Jaws FAQ
by Ed the Moogle
Version 1.31
Copyright 2000 Ed the Moogle

Not official in any way. Don't copy or alter this FAQ without permission. If
you wish to copy this FAQ, you may not change it from its original TXT format,
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any kind. I am not to be held responsible for any damages done with this file
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latest version before you e-mail me with questions or comments, or before
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If you see this FAQ on any of these sites, or any other site that uses my files
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brunerp@juno.com)
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Now, you may be wondering why I, Ed the Moogle, would write an FAQ for this
shame of a game by the well-known makers of poor movie-licensed games, LJN. My
reply is simply this: Someone on GameFAQs requested it. So I figured "Why not?
I don't have anything better to do right now anyway." and wrote one. I soon
found out I was actually having fun writing this guide. I soon found that
writing guides for bad games could actually be quite fun! On the other hand,
this guide will be good for a few more kilobytes on my record at gamefaqs.com
:). On top of that, I could possibly get on the New and Noteworthy list for a
little while. Then again, maybe not. Maybe they'll start a "Dishonorable and
un-noteworthy" list just for me :).

A bit of an update: This guide was on the New and Noteworthy list at
gamefaqs.com for a couple of days. And sure enough, no "Dishonorable and
Un-noteworthy" list was started just for me. Oh well.

Contents

0.Regrettable Version History
.Ed's most-wanted list.
1.Various quotes about why this game sucks!
2.Playing a game, or self-torture?
3.Putrid Power-ups.
4.A brief guide to the Barfable Bonus Round.
5.Strategy, or lack thereof.
6.The long-awaited Conclusion.
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0. Regrettable Version History

1.31 - Added the Regrettable Version History and Ed's most-wanted list sections
to the FAQ. Added a bit to the above introduction. Changed the Section Titles a
bit to fit the theme of the game and this FAQ. Various other grammatical and
wording changes and additions here and there, to make this game look like it
wasn't typed up in 15 minutes :.
1.3 - Added a small strategy section.
1.2 - Due to a bit of criticism from Christopher Saucier, I felt tempted to
update once again. Added a few omitted facts that he gladly pointed out for me.
1.1 - Added a bit to the walkthrough on how to kill Jaws and put the game's
monotonous programming out of its misery. Many thanks to Prio
(prionace@m0use.net) for his help on this matter. I also threw in a section
about the bonus rounds and the power-ups.
1.0 - First version. Pretty much just a bare-bones guide with a bunch of
missing info, the most notable omission being the ability to kill Jaws- one of
the most important and rewarding parts of the game.
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Section : Ed's most-wanted list.

Here's a list of things that I would like to add to this guide in the future in
order to make it wor...err...better.

- I need a reliable way to find that blasted mini-sub. I think it has something
to do with reaching a high level of power or a certain total of points. Anyone
care to help me out?

- Game Genie codes. Not just your garden-variety Galoob codebook codes, either.
WIERD game Genie codes! Ones that warp the music, turn Jaws into a six-headed
diver, grant your guys enough godly strength to crush Jaws' skull in four hits,
etc. Play around with some codes, and if you find any interesting ones, send
'em to me! I'll gladly post 'em here!
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Section 1: Various quotes about why this game sucks!

"Currently it's making itself useful as my doorstop, but other than that this
game is total crap." -Myself, Ed the Moogle

"Who'd have thought Jaws would be a trend-setter?" -SitC on the Action 52 game
"Sharks" (basically a Jaws rip-off [Yes, you read that right- Active
Enterprises ripped off this game!])

"Overall this is pathetic attempt at classic gaming fun." -Dave 008 Bond

"Ummm, it makes a neat sound when you "accidentaly" leave it in the middle of
the road and something destroys it." -Dave 008 Bond

"Part action game, part RPG, part pointless mini-game, all crap." -Myself again
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Section 2: Playing a game, or self-torture?

I'll let you decide. Now then, for those of you who were duped into playing
this game out of curiosity, cruelty of an older sibling, whatever, here's a
brief guide to the world of Jaws. Oh, and those who enjoy the game are welcome
to read on as well, although they may not agree with the views expressed within
the following text.

