Sewer Shark 3DO Review

Unearthing the Obscure: Sewer Shark- shoot the tubes!

In the forgotten corners of gaming history lies a curious relic: Sewer Shark by Digital Pictures and published by Virgin Games. This was initially developed by Rob Fulop and Tom Zito for the ill-fated Hasbro NEMO VHS based console from 1985 (see more below). It subsequently found its way onto the Sega CD as a launch title (selling 750,000 copies)  and then the 3DO in 1994 as one of the earlier ported games from other consoles. While FMV (Full Motion Video) games are often derided for their cheesiness and technical limitations, Sewer Shark stands out as a surprisingly engaging and polished experience for the time – but it’s hardly pushing the 3DO’s capabilities.

Taking a Dive into the Sewers

Sewer Shark throws you into a post-apocalyptic world where the surface is uninhabitable, and mutated creatures lurk in the grimy underbelly of society. You pilot a “Sewer Shark,” a small vessel navigating the labyrinthine sewers to deliver supplies and ferry hopeful survivors towards the fabled haven of Solar City. Trying to stop you reaching Solar City are your evil boss Stenchler and his bimbo secretary Friday.

Gameplay: A Mix of Memory and Mayhem

The core gameplay revolves around following a series of coordinates relayed by your sarcastic co-pilot, Ghost and the Catfish scout module. These directions, delivered in sets of three (e.g. six, three, niner), dictate your turns through the sewer network. Fail a turn, and you craft will smash into iron railings and explode. While navigating, you simultaneously blast mutated zerks, bats, scorpions, mutant moles and even “ratigators” (a fusion of rat and alligator) to rack up points.

Beyond the Basics: Complexity Emerges

Sewer Shark doesn’t hold your hand. As you progress, the challenges escalate.

• Energy Management: Your Sewer Shark needs constant energy replenishment via strategically placed recharge stations. Accessing these requires quick reflexes and memorizing their location.
• CO2 Flares: Managing CO2 levels becomes crucial later, with on-screen prompts reminding you to unleash CO2 flares with the tap of the C button.
• Visual Cues: The game throws a curveball, introducing sections where you navigate based solely on visual cues from the pre-rendered backgrounds.

A Rough Diamond with a B-Movie Charm

Sewer Shark isn’t perfect. The story, while intriguing with its mystery around Sector 19, unfolds through humorous over acted FMV cutscenes. The gameplay loop, while initially fun, can become repetitive and frustrating for some but always demands absolute concentration. Sewer Shark’s core mechanics are well-designed, offering a satisfying challenge that tests your memory, reflexes, and multitasking skills.

Legacy: An FMV Pioneer

Sewer Shark looks much crisper on the 3DO than the Mega CD and doesn’t suffer so much pixelation and artifacts. The sound effects as you bend around tunnels are also great. This game came out in the desirable long box in the USA and is still quite collectable these days. The game stared the great David Underwood as Ghost , Robert Constanzo as Stenchler and Kari G. Payton as Falco.

The games special effects were created by John Dykstra who went on to be a member of Industrial Light and Magic of Star Wars fame. Importantly, Sewer Shark demonstrated the potential of FMV combined with traditional gameplay mechanics, paving the way for more sophisticated CD-based FMV games in the future.

Sewer Shark may not be a masterpiece, but like Night Trap it is a compelling historical oddity. Its blend of FMV cheesy charm, engaging gameplay, and historical significance makes it a worthwhile experience for any 3DO enthusiast or those curious about the evolution of gaming.

History of the Hasbro NEMO ControlVision

As mentioned earlier Tom Zito and Rob Fulop worked with Hasbro to repurpose a Colecovision console so that it could read separate movie tracks from a VHS tape that a user could switch to using a technology called Interswitch. A game player would be able to interact and switch to these various FMV tracks using an overlaid sprite interface, thus creating the first interactive movie game. This concept would go on to see the creation of Sewer Shark and the notorious Night Trap game.

Hasbro shelved the project as they could not launch NEMO at a competitive price point as VRam chip prices had increased making the final cost of the console somewhere in the region of $200-$300.  Against the $140 price of a NES this was far too expensive- and thus Tom Zito put his ideas and the technology into storage and waited until Sega CD and then 3DO came along seeking new games for their CD based interactive consoles.