Wish I Still Had That!: ‘The Game of Jaws’
The Game of Jaws from Ideal, produced to tie in with the 1975 release of Jaws, was one of those nerve-wracking games, similar to Operation, Perfection, Don’t Break the Ice, etc., where you had to use a skillful touch to both achieve something and prevent another thing from happening — and if you didn’t, the game would end quickly and surprisingly, perhaps startling some players.
In this case, players used a hook to slowly remove various objects from the mouth of a plastic great white shark, whose jaws were held open by rubber bands and kept open by the weight of the objects. As those items were removed by various players, one by one, and few remained, the shark’s jaws began to inch ever closer to shutting completely — before they ultimately snapped shut altogether on some poor player’s hook.
You can check out some of the action that pits “you against the great white shark” in this commercial:
The Game of Jaws was, obviously, inspired by and tied in with the blockbuster movie Jaws that was released that June. The original version of the game seems to have been licensed to use the famous image of the shark from the Jaws poster, and the movie’s title treatment, on the box in which it came.
I do recall the thrill of seeing that image and box when I unwrapped this game as a Christmas gift in 1979, at age 9, about a month after I had seen Jaws for the first time when it made its broadcast TV premiere on ABC. I don’t think I had been aware of this game and asked for it, so whoever gifted it to me (probably my parents or grandparents) knew that I had become a Jaws fanatic after seeing the film (and just loved reading about sharks in general, as well).
Later on Christmas Eve, my younger sister and I set this up in my bedroom and began playing it. We did enjoy it, though I think we almost immediately broke the jaw mechanism to a degree, somehow. It kept working, but not as well as it should have (I’ll just blame it on my little sister).
Here’s someone having a little better luck unpacking and setting up The Game of Jaws than a couple of 9- and 7-year-old kids:
The list of objects that players had to remove from the shark’s mouth in this version (mostly) would not have looked out of place if they had been found in the stomachs of certain sharks, especially if you recall the scene in Jaws when Hooper (Richard Dreyfuss) performs what Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) calls a “half-assed autopsy on a fish” by cutting open a tiger shark and finding a variety of things in its belly, including a license plate.
The shark in the original Game of Jaws had the following objects in its mouth: innocuous items like a shoe, gun, wagon wheel, jug, camera, car tire, walkie-talkie, anchor, and lantern, and a few more ominous things — a hand, human bone, human skull and fishbone.
I honestly don’t remember playing The Game of Jaws much beyond that first Christmas Eve when I unwrapped it, and I have no idea where it vanished to, but I do wish I had perhaps appreciated it more and taken better care of it so I might yet still play it today. There are originals of The Game of Jaws for sale on eBay and other places, but they’d feel different to me, somehow.
Apparently, there have been other versions of the game released in the 1990s and 2000s that I suppose I could have tried, but given their lack of official affiliation with Jaws (these games, while maintaining the premise, and basically the same look of the original shark and objects, were merely called Sharkie’s Diner or Sharky’s Diner) I don’t think I would have enjoyed them as much. I certainly wouldn’t have gotten the excitement I had in 1979 seeing the Jaws name and poster on the box I had unwrapped.
One new thing related to this game that is affiliated with Jaws is a special edition of NECA’s re-creation of/modern update to The Game of Jaws that ties in with the movie’s 50th anniversary in 2025:
Screenshot from store.necaonline.com
The shark is this version of the game clearly looks a lot more like the film’s “Bruce” than the shark in the original game, which was a cartoony-looking character that more called to mind Hanna-Barbera’s Jabberjaw. This updated shark even seems to have some “meat” from whatever it’s just eaten still in its teeth, so that’s a good touch. It is an impressive creation, and I’d love to have this shark just as a model for my desk or something, but it seems too realistic for this game, if that makes sense.
Looking at the picture of this updated game’s box, it looks like they brought back and enhanced the objects from the original, and added a few others that fans of the movie will appreciate: a SCUBA tank, a license plate and what appears to be a six-pack of beer.
I do appreciate such cool little touches that show the creators and designers had respect for the game’s source material. Maybe I’ll dive in and get this new Game of Jaws after all. And this time, I’ll pay a little more heed to the “Some Assembly Required” caveat and make sure I don’t lose track of it over the next several decades.
Remind 
Summer Blockbusters
June 2025
'Jaws' made us afraid of the water, 'Star Wars' took us light years away and Marty McFly took us back to 1955. Flashback to these classic Summer Blockbusters.
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