80's Games I Played Later: Shark! Shark!

On 09/29/2019 at 09:54 PM by KnightDriver

Years ago I bought an Intellivision at a flea market and a bunch of games and tried out Mattel's Shark! Shark! from 1982. I was surprised that it was so similar to a PopCap game I was playing on PC called Feeding Frenzy. Clearly one inspired the other.

In Shark! Shark! you control a tiny fish in a screen full of mostly bigger fish. You gobble up the smaller ones and avoid the larger ones. As you eat, you grow bigger, and then you can eat larger fish. You score points for eating and also biting the shark’s tail. You also have to avoid jellyfish and crabs.

Here is 2004's Freeding Frenzy from PopCap for comparison. It adds plenty of new gameplay elements and art style to the Shark! Shark! formula.

Both games are a lot of fun. I played Shark! Shark! again on the Intellvision Lives! collection on original Xbox and on Xbox 360's Game Room. Feeding Frenzy also made it to Xbox Live Arcade and is still playable on Xbox One through backwards compatibility. There was also a sequel, Feeding Frenzy 2, which I also played and liked.

SanAndreas

09/30/2019 at 02:19 AM

The graphics on the Intellivision shark game look pretty decent for that era.

KnightDriver

09/30/2019 at 11:40 PM

Yeah, it's not bad.

Cary Woodham

09/30/2019 at 09:33 PM

Like I said in the comments of your last blog, my cousin had an Intellivision but I don't remember playing very many games on it. Frog Bog of course. They had a Blackjack/Poker game. They also had a golf game and a Dungeons and Dragons game that I couldn't figure out. Most of the other Intellivision games I played on collections. Including this one. I do remember how similar it was to other 'fish eating other fish' type of games. Some games on the Intellivision collections I remember being ahead of their time.

09/30/2019 at 11:19 PM

I couldn't figure out that DnD game either at first. Later I played it on a collection and got it. I guess I had to be older.

Matt Snee Staff Writer

10/01/2019 at 10:07 AM

my roommate and I had an intellivision in the nineties, but never had many games. I can't even remember what we had.

goaztecs

10/02/2019 at 01:09 PM

Ha I love Feeding Frenzy. It was such a fun game, and it's good to see that it may have been inspired by Shark Shark. I think I have that Intelevision set, if so I'm giving Shark Shark a spin.

10/02/2019 at 10:49 PM

It was like seconds into Shark! Shark! when I said, "holy moly, this is exactly like Feeding Frenzy.". I wonder who owns Shark! Shark! now.

PixlBit