Fire Shark

Fire Shark[lower-alpha 1] is a 1989 vertically scrolling shooter arcade video game developed and originally published by Toaplan and Romstar in Japan, Europe, and North America.[1] It is the sequel to Flying Shark, a game released in 1987 on multiple platforms. Set in the year 1991, the game focuses on a mysterious armada launching a worldwide attack from a small island in the Mediterranean Sea. Players take control of the titular biplane to counterattack the enemy forces.

Fire Shark
North American Arcade flyer
Developer(s)Toaplan
Publisher(s)Arcade
Genesis
Designer(s)Sanae Nitō
Yuko Tataka
Artist(s)Shintarō Nakaoka
Composer(s)Masahiro Yuge
SeriesShark
Platform(s)Arcade, Sega Genesis
ReleaseArcade
Genesis
Genre(s)Vertically scrolling shooter
Mode(s)
CabinetUpright

Though first launched for the arcades, Fire Shark was ported in-house to the Sega Genesis and published worldwide by DreamWorks, Toaplan, and Sega between 1990 and 1991. The console launch featured various changes compared with the original release. A conversion for the Sharp X68000 was developed but never released.

Fire Shark was well-received in arcades across Western regions where reviewers commended its graphics, sound and gameplay. The game proved to be less popular in Japan due to the high difficulty level. The Genesis version was also met with mostly positive reviews from critics across multiple regions.

Gameplay
Arcade version screenshot.

Fire Shark is a military-themed vertically scrolling shoot 'em up game reminiscent of 1942, where players take control of the titular biplane through ten increasingly difficult levels in order to defeat an assortment of enemy forces like tanks, battleships, kamikaze monoplanes and artillery from the mysterious Strange Fleet armada. This is the main objective of the game.[5][6][7][8] The game plays similarly like its predecessor, as players control their craft over a constantly scrolling background and the scenery never stops moving until an airport is reached. Players have two weapons at their disposal: the standard shot that travels a max distance of half the screen's height and bombs capable of obliterating any enemy caught within its blast radius.[5][8]

There are three types of weapons to pick up that appear as colored icons by destroying zeppelins: a wide shot, a laser beam and a flamethrower.[5][6][8] There are also other items like "S" icons that increases the overall speed, "B" icons that acts as extra bomb stocks, "P" icons and 1UPs on rare occasions.[5][6][8] By acquiring three "P" icons in a row, players increase their plane's firepower to one level, with the third power level being the highest.[5][6][8] Once the plane is fully powered up, grabbing additional icons grants extra points instead. Reaching high-scores is also crucial to obtain extra lives, which are obtained at certain score values.[6] Players can also grab lightning-shaped medals for points by destroying containers on the playfield.[6][5]

Depending on the settings in the arcade version, the title uses either a checkpoint system in which a downed single player will start off at the beginning of the checkpoint they managed to reach before dying, or a respawn system where their ship immediately starts at the location they died at.[7] Getting hit by enemy fire will result in losing a life, as well as a penalty of decreasing the ship's firepower and speed to his original state and once all lives are lost, the game is over unless the players insert more credits into the arcade machine to continue playing. Once all ten stages are complete, the game loops back to the first stage after completing the last stage as with previous titles from Toaplan, with each one increasing the difficulty and enemies fire denser bullet patterns.

Plot

The plot summary of Fire Shark varies between each region and version.[9][10] In the original arcade version, a mysterious enemy fleet known as the Strange Fleet arrived at a small island of the Mediterranean Sea during summer night in 1991, with few people noticing its sudden arrival. In the span of two years, the Strange Fleet grew larger and larger, culminating in a worldwide attack as a result. As the Strange Fleet continues their assault, those who oppose them cried "Fire Shark! Fire Shark! It's time to take-off!! Beat them for our sake. Go! Go! Fire Shark!".[9][10] In the Sega Genesis port, the game takes place in the year 19X9 on an alternate Earth instead, where a global superpower known as the S Corps, which specializes in a heavy industrial army begins invading various countries, with all seemingly lost when a phantom pilot flying a super-powered biplane called the Fire Shark flies in to save the world from domination.[6]

Development
Most of the artwork were hand-drawn sketches created by the development team before being transpose to pixel art graphics.