You start the game on a small, almost entirely empty (two significant spots)
map screen in a tiny little boat. You drift around with the Control Pad for a
little while, stopping occasionally with the message "YOU HIT SOMETHING!!!!"

At this point you go underwater and view your guy from a side-view. You can
float around with the control pad (to some fairly catchy music) and shoot the
jellyfish, sharks and stingrays that appear with your divine eyesight (that
harpoon gun he's carrying sure doesn't seem to do anything). Sometimes they
will drop starfish, shells, and crabs which can merit you bonus points. You
return to the boat after a few minutes of killing these enemies. If a stingray,
jellyfish, or shark hits you, you die.

After a few moments of this you return to the boat. If you collect 5 shells and
touch the anchor icon at the upper-right corner of the screen, you will get
Jaws Radar, a thorougly useless item It just makes obnoxious noises whenever
Jaws is nearby, which gets steadily more annoying as he draws closer. You'd
think, since now your guy KNOWS when Jaws is nearby, there wouldn't be any more
"YOU HIT SOMETHING!!!!!!" messages. Oh well.

Note: You can see Jaws' fin sticking out of the water when he gets close to
you, so if you move quickly away from him he can be evaded. Thanks to
Christoper Saucier for this bit.

If you collect 5 more shells and return to the starting point without dying,
you can get a slight power-up, which enables your spears to do slightly more
damage while underwater. You can get power-ups again and again by going back
and forth between the two anchors, up to level 9, at which point you are about
as powerful as Superman, save for the fact that a single stingray sting or
shark bite can kill you.

In the event that Jaws should attack you, you stay in the boat for a few
moments, at which point you can drop depth charges on him with A and B. Of
course, these do a pitiful amount of damage, so they're barely worth it. After
you drop into the water, he will stupidly swim back and forth while you fill
him full of spears. None of this matters, however, as he can take about a
million hits before he escapes and regains at least 1/3 to all of his life (if
you take too long between encounters, that is. Every time you go back down into
the water, he recovers life).

However, in the event that you should power up enough to kill Jaws within one
session, you will go to a dumb minigame which has Jaws stupidly swimming back
and forth, showing the full extent of his AI programmed skills. You have three
"Strobes" at this point, and you must aim the front of the boat at him, and
when he gets close enough (but not TOO close- wait until he's right on the
closest "line" in the water), nail him with a Strobe using the A button, then
follow up with the B button to jab him with the end of the boat. Shark problem
solved. Our beaches are safe once again, and our frizzy-haired hero has a new
trophy for his wall! Now you get to sit back and watch the top-notch, 10-second
closing cinema. Note that there are no end-credits. Maybe LJN is so ashamed of
this game that they didn't put them in. Hmm...

Many thanks to Prio for telling me how to beat that vicious fish. His letter
follows.
---
Prio (prionace@m0use.net) writes:

I have terrible news.  You're going to have to revise this FAQ,  because you
didn't get it right the first time.  Pity you.  :P

Okay, look, when you encounter Jaws in the minigame thingy (which I did
zillions of years ago as a little kid with no discretion), you only need to hit
him once.  If you lunge out with the front of your boat and don't immediately
see a huge hole get poked in his stomach, it means you missed.  It's really,
really easy to miss, even when it looks like you haven't.  If I remember
correctly, you've gotta line it up so that the very middle of his
bleached-white belly is a bit above the tip, then slam away.  Again, it's
persnickety as hell, but far from impossible, especially if you remind yourself
that you're back to gutting jellyfish again if you fail.

When and if you DO stick it to him, the following things happen:

1) A special happy sparkly sound effect is emitted from the top-notch NES sound
system.
2) You see a little silhouetted side-view animation of Jaws' lifeless corpse
sinking to the bottom of the ocean.  (There is no gushing blood at any point,
of course, so it's a family-friendly evisceration.)
3) A reasonably impressive graphic of an island at sunset appears, and as the
words "THE END" show up (PHEW!), you'll hear quasi-tropical victory music
playing that's a little like double-speed Britney Spears strung out on every
hallucinogen in existence.
4) You press the power button on your game console, go outside, and enjoy some
fresh air, basking in the warm healing rays of the sun. Aaaaahhh.  Then a giant
shark plunges up from the earth amid a shower of rocks and dirt and swallows
you whole in blood-soaked retribution.

