Married to the Sea, part 3 - A 1UP classic from February 8, 2008

Welcome back to this final part of the sea fairing adventure. Before I cast off let's take a look at the underwater games you might have missed. What makes this group different from yesterday's is the loss of the submarine. There is no metal barrier protecting the heroes of these games, no torpedoes or missiles to shoot at enemies. Just the player and wide open ocean. The majority of these games are based around free diving or small watercraft vehicles. Like the titles featured yesterday most of these games have their roots in the arcade. Early on they relied on a gimmick, like the periscope, to get players interested. The first ones were mostly about swimming around and shooting things with a harpoon gun.

Some of the oldest games were inspired by the movie Jaws, which demonized the great white shark. Atari was the first to make the connection with Shark Jaws released in 1975. A few years later Shark Attack by Pacific Novelty put you in the role of the shark, chasing around divers and eating them whole. The tables were turned and the seeds were planted for one of Scott Stoddard's favorite Shockwave creations Mad Shark.

Not all of the games were in the same format, some tried to mix things up by changing the objectives. K'K Tokki's Kaitei Takara Sagashi aka "Underwater Treasure Hunting" was released in 1980 by Namco. In this game players had to navigate a deep sea diver as they descended from the ship to the ocean floor. Along the way they were expected to avoid sea creatures. Once at the bottom of the screen they had to locate a treasure chest and then bring it up, again avoiding obstacles en route to the surface. This was a fun game but like the submarine titles, the SHUMP format seemed to work perfect here. Sea Fighter Poseidon by Taito was released in 1984. I believe it was the first SHUMP using the personal watercraft in place of the sub.

The SHUMP format seemed perfect for the genre, as divers could now swim as fast as sharks and their mini vehicle could shoot harpoons in the place of machine gun fire. One of the most well thought out games using this format was Thunder Jaws, released by Atari in 1990. Players swam around portions of the sea shooting a harpoon gun at enemies and trying to locate underwater lairs like caves and pipelines. The game then switched from swimming to running and gunning. Not quite the high action of Metal Slug but instead the slower pacing of Rolling Thunder. It was a unique concept but neither the diving nor the gunning was really superb.

this game was recommended to me by Marc and is quite good. Treasures of the Deep by Namco was released in 1997 for the original Playstation. The game allows you to explore the sea floor for hidden treasure. At the same time you have to fight off all sorts of sea creatures and pirates with their own personal watercraft and mini sub. This game is very much like Sea Fighter Poseidon in 3D. You get to travel all over the world, upgrading your equipment and buying different mini subs for certain missions. You can revisit levels and try searching for artifacts to unlock a secret level.

Of course the greatest ocean adventure game came out a year later. I've already said that the Ocean Hunter was one of my favorite games of all-time. What else could I possibly add about the Sega title from 98?

It's tough to put the experience into words unless you followed the game from beginning to end. It captures all of those themes that I had grown up with, including the amazing underwater world, awesome subs, sea monsters, sunken cities and wrapping them into a complete adventure. This is the only underwater game that trumps In the Hunt. It was the perfect design from the get-go. We are presented a steampunk world where science and myth collide. Sea monsters are attacking ships and ports and it's up to you to collect a bounty on these creatures by traveling the world with your hot air balloon and mini harpoon craft. This is a shooter on rails, akin to the other Sega titles Gunblade NY and Gunblade LA. Visually this game is still among the more impressive arcade titles you'll ever see. The only decent Ocean Hunter footage around is not very clear and does not give you a sense to how well made this game is.

The character designs, levels, music and bosses are all amazing. They help create a great atmosphere for the title and help pull you into this world. Too bad Sega never followed up with anything else on this title. I'd put my money down to get this on an arcade classics collection. This was truly one of Sega's unknown gems and worthy of a spot on the real top-100 games of all time list (especially since some magazines rank the dismal Bubsy the Bobcat on their list).

So does this wrap-up my never ending love of the sea and water videogames? Well it would if the genre didn't keep sparking new ideas. Undertow by Chair is a popular Xbox Live arcade shooter. It takes many themes featured in both the submarine and diving genres and mixes them in a western SHUMP format. Japanese SHUMPS are usually linear, the level moves left to right or top to bottom. SHUMPS over here from as old as Robotron to computer titles like Wingnuts 2 or as recent as Geometry Wars have allowed us to move freely all over the screen. While I don't own an Xbox 360 I still like to keep tabs on the genre and the video I've seen has me very interested in it. It also gives hope that developers haven't given up on the sea-based titles.

Well this brings me to the end of another series. I hope you enjoyed this trip down memory lane and didn't get turned off with my crazy fascination with the sea. I didn't talk about all the popular boat games because those you are more familiar with. Although Aqua Jack by Taito and Hydra by Atari did take the high speed boat and put machine guns and missiles on them... hmm... maybe I should mention them at least.

Plus I never did get Blood Wake for the Xbox, was it any good?

