Fire Shark

About Fire Shark

Fire Shark (1989) is Toaplan's arcade sequel to Flying Shark, a 1942-style biplane shooter with a flamethrower weapon, popular in Western arcades but too hard for Japanese players.

Fire Shark in Depth

Reminiscent of 1942, it sends the titular biplane through ten increasingly difficult levels against the tanks, battleships, kamikaze monoplanes and artillery of the mysterious Strange Fleet, over constantly scrolling scenery that stops only at an airport. The standard shot reaches half the screen's height, and bombs destroy everything in their blast. Destroying zeppelins releases coloured icons for a wide shot, a laser beam or a flamethrower, and other items include speed-ups, extra bombs, "P" icons, three of which raise firepower one level up to a maximum of three, and rare 1UPs. Lightning-shaped medals from destroyed containers add points, important since extra lives come at set scores. Depending on the arcade settings, players restart at a checkpoint or respawn where they fell, losing their firepower and speed, and finishing the tenth stage loops back to the first at a higher difficulty.

In the arcade story, the Strange Fleet arrives one summer night in 1991 at a small Mediterranean island and grows over two years until it attacks the whole world, to cries of "Fire Shark! Fire Shark! It's time to take-off!!" The Genesis version instead sets it in 19X9 against an industrial superpower called S Corps.

Making Fire Shark

Yuge composed the music, Nakaoka drew the art and Sanae Nitō and Yuko Tataka designed it, though none were credited, and the team wanted it to carry "the same strengths" as Flying Shark. Toaplan released it in Japan on 2 November 1989 and in Europe later that year, with Romstar following in North America in March 1990, and Game Machine listed it as Japan's fifth most successful table arcade unit in its 1 January 1990 issue. According to Yuge, it did well in Western arcades but less so in Japan because of its difficulty. Toaplan's own Genesis port, faithful to the arcade with a harder setting, was released by DreamWorks, a division of Toy Soldiers, in North America in October 1990, by Toaplan in Japan and by Sega in Europe in 1992, and EGM gave it 33 out of 40. M2 included the arcade version in Hishou Same! Same! Same! in 2022, and artist Perry Sessions cited it as a main influence on Super XYX.