moving Oscar left and right to dodge the oncoming shark as you careen through various undersea terrains on a predetermined path. After you dodge you can press the X, Y, or B keys to send an attack in from the left, center or right respectively. There are some basic combo attacks but nothing incredibly difficult. You can also hold A to taunt the enemy and get some health back, but I hardly ever needed to regain health.

Adventure mode is a lot like an old school 16 bit side-scroller with much prettier graphics. You can swim left and right and up and down to avoid obstacles like electric eels, anemones and sea urchins. You pick up various items, pearls and clams mostly, by quickly swimming circles around them. The X button can be used to make Oscar dash quickly to avoid danger, or you can hold it down to charge it up for a dash attack. Occasionally you’ll even get a sneaking level in adventure mode. Sam Fisher with fins it isn’t. You basically swim around as usual, but you can hide behind certain objects by clicking the A button when an icon appears near the item. Being spotted keeps you from getting the elite goal for the mission, but it doesn’t end the level. You can coast right through with every guard screaming “There he is!” and still complete the level. It’s a little cheesy, but I think it’s a good compromise for a kid’s game. Sneaking levels frustrate me in adult games, so I can’t imagine how aggravated I’d have been if I got stuck in a sneaking level as a kid.

Race mode is pretty basic. You slam A to hit the gas and B to brake. A trail of bubbles illuminates the proper route through the undersea cityscapes. Occasionally a large R or L will appear on the screen and hitting the appropriate trigger will let you take a shortcut. You’ll also run across swirling vortexes that act as turbo tunnels to give you that extra edge. I found this mode to be the least interesting part of the game, and while the levels are well designed and full of fishy eye candy, there isn’t much sense of speed to the so called “races”.

Dance mode. Yeah, you read that right. A blatant rip-off of DDR and other rhythm games the dance levels even include support for third party Xbox dance pads. Basically, arrows rotate around a circle toward a target at the bottom of the screen; press the correct direction as they cross the target to score points. I actually had quite a bit of trouble with the dance sections while using a dance pad. It’s a totally different animal then DDR and my feet just aren’t programmed to play any other dancing game it seems. I did a lot better with the controller. Kids should get a real kick out of sleeping, I mean, dancing with the fishes though.
Graphics:

Frankly I’m a bit stunned by the graphics work in Shark Tale. Most kid’s games cut corners when it comes to graphics. Shark Tale does the opposite and puts together an impressive presentation. The fight sections flow very smoothly and are packed full of little environmental details. Races are cluttered with detailed traffic and obstacles to zip around. One of the race chapters even includes a parade complete with giant Macy’s parade style balloon creatures to wind past. While adventure mode technically plays like a 2D side-scroller, it’s still presented in entirely 3D images. The sneaking missions even show off a little bit of lighting pizzazz because your adversaries will be tracking you with various kinds of spotlights. Lastly the dance sections even go over and beyond. If you’re the one playing you’ll be paying to much attention to the arrows to notice the backgrounds. The dancing fish and the other goings on in the backgrounds, like a whale going through the whale wash, are all very well animated and just sort of humorous to watch. I mean, c’mon, animated dancing fish on my Xbox? Never would have thought I’d see that as a neat graphical accomplishment.

Audio:

You haven’t lived until you’ve made a fish dance to MC Hammer’s “Can’t Touch This”. Trust me on that one. Shark Tale has a fairly impressive list of licensed music for the dance sections and the rest of the game uses fairly generic instrumental music I assume is pulled from the motion picture soundtrack. Overall it’s a pretty good soundtrack for a kids game. While the big name stars form the movies couldn’t deign to make an appearance in a lowly children’s video game the voice actors that play the parts are fairly good mimics. I actually checked the manual to make sure that wasn’t really Will Smith I was hearing when Oscar flapped his gills.

Controls:

Shark Tale has fairly basic controls. The triggers are only used in the races and the Black and White buttons are never used. This works out well and prevents confusion for younger games. They already have to learn four different control sets to play the game, so it’s best that the controls be easy to pick up and remember.

ADVENTURE CONTROLS
Left Thumbstick - Swim/Look around when hidden on sneak missions
A - Action Button
B - Display Map
X - Dash/Dash Attack (hold and release)
Start - Pause

RACE CONTROLS
Left Thumbstick - Move Oscar
A - Accelerate
B - Brake
X - Accelerate
Y - Brake
Left Trigger - Dodge Left
Right Trigger - Dodge Right
Start - Pause

FIGHTING CONTROLS
Left Thumbstick - Dodge
A - Taunt
B - Fin Slap Right
X - Fin Slap Left
Y - Upper Fin Strike
Start - Pause

DANCE CONTROLS
Directional Pad - Up = Up Arrow, Down = Down Arrow, Left = Left Arrow, Right = Right Arrow
A Button Down Arrow
B Button Right Arrow
X Button Left Arrow
Y Button Up Arrow
Start - Pause
Replay:

Shark Tale has twenty-four levels and they are fairly easy to get through, even for a kid I’m sure. There is a pretty large amount of rather uninspiring unlockable art, character animations, etc. to try to unlock but I’m not real sure kids will be interested in them. The dance levels might be a fun exercise activity after the game is done, but I’d rather see children outside climbing trees and running around like lunatics for exercise. I personally wouldn’t play Shark Tale again myself but having seen kids watch the same Disney movie or Spongebob Squarepants episode eight times in a row without blinking makes me think that they’ll probably play the game until the DVD has laser marks etched it in.

Summary:

For a kid’s game based on a kid’s movie, Activison actually did the unthinkable and put together a fairly solid game. Sure, it obviously steals from various genres and doesn’t really advance gaming to any as yet unknown area, but the solid gameplay and graphics make it a great choice for little geeks to play when daddy isn’t playing Halo. If your kids dig the movie and start begging for the game next time your preordering stuff in the game store, you’ll actually be able to say ok to a kids game in good conscience for once.