Ah, enough of that. Have a great weekend and let me know what you are up to! As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

Married to the Sea, part 1 - A 1UP classic from February 6, 2008

Hey there friends, now don't get all bothered about the title of this series. I really didn't go out and get married, but if you'd like to send me wedding gifts then I'd gladly accept them. This blog series deals with my fetish fascination with the sea. It all goes back a long time ago, before some of the peeps on 1UP were even born. All my life I've been a fan of vehicles. Cars, trucks, trains and planes fascinated me. My mom says one of my first words was "train" for every time I saw one I'd point and say "ten, ten." Of all the vehicles in the world I hold a particular interest in ships and submarines. It must have something to do with being born and raised in Long Beach. The Queen Mary was always on the horizon, the Port of Long Beach was just across the LA River and the beach even nearer. The creatures of the sea interested me to no end and I often longed for ways to see them in their natural habitat. Say, who wouldn't want a bathysphere, deep sea diving suit or submarine to call their own?

I spent lots of time doodling whales and sharks in my notes, the octopus was always my favorite, always thinking that the seven seas were infinitely large. I'd wonder what it would be like to pilot a mini sub, deep-sea research sub or even massive nuclear sub. Later did I realize that not every kid grew up near the beach or even a large body of water, so they didn't share the same interests. Too bad for them!

You can put some of the blame Disney for the early influence as well. The movie 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, the park rides the Submarine Voyage and Pirates of the Caribbean were very strong memories of my childhood. These things taught me to fear and respect the creatures of the deep. They showed how amazing ships were. The Submarine Voyage in particular introduced me to the underwater narrative, themes of Atlantis, mermaids and sea monsters that sparked my imagination.

I understood that many of my childhood friends dreamed of being the star quarterback for a super bowl team or even becoming an astronaut and exploring space. These things never interested me. Piloting a submarine was an achievable goal, something tangible. The sub was a window to another world, far more fascinating than space travel. There was life underwater, changing terrain, vast unexplored areas, many wonders yet to be discovered. In space there was nothing but... space. Cold, dark empty space for millions and millions of miles in every direction. In my lifetime we would never have the resource to visit other planets with the speed that we could visit other continents. Space travel was a science fiction dream but the real application of science was exploring the sea. To be a pilot of a sub that explores the ocean floor, treading through the unknown, it would be the closest we'd ever come to finding out what it would be like to discover life on another planet.

The toys my parents got me reflected this curiosity. My favorites were the toys that could float. Submarine toys with action figures were my favorite. My big brother had the majority of the G.I. Joe's and vehicles. Some of the Cobra boats were really keen but early in childhood I preferred to play with Adventure People from Fisher Price. These were action figures of everyday heroes. Some came with camping gear and a kayak, others had motorcycles. Some drove dragsters and funny cars. One had a parachute and a couple with scuba gear and a boat. My parents must have got me all of the sets that Fisher Price made, most of them I still have in the garage, those that I'm missing I can easily go to eBay for.

My two most favorite sets were the deep sea diver with octopus and treasure, and the submarine and helicopter set. I figured that a deep sea diver must feel like an astronaut leaving the shuttle. He is weightless, tied to a lifeline and his suit is a self-contained atmosphere. So while I'd never take a ride into space I could imagine that I wasn't missing much. I spent years having all sorts of adventures with these toys. Unlike Eddie Murphy my childhood bath time toy was a floating submarine, I never had to fight a brown shark. I'll consider myself very lucky for being that kid. Even today I am fascinated where I hear a story about the game studio that looks like the inside of the Nautilus. Or when news reports surface of giant squid footage, I'm all over it.

Granted I don't play with toys anymore (wish I had the time though) and the only things I collect are the odd Hulk toy and the occasional vinyl figure. I realize that it's been 30 years since I've seen anything as playful as the old Adventure People series... that was until recently. You may not know that Mattel bought out Matchbox a few years ago. Those would be perennial rivals Hot Wheels versus Matchbox under the same label. Some of the best Mattel toy designers are now collaborating on new products for Matchbox. Mega Rigs is a series that features interchangeable parts. It's not a Lego system where you can build anything but instead more generic one where you can swap out wheels for tank treads or tack on a helicopter propeller. I thought the series was okay, mostly because it allowed kids to create their own vehicle combinations. Some time ago they created a Mega Rig ship and submarine one as well. My interest was piqued but I didn't buy them as the toys were a bit pricey for my budget. So I just let them go. Over the holiday season I saw that the big retailers Sams Club, Costco, Target began offering special boxed sets of Mega Rigs. There was a bundle with the ship and submarine in one set for a low price.

One variation of this set offered an extra motor, one offered a shark. I chose the latter and picked it up just to have. Both ships float and each comes with all sorts of accessories and figures. While they aren't as large (in scale) as the Adventure People toys they were still pretty big. These toys helped remind me of my childhood and love of the sea. They made me want to share these interests with you. Of course this is a videogame blog so I have to connect the dots. Tune in tomorrow when we look at the best submarine videogames.

As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!