In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the most iconic shark movie of all time (sorry, Deep Blue Sea), Limited Run Games did an incredible job of re-releasing the NES title, Jaws, with a brand new coat of paint, which has been dubbed Jaws: Retro Edition. Understandably, if you were one of the collectors who sprang for the physical edition that was published and came with a gorgeous pixel art shark lamp, you don’t remotely care if the game is good or not: you got your swag so go enjoy yourself. But, if you’re a schlub like me who keeps getting games digitally because you barely have enough room for people and food, much less cool collectibles, you might be curious: is the game any good? After all, the NES is one of the biggest mixed bag machines that ever lived. The conclusion is a perplexing “yes and no.”

Limited Run Games has done their best to create something wonderful that goes beyond the cartridge, manual and physical soundtrack. Within the game itself, you’ve got two different game modes, the museum and the music player. The games differentiate themselves between original and enhanced, though I feel well within my right to further separate them as “unplayable” and “playable.” Both games have had a minor coat of paint splashed upon them, so you get the 8-bit aesthetic without everything being overly chunky or rough. If you really want the oldschool experience, the CRT filter does add enough mist to really toss you back in time, and the options of framed gaming or stretching it out has a visual variety. Yet, whether you decide to keep the ratio tight or really test the screen limits, the end results are the same. The original track and the updated version.

Jaws, the NES game, relies on everything that made the era great and frustrating. You’ve got a game that relies on patience, stupid amounts of button mashing, and more than a little luck. You represent a boat going around the waters near Amity Island, hunting the shark. The boat will randomly encounter various sea life to fight, get bonus points, and hope that a jellyfish drops a conch shell, as that’s the currency of the game. You can use conch shells to get some powerups, and, if you’re lucky, you might find a submarine that deals a lot of damage. Over the course of these random encounters, you’ll run into Jaws himself multiple times, and you’ll need to survive somewhere in the vicinity of eight encounters before you can begin the finale, a QTE inspired by the famous oxygen tank scene that is the conclusion of the first film.

So many things are confusing about this 1987 cash grab. How many boats do these unnamed sailors have at their disposal, since every encounter with Jaws seems to destroy the previous vessel? Why am I limited to conch shells to purchase things, when I theoretically have like eighteen dead tiger sharks under my belt that I could illegally sell for massive profit? I know Jaws is basically a mythical being, but I have absolutely shot him with thirty five harpoons THIS ENCOUNTER. At least let me get a prize or something. Plus, that final battle is a horrible test of being able to perfectly time a moment on an imperfect machine. The movement and squirrely nature of Jaws’ approach means almost guaranteed death and loss of everything you’ve done so far unless you have the hands of a surgeon.

This NES title has everything you’d expect. Racking up a score for no apparent reason. Discovering the final piece needed to win by pure accident. Far too few lives to actually beat the game on first blush, plus a wildly unfair penalty if you get touched even once by something else in the water. The controls are sluggish, Jaws’ hitpoints are otherworldly, and I don’t understand why a manta ray will drop a gold crab when I kill it with two harpoons. The loop is more closely related to Atari 2600 titles, just with slightly better graphics. Plus, the details of the game are more closely related to Jaws: The Revenge, which is about as far from the original, enjoyable Jaws as you can get. A game that takes you hours to beat the first time and subsequently only requires about ten minutes.

While this would have been enough to create a digital release for the folk who are diehard Jaws fans, the Enhanced Edition is both a massive step forward in QOL gameplay as well as narrative direction. Every single shot landed is money in the bank, whether it kills the aquatic mobs or not, and you can consistently return to Amity Island to cash in and upgrade your power, speed or HP. Yes, you have HP now! Turns out the game feels more natural if you just kind of take some damage from accidentally touching a fish instead of dying immediately. The conch shells are still great to collect because they give you even more money than just shooting things, so we didn’t totally discard that idea. Plus, the overworld map can show you every encounter you might get, not just Jaws.

The devs behind The Enhanced Edition have a great sense of humor about everything from top to bottom, and deliver it with a wink and a nod. The progression by finding and buying upgraded tools is fun and silly, like the idea that a rogue jellyfish would just steal the transponder needed to find Jaws. The splash scenes between the different upgrades have the campy gravitas that you’d imagine for a game that was developed right after Michael Caine bought a nice house. And the storyline and the gameplay evolves as you go along: merely defeating Jaws isn’t the end, because, as the movies have shown us, there’s a whole shark family hellbent on the destruction of humanity…provided they get close enough to the water, thankyouverymuch.

I also really appreciate the fact that Jaws: Retro Edition does just enough of a touchup for the graphics to be a bit easier on the eyes without it going full tilt into remake mode. The colors are vibrant and pop well on the screen, and the sprites have a bit more fluidity to them without additional, impossibly smooth animations the NES could have never pulled off. Enhanced Edition feels like something that could have been made in the last leg of the NES’ life cycle (much like the oft maligned Jungle Book game), so it continues to have plausibility. And the soundtrack is so good they made sure to include a music player, which feels hilarious for some tracks that come in at under a minute. The transition of the iconic Jaws theme from string instruments to chiptune is a delight, regardless.

And if you really want to, you’ve got the museum of the original manual, original boxart and “bonus” art, which is…well, I guess I’m glad it’s here. The old marketing material is great and the scans are quite cool, plus they’re already here so you might as well enjoy them. The extra art, which I suppose is concept or initial sketches of the sprites of the game, are just static, black and white photos with no context. It honestly just looks like someone tried to draw the game assets freehand in pencil, then Limited Run Games popped them in the extras to try and pretend it’s something extraordinary. It doesn’t detract from the game or anything, it’s just an odd extra to see and basically say “huh, guess that’s a starfish.”

Jaws: Retro Edition does exactly what you’d expect it to do and more. You’ve got the original Jaws NES game, and then a version that is superior in every way for someone who doesn’t have neural roots in playing it as a child. Go ahead, give it a spin, marvel at the fact that the people who made Monster Boy were hired by the overlords at Atlus to somehow make THIS, then go enjoy the Enhanced Edition. It’s a solid gameplay loop of shark hunting and bananas narration, and it’s a satisfying retro experience with modern sensibility. Then, when you’re finished, see how the black stares back at you. Like a doll’s eyes. Then go do something else instead of staring at an off screen, you freak.

Graphics: 7.0 The classic aesthetic has been preserved with some good updates to the smoothness of the pixels and the variations in the borders. The splash screen is still a masterpiece. Having said that, it’s also close to forty years old, so take that as you will.	Gameplay: 7.0 Original edition is a good time capsule and challenge piece, but it’s hardly an enjoyable game by today’s standards. Enhanced edition creates a engaging and solid model through progression, narrative and elements that make it actually quite playable.
Sound: 8.0 It’s a chiptune variation of a John Williams score combined with pretty run of the mill beeps and boops for the 8 bit wonder. It’s honestly perfect for the game and paints a great soundscape, and I think the music player is the cherry on top of it all.	Fun Factor: 9.0 Actually couldn’t believe how much I enjoyed the Enhanced Edition. If the original wasn’t included, I wouldn’t have realized the contrast and I doubt I would have appreciated it as much, so be sure to eat your vegetables before having dessert.
Final Verdict: 8.0

Jaws: Retro Edition is available now on PS5, PC and Switch.

Reviewed on Nintendo Switch.

A copy of Jaws: Retro Edition was provided by the publisher.