Sea Hunt Atari 2600 Review

[Atariperson23]

Oh, hello my little froggy friend, Froggo! Have you been catching lovely moths and flies at the scenic frog pond? Or have you used your froggy little skills to make a new game? What're you saying? Could you repeat that? Sam Tramiel, son of Atari CEO Jack Tramiel, left you to stand for six hours straight at the Atari corporate lobby without a drink of water or a seat? That's kind of cruel, right? OK, back to the review of Sea Hunt. Sea Hunt is one of the most disrespected games on the VCS. It's been trashed, taken out of the garbage can, trashed again, taken out of the garbage truck, trashed again, taken out of the landfill, trashed again and finally dumped into the ocean. And that's kind of sad, because with some preparations ahead it can become a pretty addictive game. A pretty addictive and difficult game... 

Originality: A

OK, I get Froggo redistributed games, but the Froggo version is the only one I can judge properly. (That's because the Panda version started flashing in a million colors on the computer, the Sancho version made a horrible screeching noise, and the CCE version had the CCE logo look more like *CC6*) So the Froggo version is going to be reviewed just like the Sancho version would be reviewed. Anyways, Sea Hunt composes of a lot of original elements. You need to time your jump perfectly, kill all the fish, get in the galleon before fish reappear, get the treasure before the fish appear, get the treasure... you get the idea. You'd think that'd be enough for Sea Hunt to be a hidden gem, right? Well, I have bad news...

Gameplay: C

Gameplay is supposed to be extremely addictive. It has all the components of a golden game. So why is it just mediocre? Because like all Sancho/Froggo games, it's too freaking HARD. I mean, i'm a strategy gamer (I beat Raiders Of The Lost Ark, Haunted House, Superman, Adventure and Stellar Track all in two tries or less) and even I have some difficulty beating Sea Hunt. The game occasionally lags a bit, but i'm sure that's just my emulator. What's not my emulator, though is that everything is almost unfair. You have to get halfway down your ship, you need to wait for your harpoon to get back to you if you miss a fish, you need to hit a fish by the nose, you have almost no places to hide, and if you take too long to reach the sunken ship, you die. (Oh, and that's just the first level) In the "hunting for treasure" level (according to the Panda manual), you need to dodge the really "stickly" walls (that's what the Sancho and Panda manuals say) and that's extremely frustrating, because more often than not you'll get stuck, and then you need to mash the action/space button to get out. And then, you have the invincible crabs who move really quickly, which is really annoying because you'll want to get one route perfectly, but then the other route gets blocked up because of the crabs, and etc. And then, if you've got the treasure, you need to go back all the way back up your ship to get the points, and after all the difficulty and brutality you'll be awarded some points. But it's also addicting, because the gameplay is fast-paced, nonstop and responsive. I guess Sancho can't have everything.

Graphics:C+

The graphics both impress me and disappoint me at the same time. On one hand, the fish are horribly blocky and not that defined. On another hand, the fish have impressive animations and move smoothly with no flicker. Unlike Video Gems's Treasure Below, there's no sky or clouds. But there is foregrounds, which is quite impressive. And the inside of the ship is quite nice while the outside looks like some face. See how I can't really say the graphics are "good" or "bad"? They're a tiny bit above average, because of the special effect, but because of the deplorable minimalistic graphics and blockiness I can't give it a really high grade.

Sound Effects: C

Again, the sound effects are mediocre. I feel like Sancho knew what was kind of fun, but the lack of programming power prevented them from producing a hidden gem. That's really a shame. These guys were the Taiwanese Commavid. They only made original games, had a lot of people fascinated in the computer sciences, but had no major corporation surrounding them. Otherwise, these people could've been on to something. Anyways, there is a 21-note "baby lullaby" tune that actually sounds a little like music. But that is quickly canceled out by a horrible drum beating noise that's really annoying. But then, you got some great sounds, like sounds of a struggle when you're struggling to hook a fish. I just wish when you got a treasure, there would be a complementary tune that celebrates your success. That would be so much better than the ear-shattering *ding* noise that plays when you have points.

Final Grade: C+

I don't like this game and I don't hate it. Nothing's really good about this game and nothing's really bad. It's addictive, nicely animated and carefully thought out. On the other hand, it's not very fun to play (if you don't know what you're doing), very blocky and kind of rushed. What can I say? Sancho just wasn't good enough to survive very long, and Froggo probably felt insulted after Sam Tramiel insulted its chairman. Maybe that's the reason Sea Hunt couldn't ever become a hidden gem...

 

-R.R

[fluxit]

I take it that the "galleon" is the green Dracula Koolaid Man at center bottom of the screen?

 

The fish are so polite to not try to eat you as you're reeling one of them in, especially considering how hard the game tries to feed you to them before you even have a chance to control your diver.

Edited February 11, 2020 by fluxit

[chewy]

could the code be fixed to make it more playable?

[Atariperson23]

20 minutes ago, fluxit said:

I take it that the "galleon" is the green Dracula Koolaid Man at center bottom of the screen?

 

The fish are so polite to not try to eat you as you're reeling one of them in, especially considering how hard the game tries to feed you to them before you even have a chance to control your diver.

LOL.

[Atariperson23]

10 minutes ago, chewy said:

could the code be fixed to make it more playable?

Ask some person like Thomas Jenztsch, I don't know anything about coding.