White Sharks? The only White Shark I know is John Jeffries, the Scottish international rugby player. Surely this can't be a game about him?
Well, no, it isn't, but it would probably make for a far more interesting game if it was, because this is just another horizontally-scrolling shoot-'em-up. This one's big claim to being different is a completely unique weapon customising system which allows the player up to 37 million different weapon combinations, as well as allegedly having 'near photographic graphics and hi-fi quality sound'. Hmm. So what does it all mean in practice? Well, the weapon customising screen is a bit gimmicky, not to mention something that few serious arcade freaks will ever want to bother with before getting down to the action. (This isn't a flight sim, after all.)
As for the graphics, they are strikingly lovely, if a little bit small, while the sound is perhaps best described as 'alright'. Gameplay-wise, things are very ordinary indeed - your craft is rather over-sensitive to the controls and the whole thing seems a little too fast to be interesting. Nothing remains on screen for long enough to make any sort of an impression on you. By the time, I reached the second level (where the graphics are a lot less remarkable), I'd almost totally lost the will to continue, especially as the game becomes irritatingly hard in a fairly tedious sort of a way (i.e. lots of aliens and narrow, manoeuvring space taking the place of any decent ideas), and although the graphics do improve again after Level Two, you're unlikely to really care one way or the other whether you get to see them.
While it's all competently done, White Sharks is a game without a heart, and as such I can't really recommended it to anyone other than frame-rate trainspotters.
1st June 1991
