A somewhat stealthy addition from Stern Pinball for their Insider Connected dropped in the middle of March 2024 for their very first ever (correct if wrong in comments) video mode leaderboard via the official site: Stern Insider | Game Location | Shark Hunter Challenge Leaderboard (sternpinball.com).
If you own a Jaws pinball machine, don’t own Jaws, it’s all good, we’re going to cover how to play this video mode on any Jaws pinball machine located in the world.
Just for a wee bit of street cred, as of this writing 3/24/2024, I am in the worldwide ranked top 100 at #96:
Sure, near the bottom of the list, but it’s cool to be on here, if even for a short time! Sunday morning (3/24) I showed my son these boards and he hadn’t been using his maxed out shark teeth. He played some games and made the top 20:
Let’s backup a bit: what is the Shark Hunter Challenge? It’s a special video mode that can be played separately from a normal Stern Jaws Pinball game — any edition: pro, premium or LE — or HUO (Home Use Only).
How To Access Shark Hunter Challenge Mode
To play the game requires having collected 20 shark teeth. You will earn shark teeth when playing regular games of Jaws pinball.
Here are step-by-step instructions to access Shark Hunter Challenge mode on any Stern Jaws pinball machine:
- Press and hold BOTH FLIPPERS until the game mode shows on the DMD
- Press RIGHT FLIPPER until you see Shark Hunter Challenge mode
- Press ACTION BUTTON in the center
- Login with your Insider Connected QR code
- If you have at least 20 shark teeth collected, then you will next choose to play in 3D or 2D (default)
- Play the game, score high as you can! See play tips below
The Shark Hunter Challenge has you shooting harpoons at targets as follows:
- LEFT FLIPPER – hit targets on the left
- BOTH FLIPPERS AT SAME TIME – hit targets in the middle
- RIGHT FLIPPER – hit targets on the right
Gameplay Tips
I love video mode games in pinball. They’ve been around for a long, long time, with games like the find the cup in Indiana Jones. Many of these video modes in pinball have been on the LED scoring window and it’s great to see Stern continue this trend with their first 3D video mode in their newest pin.
- Shark teeth max out at 999. If you don’t use them to play the game, you won’t gain any more, so definitely want to play the Shark Hunter Challenge mode from time to time, as these shark teeth can add up fast
- #1 most important gameplay tip: don’t waste your harpoons by spam-firing! You have limited harpoons so your shots need to be timed
- Try to anticipate the enemy pattern so they will come into your harpoons after you fire in the direction
Have you played the Jaws Shark Hunter Challenge video mode yet? If so, share your gameplay tips in the comments. Or, if you haven’t played, share your interest in playing Jaws pinball.