This might not all be 100% accurate (for example, I haven't yet been mangled by
any land-bound giant fish and so cannot confirm that presumption), but the gist
of it is that you CAN kill the toothy S.O.B. for good, or at least within the
context of the game. Go ahead and quote me on this stuff, at least if you
include a little disclaimer stating that I only played this game enough to win
it long, long ago, as an itty bitty little dumb kid.  :P
- P.

DISCLAIMER: Ed the Moogle would like to point out that the previous revelation
was discovered by Prio as, by his own admittance, "an itty bitty dumb little
kid."
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Section 3: Putrid Power-ups.

Starfish- Enemies will randomly drop this when they are killed. You will gain
1000 points for picking it up.

Crab- Enemies will randomly drop this too. You will gain 300-500 points and
your underwater movement will speed up for grabbing it. If it touches the
ground, it will run away.

Seashell- You gain points for picking this up, and you can trade 5 of them for
a Jaws Radar/power-up at the docks. They are most often dropped by baby sharks,
and are worth 30 points each.

Mini-Sub- Allows you to move more quickly underwater and sustain two hits
rather than just one.  I've found this item only once. It appeared as a small
craft docked near the right-hand side of the land between the two docks. Is
there a trick to making this appear?
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Section 4: A brief guide to the Barfable Bonus Round.

After gaining enough points from rounds of blasting Jellyfish and Stingrays,
you may come across a bonus round, where now instead of a diver, you have an
airplane to do your dirty work. You can drop bombs on the jellyfish below by
pressing A or B, and slow or speed up the plane by pressing Forward or Back as
it flies from left to right, or right to left (press the direction the plane's
tail is in to slow down, press the direction of the front of the plane to speed
up). You will gain points and Seashells depending on how many you destroy at
the end of the round.

You'd think that your guys could kill Jaws from the plane, but I guess they
figured that wouldn't be any fun, so they went with slaughtering Jaws' "evil
minions" for fun and profit.
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Section 5: Strategy, or lack thereof.

There is one trick to the AI in the normal game: The enemies are completely
stupid. The stingrays, jellyfish, sharks, and even Jaws himself just swim back
and forth (well, sometimes the jellyfish do a zig-zag thing as they float to
the surface, but still...). Once you've figured out their paths of movement,
you can easily outmaneuver them pump them full of harpoons, killing them
easily. This even applies to Jaws. I beat the game in 10 minutes by getting up
to Level 3 and then filling his face full of harpoons.
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Section 6: The long-awaited Conclusion.

"At last! The end of this awful guide!" -Me

No offense intended to the guide's contributors, of course.

Thanks for reading this FAQ!
This is my last (hopefully) revision. Man, I need to quit playing this game and
finding new stuff to add to the guide :. Oh well, maybe I'll find out how to
get that blasted Mini-sub to appear if I keep playing.

Thanks to the following, who made this guide a better piece of data for all.

Prio, for telling me how to beat the evil Jaws.
gamefaqs.com for posting this FAQ.
The crazy guy who requested a Jaws FAQ on gamefaqs.com's request list.
The "E" key on my keyboard, without which this FAQ would not make nearly as
much sense. Th3 3ntir3 FAQ would b3 typ3d lik3 this, and probably would not g3t
post3d on gam3faqs.com!
Cristopher Saucier, for pointing out the effect of the crabs and Jaws'
tell-tale fin.
LJN, for not making a sequel to this game. I don't know if I could stand the
excitement of slaughtering more jellyfish and stingrays.

NO thanks to...

The NES game "Jaws" for being so mercilessly bad.
Gamesdomain, for stealing my frickin' FAQs!
LJN, for making such a bad game. ShaME On YooO!
NihonBussan Co. Ltd. for making Magmax, the worst game ever made.
Yes, I know, it has nothing to do with Jaws or this FAQ, but I felt it was
worth mentioning nonetheless.

Questions,comments and corrections should be sent to brunerp@juno.com or
edmoogle@hotmail.com (subject: Jaws FAQ
