"It’s
deja vu all over again." -Yogi Berra.
This game was reviewed previously under its newer title Shark Attack by Kevin Oleniacz way back in the Pac-Man issue. Kevin hated it and gave it a ‘4’. I tend to agree. So what’s the point? The point is that Lochjaw is slightly different. That’s what I actually wanted to talk about and also to say that Lochjaw is actually worse. It has many bugs, hence the ‘3’. If you have a copy of Lochjaw, try this on any game variation. At the start, go right. Come straight up alongside the L-shape and bump your head on the overhanging projection on the right side. The collection register will go crazy and you will be permanently trapped. There are other spots where this will happen especially if you try to gobble a dot from beneath it. This annoyance plus a lightning fast shark and the fact that the walls act like flypaper results in a very frustrating game. I had forgotten all about the escape caves found in each corner until I started replaying this game. The only positive thing I can say is that it is an interesting Pac-Man clone with amusing variations. This game teaches a moral lesson as well. Don’t be greedy!
Here are the most visible differences between the 2 games:
Lochjaw: Palm trees wave back and forth
Shark Attack: Palm trees do not move
Lochjaw: Large cloud is over first palm tree
Shark Attack: Large cloud is out to sea between isle & ship
Lochjaw: Stern of ship overlaps edge of maze
Shark Attack: Ship has drifted left, no overlap
Lochjaw: Diver is not underlined at start/end
Shark Attack: Diver is underlined at start/end
Basically what happened was that they took out some of the fluff and fixed the bugs. I would much rather play Shark Attack any day. Since I don’t have to worry about what I can and can not do to avoid getting stuck. This second version came about after Parker Bros. threatened to sue Apollo over the name Lochjaw because they claimed it infringed upon their Jaws license. So consequently the original version is considerably rarer today.
