4.6 /10 1 Votes
Designer(s) Steve Woita (VB, SS) Mode Player | 4.5/10 GameSpot Initial release date 1995 Genre(s) Action | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Developers Ocean Software, Intelligent Games, Rockstar North, Data Design Interactive, DMA Design, PAM Development Platforms Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Virtual Boy, Sega Genesis, Game Boy, Microsoft Windows, DOS, MS-DOS Similar Jack Bros, James Bond Jr, Tintin in Tibet, A Fork in the Tale, Power Rangers Lightspee | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Waterworld is a video game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Virtual Boy, MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and Game Boy, based on the film of the same name, along with unpublished versions for the Mega Drive/Genesis and Sega Saturn. These games were produced by Ocean Software. The SNES and Game Boy games were released only in Europe in 1995 and the Virtual Boy game was released exclusively in North America in November 1995. It was released for PC in 1997. The game received widespread negative reviews and the version released for the Virtual Boy is generally considered to be the worst game of its 22 releases.
Contents
Virtual Boy
The game is focused around the Mariner's (the main character) trimaran, which the player moves around a 3-D world, shooting enemies on personal water crafts called Smokers. It is a form of 3D shoot 'em up, similar to that of the All-Range Mode in Star Fox 64.
The objective is to keep the Smokers from grabbing Atollers (inhabitants of Atoll) placed around the playing field. To keep them from being captured, the player must shoot the Smokers using the L and R buttons on the Virtual Boy's controller while moving around with either of the two directional pads.
Like all other Virtual Boy games, Waterworld uses a red-and-black color scheme and uses parallax, an optical trick that is used to simulate a 3D effect.
Super NES
Waterworld for Super NES was released in 1995 in Europe by Ocean Software. It was only released in PAL territories, but an NTSC version had been scheduled for release in December 1995, and given a lengthy review in that month's issue of Nintendo Power.
The game was played from an overhead/isometric perspective with the player controlling the Mariner's boat on the ocean. The point of the game was to destroy the Smokers' boats and dive for sunken artifacts, at which point the game switches to a side on perspective so that the player can directly control the Mariner underwater.
Mega Drive
A Mega Drive port of the Super NES version was also produced by Ocean. Planned for release in Europe in fall 1995, it was never distributed. A complete version of the game was eventually leaked on the net.
PC
In April 1995, Interplay Entertainment announced that they had garnered the rights to make a Waterworld game. The game was developed by Intelligent Games and published by Interplay. It was released for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows personal computers in 1997. It is a real-time strategy video game. The game contains 25 missions. In the game, players play as a War Chief and lead a taskforce of 2 to 14 men depending upon the mission. The main objective of the game is to amass enough hydro (fresh water), food, weapons, and critical information to successfully evade the "Smokers" and revert the inundated world to its once former glory.
Reception
Waterworld received predominantly negative reviews. GameSpot gave the PC version a review score of 4.5/10. The Virtual Boy version gathered particularly negative reviews for its poor gameplay and graphics. Dave Frear of Nintendo Life claimed that the game was "crap", adding "with severely flawed visuals it can’t even gain points for impressing technically". The author of The Ultimate History of Video Games, Steven L. Kent, considers Waterworld to be the worst video game of all time. Seanbaby called Waterworld "the most horrible thing to ever be put inside a Virtual Boy".