The Top 7... Deadliest shark attacks

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When videogames and massive sea predators collide, things get ugly fast


Above: You know, like this

Naturally, some games pull this off better than others. What follows are some of the creepiest, bloodiest and most memorable incidents of sharks swimming up to ruin (or improve) our fun.


7. OKAMI


Site of incident: The Sunken Ship

This particular “attack” doesn’t really fit the traditional mold of a shark swimming up and biting your shit off, but we’re including it for two very important reasons. First, it’s yet another excuse for us to shoehorn Okami into a list article and remind you that you, personally, are to blame for its commercial failure. Second, its shark is nasty.


Above: Oh boy, we can’t wait to take a swim with that thing

Showing up late in the game, the armored shark Ichiro is the horrific offspring of Jiro and Saburo, two bizarre half-shark, half-crab creatures that embody everything wrong and squishy about marine animals. As if they weren’t gross enough on their own, they’ll fuse together the next time you see them, combining their sharky parts to make one big, armored monstrosity that will then act like he’s going to eat you.

Aside from being hideous and unnatural, he’s also fast and aggressive, although he forgoes traditional chomping in favor of leaping out of the water and attempting to belly-flop heroines Amaterasu and Rao to death.


Above: Less scary than being eaten, but still pretty deadly

The beast seems tough until you get his armor off, at which point he can be easily subdued by just painting cherry bombs into his general vicinity until he goes belly-up. It’s a disappointingly swift end for one of the game’s creepier bosses, but Ichiro did his job – which, for the record, was to give us the heebie-jeebies before we found out just how little he was capable of. Here, watch him in action:

6. ECCO THE DOLPHIN: DEFENDER OF THE FUTURE

In spite of being created by the same studio that would later be responsible for undersea gorefest Jaws Unleashed, Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future is often fondly remembered as a bright, happy adventure filled with soothing New Age music and friendly sea life.


Above: HAPPY!

So it’s sometimes easy to forget that you spend a lot of time dogfighting with sharks. In fact, one of the first – and most frightening – challenges young Ecco has to face is a battle with a Great White shark so massive that it would probably be classified as an extinct Megalodon by any sane measure.

Making matters worse, you have to taunt it into chasing you through a narrow passage. And as any shark expert can tell you, agitating a giant predator on purpose is absolutely the best idea ever. It’s such a good idea, in fact, that the shark is almost guaranteed to eat you the first several times you try it.

In case you’re wondering, Ecco’s main reason for challenging this enormous bastard in the first place is to steal its “Power of Vigor,” which he will eventually use to fight invading aliens. First, though, he has to snatch it from this thing’s mouth…


Above: Oh hell no

Which will most often result in this:

It’s far from the bloodiest or most shocking shark attack we’ve ever seen, but in terms of raw, sustained terror? If you cringe at the thought of dipping your toes into a shark tank, then going head-to-head with this monster is a recipe for heart palpitations, no matter how many times you tell yourself that it’s just a game and you’re being stupid. For further proof, here’s some video footage of the ordeal:

Mikel Reparaz
Mikel Reparaz
After graduating from college in 2000 with a BA in journalism, I worked for five years as a copy editor, page designer and videogame-review columnist at a couple of mid-sized newspapers you've never heard of. My column eventually got me a freelancing gig with GMR magazine, which folded a few months later. I was hired on full-time by GamesRadar in late 2005, and have since been paid actual money to write silly articles about lovable blobs.