Sewer Shark

Nothing special, it like all sega cd games has flaws galore. This one is basically the very limited control of the situation you have in this game. Of course, that is basically a problem with all the games that incorporate movies into their game. This one has you flying around a bunch of pipes exterminating creatures that are infesting these tunnels. You have a copilot that constantly gives you advice, cuts you down, are says what a good job you are doing. Your boss also does about the same thing. He also goes berserk near the end of the game and sets super monsters on your tail for some reason or another. So be prepared to fly around basically on autopilot except for the occasional turn where you pick the right way or crash in a dead end. For the most part you are aiming a target though at the various monsters in the sewers and the higher your score the more impressed your copilot and your obnoxious boss are. If you really suck and score really low not only will they not be impressed the game will end. I was rather good at this one as all you really had to do was memorize where the monsters are as they are in the same place all the time.

Sewer Shark takes place sometime in the future, where environmental destruction has forced most of humanity to live underground. The player takes the role of a rookie pilot in a band of "sewer jockies", whose job is to exterminate dangerous mutated creatures to keep a vast network of sewers clean for the resort area "Solar City", an island paradise ruled by the evil Commissioner Stenchler. The player's co-pilot, Ghost evaluates the player's performance throughout the game, while a small robot named Catfish scouts ahead and gives directions. The player is later assisted by Falco, a female jockey who believes that there is a hidden route to the surface.

Sewer Shark wasn't originally made for the Sega CD in the first place. It was originally made for a system that used VHS tapes instead of cartridges or CDs. Hasbro, who developed the system, decided to drop the idea, may be for money reasons, or something else. So when the time came to release the Sega CD in the U. S, Sega probably decided to release this game as a launch game because it featured FMV and Sega wanted to show how powerful the Sega CD was through FMV. Thus, Sega bought the rights for it and published it under Sony.

Tom Zito, the president of Digital Pictures, said the game's development costs were $3 million.

When I got my SegaCD, this was the game that came with it. The gameplay gets tiring as all you do is shoot things as you fly through a sewer. You also have to make sure you go the right directions or else you'll crash and explode. Your mission is to keep the sewers clean and free of "rat-igators", huge scorpions and other assorted bogies. Ghost is your co-pilot, who taunts you into action and gives you a variety of callsigns. Catfish is a flying robot pal who scans the area ahead and helps navigate you through the underground. Eventually you'll get contacted by Commissioner Stenchler, who kinda looks like Danny DeVito. He's the boss up on the beach with his bimbo secretary and bets you can't make it to Solar City. I wouldn't have gone out of my way to get this game but it is a Sega CD Classic.

This video game is one of my favorite. I love the Sega CD and 3DO, and I hate majority modern games with pixel characters and interiors.

The story and game-play in the atmosphere is very reminiscent of the movie "Moon 44" and some moments from the original "Star Wars". A robot named Catfish, which helps you to determine the direction of flight in a futuristic collectors, is very similar to a mixture of C3PO and Control from "Hard Time on Planet Earth".

The acting is very good, especially David Underwood in the role of your commander named Ghost and the voice of Catfish, Robert Weaver. But the game-play is also great, it is not just computer graphics, this is special photographic concept, real special photographic animation, like in real sci-fi movies. Because the director of this interactive movie was maestro John Dykstra - special photographic effects supervisor of Star Wars, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, and as producer creator of Battlestar Galactica(pilot film), also second unit director on "Invaders from Mars".

The first time I played the original version of the game for Sega CD. Now I mostly play 3DO version(1994), in this version better image(almost fullscreen) and during the game-play another music, better in sound quality and more dynamic music than on the Sega CD. Anyway, I love both versions of this game.

It was quite possible to shoot additional scenes and combining it with the game-play to mount a full-fledged feature film.

For its time it was incredible! A huge thanks to Rob Fulop, Ken Melville, Tom Zito and to all employees of Digital Pictures, for such great games they made in the 1990s for us. 10 out of 10!

I had this game years ago on Sega CD, and I was very impressed with the FMV sequences. I also thought that David Underwood did a great job with the character "Ghost". The story is kind of lame, but this was groundbreaking back in 1992, and it's fun to watch the story unfold. If you have the chance, pick it up.