Silent Service is the major submarine simulator title for the Nintendo Entertainment System.  The player takes command of a World War II submarine and goes into the Pacific hunting Japanese shipping vessels and warships.  There are simulators, single battles, and campaigns available to give different scenarios for quick play or a longer game.

Graphics - The graphics are decent.  The interesting piece is moving between the map, the damage station, the periscope, and the interior of the submarine.  You can use several different parts of the submarine to control different aspects of the game.  It also serves at a pause option.

Sound - The sound is horrendous given the other titles out at the time.  The usual sounds you'd expect, from pings of enemy sonar and crashing of firing torpedoes, are present but they sound terrible.  Even explosions and shots firing sound bad.  Except the introduction music which may be one of the best intro songs in NES history, the droning of the engines and the whine of the battery, should never have been used.  You're better off making your own explosion sounds.

Addictiveness - Silent Service is a game that will make you play for 30-45 minutes and be done with it.  It's a play, learn, check off the list kind of game that once you've done a few run throughs, you're all set.  You can try to challenge yourself with tonnage and total number of ships sunk and increase the difficulty but there is very little past the major game play that you can experiment or improve.  Once you're gone through a few patrols, you are going to say, "That was fun.  What a great theme song.  What's next?"

Story - The story is simple.  You're a World War II submarine captain and you're fighting the Japanese.  You can pick and choose targets, sneak around underwater, sink ships, repair your ship in Australia and continue patrolling.

Depth - The game has some good depth from a military standpoint.  You can submerge below the cold layer in the ocean to help through off enemy ship sonar.  You can jettison debris out the torpedo tubes to pretend like you were sunk.  The enemy ships circle around, can't hit you with sonar, see debris, and expect they sank you so they leave.  You can take the boat down to crash test depth before you sink.  You can also select repairs either at sea or in the safe harbors in Australia.  Day and night play a role in how the destroyers see you and they can even ram you if you're shallow enough and they're close enough.  You can run aground when you close to islands.  Lastly, as in the real military, you can go on a patrol and see nothing for the month.  I have done a patrol and ran into zero conveys.  It was frustrating.  You also get aft and bow torpedoes and when you fire them it takes time for the crew to reload them and get them ready to go again.

Difficulty depends on the settings.  You can fight against morons or complete professionals who sink you at a moments notice.


I enjoyed Silent Service when I was young and it was the third game I bought for the NES.  It has a lot of value from a memory standpoint but it simply does not stand the test of time.  Try it, play it, and check it off your list.  It's not a bad game.  It just doesn't do well in the 21st century.  Luckily, there are very few submarine simulators to compare it.

Wow great review, you make it sound like a very good game.  I think I'm going to give it a try . Thanks.

Really nice review. Only thing I find it a bit weak is how this review seemed a bit rushed. The paragraphs seem a bit small, and you seem to use mostly your opinion, which is great, but don't tell much about the game mechanics itself.
Like I said, great review, but is a tad bit weak. Still fantastic though.