Under no circumstances would I ever put my head into the mouth of a giant shark. Or most animals, to be honest, no matter how big or small. If they move around in any way, chances are you’re going to get chomped. It’ll be a bad time, and that’s not just because I rewatched Jaws this week and now suddenly find myself terrified of going near bodies of water.
But when it comes to the upcoming indie title Shark Dentist, putting your noggin in the awaiting mouths of deadly creatures is downright expected. I mean, with a name like that, I wouldn’t expect anything less. While the brief announcement trailer has captured the imaginations of masochists everywhere, how exactly could a game like this play? Let’s take a look.
Shark Dentist Could Be A Truly Original Horror Roguelike
Considering the reveal trailer features mainly pre-rendered footage as opposed to actual gameplay, theSteam Pageis our first port of call to figure out what Shark Dentist is all about. Working on previous titles like Vacation Café Simulator, Broventure and Santa’s Letters VR, this will be developer Alice Games’ first foray into the genre, leaving us with a lot of questions about whether this is a seriously cool idea or one that can be executed into an equally cool game.
The roguelike nature of Shark Dentist immediately conveys to me that you will play as some sort of dentist who is rising through the aquatic ranks, finding themselves roped into a job in which, instead of dealing with human teeth, they must contend with bigger and bigger types of shark. Perhaps a single stage will involve dealing with a new or seemingly random shark species in which you’ll need to clean their mouths out, apply fillings, or maybe even fit cute little shark braces.
Plenty of mechanics and gameplay modifiers come to mind from this idea alone, like exactly how much time you’re able to spend rooting around in a shark’s mouth before they get annoyed or you start taking damage, alongside the conditions you must facilitate in your office so they’re not a threat to either you or anyone else around you. This could lead to a satisfying loop in which you find yourself face-to-face with a great white shark in the final moments, and one little mistake could see you beheaded before it goes on a rampage.
But Could Shark Dentist Be Too Good To Be True?
In the reveal trailer, upon setting the tone and putting our dentist in front of a massive shark, it appears its mouth full of pearly whites is split into distinct sections which we’ll be forced to manage, whether that be through keeping it clean or prying unwanted items from its maw. You will have a variety of tools to get the job done, but I imagine each one will have its own unique properties, and there could even be ways to upgrade them, like you would weapons in other roguelike titles. It would make the act of subsequent runs rewarding, and the terrifying hook of a shark potentially biting down at any moment can only last so long.
The Steam page also mentions random events or modifiers that might surface during a run, forcing you to think on your feet and deal with problems you haven’t accounted for.
Zooming in and checking each individual tooth is an excellent idea, and we will have the means to determine whether they are clean, infected, or need additional treatment using tools at our disposal. There is also a heart monitor to be found on the table next to us, so chances are this will be a solid indicator of when a shark is calm, angry, or ready to strike.
For years, we’ve been subjected to weird dental games on mobile phones that require us to delve into Elsa’s pearly whites and rid them of decay, but this is the first time such an act will be turned into a compelling horror experience with real potential. Sharks are an animal few of us are ever going to directly interact with in our lifetimes, but all of us can relate to the very real and encroaching anxiety of seeing the dentist.
If Shark Dentist can stick the landing and combine the full impact of these two fears, it could be an unmatched sleeper hit. If you need me, I’ll be putting my face near a honey badger to see what happens…
