Posted By Puching Zhang in App Picks, Features, Gaming, Mobile

BreakingModern — Great white big, great white strong, great white eat … oh no, that’s poisonous! Puching Zhang here, bringing you guys another mobile game review. This time I’m dissecting Hungry Shark Evolution, a classic eat-everything-and-grow-bigger game. Made by Future Games of London, which is now owned by Ubisoft (yes, Assassin’s Creed Ubisoft), I figured: How bad could this game be?

Conceptually Sound … Sort Of

The concept of Hungry Shark Evolution is pretty clever. The player plays as a shark of his or her choosing and goes around eating humans, fish and whatever marine life they can sink their jaws into. It reminds me of the classic Big Fish Game, except the shark doesn’t grow bigger as it eats more food.

Now there’s the first problem. Granted, the game does allow bigger sharks to be unlocked as the player eats more food, which allows for the so-called “evolution” advertised in the game’s title, but … really? It seems like a cheap game mechanic made by lazy programmers that the shark doesn’t grow as it eats more and more food. Wouldn’t it make sense for the shark to grow as the levels progress? This would allow the player to consume larger enemies and increase the overall difficulty as the game goes on. But, alas, the shark does not grow.

With that said, the gameplay isn’t all bad. In fact, it gets sadistically satisfying at times. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be a shark that goes around consuming helpless humans as they try to run away from you? In that regard, the game’s great graphics do enhance the experience. Just watch the cloud of blood bloom around your shark’s mouth during the epic experience of that last kill. It looks good, feels good and leaves you wanting more.

Good Gameplay … Until it Isn’t

The inclusion of jellyfish, pufferfish and a man riding a great white shark (what developer conceived of that great idea?) creates obstacles for you so your entire gameplay experience isn’t one sadistic rampage. Although the gameplay is pretty addicting, Hungry Shark Evolution feels repetitive at times. The game lacks features — all the player does is go out and consume other life forms. There is no variety in this objective. Just go out and consume, that’s it.

It feels like Future Games of London didn’t put in the effort to create other worlds where the player can explore and hunt, which would at least visually diversify the game. Granted, there’s an Antarctic level if the player eats an elf, but that’s a very brief break from the endless similar levels.

They also don’t have any unlockable perks beyond larger sharks. Are you serious? How is this even possible! Nothing spells boring repetitive play-through than the omission of cool items that could’ve diversified the gameplay. Even funny hats on the shark would’ve done fine. Something, anything for the player to unlock, but those features are clearly missing from the game.

I don’t mind too much if a game’s play is restricted to a single mode. Temple Run does a great job of this, but it gives the player rewards that he or she can buy with the coins they earn. All Hungry Shark Evolution does is allow the player to get bigger sharks, which gives an advantage in what you can eat, but has little more to offer.

Overall I would give Hungry Shark Evolution a 6/10. The game isn’t all bad — the graphics were particularly nice and the gameplay itself was fun and addicting.

It went wrong by putting too much faith in its gameplay. Over time the game got stale and doesn’t provide any variety to compensate for that. It was a bit of a letdown for me — I expected great things from Future Games of London and Ubisoft’s partnership.

Hungry Shark Evolution is free to play and is available for both Android on Google Play and Apple iOS.

Until next time, this is Puching Zhang signing off for BMod.

All screenshots: Puching Zhang courtesy of Future Games of London

Feature Image Credit: “Shark” by Allen Lee via Flickr Creative Commons