Harpooned

4
harpooned is a satirical and serious take on the issue of japanese whaling. its a shoot em up where you play as a japanese whaling vessel harpooning whales until they explode with meaty goodness all for the sake of “scientific research”. as the game goes on protesters will come and try to protect the whales by block your path to harpooning them.

as a political protest, the game demonstrated a clear message on the issues through the game’s mechanics. at the end of each level your shown how the meat is transport and converted into a variety of products as well a few “research” papers giving you reasons to whale. the effects of whaling are also shown through inevitable declination of the species in the environment as the game goes on. it also demonstrates the effects of protesting i.e ineffective to stop the whaling. if you harm a protest group you do lose money to pay a fine. but you make so much money through the meat that paying them off seems makes a short term loss for long term gain as it makes it easier the hunt, another protest statement.

as a game, its a pretty decent shooter. whales have a heath bar and they disappear from time to time. combine that with the protester and icebergs blocking your path and you have to develop a strategy on which whales to take down before they fully disappear. you also earn bonus and combos based upon your meat collection and the damage you receive. if i had to criticize anything it would be that the ai path finding of the protest do get stuck on icebergs very easy and they are easily exploited.

with that said its a good game with a clear statement but i think that this game protest statement could have been better implemented if you played as the protest group instead whalers. playing as the wailers send a conflicting message for the player. the mechanics is built around rewarding fun with the game featuring combo meters, scoring and earning money thought exploding the whales. but at the same time, realistically, you dont want to be harming them. it would have been much better you played as a helpless protester and have the whalers ai controlled. i think it would have made a better statement without conflicting the message and gamplaywise, it would have given a unique style of play.