Shamu’s Deep Sea Adventures

The Ultimate Underwater Adventure!

NA release: 1st November 2005
EU release: 16th March 2005
JP release: N/A
Developer: Fun Labs
Publisher: Activision
NGC Magazine Score: N/A
Mods Used: None

Shamu is the name for whatever main whale SeaWorld had in captivity to perform tricks, due to a ton of abuse. When one Orca died, a new one took up its place. It was eventually cancelled due to researchers shining a light on their mistreatment – a practice that led to multiple deaths. So this game is pure SeaWorld propaganda.

The story shows how broken Shamu is. At the start of the game, gets freed by a Kraken called Poseidon, who wants to destroy SeaWorld and put a new, sealife-ran SeaWorld in its place. Well, there’s also world domination, but the game treats that as a lesser issue than SeaWorld having a rival. Shamu, not realising that he’s now free, fights Poseidon to save SeaWorld, following the instructions of an evil telepathic manatee.

The game is a 2D Platformer that consists entirely of underwater levels. As Orcas are still mammals, you’ll have to constantly find bubbles for air. Because people love that. To make matters worse, these are the worst underwater levels I’ve seen in a 2D platformer.Despite each level being fully enclosed, there are somehow still invisible walls everywhere, meaning you can’t go close to many walls. This issue is made even worse by how being next to an invisible wall will block Shamu from turning and you’ll have to mess around to get him unstuck.

Enemies are also a pain to deal with. Many are small and difficult to see, especially with the 3D graphics. You also can’t kill enemies, Shamu just bashes them towards the screen and they’ll slowly swim back into position (and it’s very difficult to tell when they’re in the “active” plane. The walls are also littered with anemone which will shock Shamu if he touches it. That said, despite constant frustration with getting hit, it’s still an easy game, as long as you’re willing to explore messy levels with a camera that’s far too zoomed in (and there’s an option to have it even closer to Shamu). It’s downright horrible to play with zero reward for making it though.

The presentation and story telling is odd. Before each level, you’ll get narration saying exactly what happens, right before you do all the things it told you to do, so you’re just repeating events. The tutorial is a great example of redundancy. The evi manatee explains even the most minute detail of the gameplay in a 5 minute long droning speech (adults aren’t even patient enough for that, let alone kids) where you have no control. Then you immediately play a tutorial that explains everything again, but as you play along. It just makes no sense.

Worst

If you feel the need for some quality underwater fun, then track down Ecco The Dolphin for the Sega Dreamcast or Playstation 2, or even track down the classic Sega Genesis editions. Shamu’s Deep Sea Adventures could have been a good game, if the developers followed those examples, but as it stands, this game should be avoided. I can only recommend this game for the rare oddity known as a “Shamu-Fan” or for any parents who wish to use the game as a tool for punishment.
Sean Kennedy, Xbox Advnaced

Remake or remaster?

Not for this.

Official Ways to get the game

There’s no official way to get Shamu’s Deep Sea Adventures