Sewer Shark, 1992 Digital Pictures/Sony Imagesoft/Hasbro (20 From Sega/Mega CD #17)
6The first pack-in title for the US Sega CD! This is a Full Motion Video (FMV) game with live actors in the cutscenes, either giving you a bad time or encouraging you. The setting is a dystopian future where sewer employees fly vehicles through the tunnels trying to rid it of mutated creatures, pleasing the city Commissioner Stenchler (played by veteran actor Robert Costanzo). You are given a co-pilot named Ghost, and he earns his name by surviving every fatal accident his pilots encounter. The one giving the actual directions as to which turns you need to make is a little droid named Catfish (I would assume his name is due to his southern accent), and apart from the first set of directions-- all of which come in a set of three-- you WILL crash and die if you miss a turn! So when Catfish gives directions they will come in military slang (like 12 for up, 3 for right, 6 for down and "niner" for left), and you better damn well pay attention and remember them! You only get one life so when you crash, a continue will put you back at the beginning of that mission. Ghost detests you so much at the beginning that he gives you a rotten call sign-- DOGMEAT. If you want better ones, stick to the directions like glue and waste as many vermin as you can. Eventually other characters will give you directions, like another pilot named Falco and a bird that flies through the sewers (simply follow it whichever path it takes). Note that eventually the wussy little "Ratigator" monsters will be replaced by monsters that can actually damage your life meter, or even kill you upon collision (the Moles)! The game will reveal Stenchler as an antagonist, and the priority will no longer be about wasting enough critters to placate him-- though you still want to keep critters from harming your life meter (when it hits zero you explode). Many gamers disliked the repetitive nature of the game with the same-looking tunnels appearing throughout the game, but there was enough going on for my attention to never wander. The issue for me was that the shot detection didn't always work the way it should-- shooting enemies dead on isn't always going to kill them! Still worth the effort IMHO and some great acting by Stenchler and Ghost made me glad this was simply a pack-in title in the US. Shoot the tubes!