Fire Shark's development process and history was recounted between 1989 and 2012 through Japanese publications such as Shooting Gameside by former Toaplan composer Masahiro Yuge.[11][12][13][14][15][16][17] Yuge acted as the game's composer, with Shintarō Nakaoka serving as artist, while both Sanae Nitō and Yuko Tataka were also involved in the production as designers, though none of the members in the development team were credited as such in neither version of the game.[11][12][14][16] The team wanted to convey "the same strengths" as its predecessor, Flying Shark, by adding elements like the flamethrower as a way to promote the game, with Yuge stating that the weapon acted as a successor to the blue laser in 1989's Truxton.[16][17] However, Yuge later stated regrets in recent years for not balancing the game's difficulty for both arcade owners and players.[17]

The development team settled on using the word "same" when coming up for the project's title, which translates to "shark" in Japanese to convey a strong animal sound.[15] Nakaoka was also responsible for drawing the crowd during the takeoff sequence at the beginning of the game that was, according to Yuge, later animated during their leisure for diversion.[16][17]

Release
Sega Genesis version screenshot.

Fire Shark was released on arcades worldwide in 1989 by Toaplan and Romstar.[1][18] On 21 October 1989, an album containing music from the title was co-published exclusively in Japan by Scitron and Pony Canyon.[12]

On October 1990, a Sega Genesis port of Fire Shark developed in-house by Toaplan was first released in North America by DreamWorks, which was a division of Toy Soldiers, Inc.[2] It was released in Japan by Toaplan on 2 November of the same year, while Sega distributed the title across Europe on December 1991.[3][4] The Genesis port stays faithful to the original arcade release and included a harder difficulty setting but has a number of key differences such as having a smaller color palette that lead to sprites being recolored in different ways, along with other presentation and gameplay changes from the original version.[7] To promote the Genesis version, a TV advert was aired in Japan.[19][20]

A version for the Sharp X68000 was in development and planned to be published by Kaneko, however despite being advertised in Japanese publications such as Oh!X, this version was never released to the market for unknown reasons.[21]

Reception
Reception
Review scores
PublicationScore
AllGame(Arcade) [22]
(Genesis) [23]
CVG(Genesis) 90%[24]
EGM(Genesis) 8.25 / 10[2]
Famitsu(Genesis) 31 / 40[25]
Aktueller Software Markt(Genesis) 8 / 12[26]
Beep! MegaDrive(Genesis) 33 / 40[27]
CVG Mean Machines(Genesis) 71%[28]
Gamers(Genesis) 2-[29]
Génération 4(Genesis) 6 / 10[30]
(Genesis) 88%[31]
Hobby Consolas(Genesis) 79 / 100[32]
Joypad(Genesis) 78%[33]
Joystick(Genesis) 71%[34]
Mega(Genesis) 78%[35]
Mega Drive Advanced Gaming(Genesis) 68%[36]
(Genesis) 53%[36]
Mega Force(Genesis) 11 / 20[37]
MegaTech(Genesis) 59%[38]
Micromanía(Genesis) 44 / 60[39]
Play Time(Genesis) 56%[40]
Player One(Genesis) 51%[41]
Power Play(Genesis) 59%[42]
Raze(Genesis) 87%[43]
Sega Force(Genesis) 61%[44]
Sega Power(Genesis) [45]
(Genesis) 63%[46]
Sega Pro(Genesis) 83 / 100[47]
(Genesis) 90 / 100[48]
(Genesis) 75 / 100[49]
Superjuegos(Genesis) 70 / 100[50]
Zero(Genesis) 74 / 100[51]

In Japan, Game Machine listed Fire Shark on their January 1, 1990 issue as being the fifth most-successful table arcade unit of the year, outperforming titles such as Bases Loaded and Tecmo World Cup '90.[52] According to Masahiro Yuge, Fire Shark was well received in western arcades but proved to be less popular in Japan due to its high difficulty.[53] German magazine Power Play compared it with 1943: The Battle of Midway and Vapor Trail: Hyper Offence Formation.[54] The Sega Genesis version was well received when it was released,[55] earning a rating of 8.25 in Electronic Gaming Monthly.[2]

Legacy

The rights to Fire Shark, its predecessor and many other IPs from Toaplan are now owned by Tatsujin, a company named after Truxton's Japanese title that was founded in 2017 by Yuge, who are now affiliated with arcade manufacturer exA-Arcadia.[56][57][58][59][60]

Notes
  1. Also known as Same! Same! Same! (Japanese: 鮫! 鮫! 鮫! (サメ! サメ! サメ!), "Shark! Shark! Shark!") in Japan.
gollark: There are multiple appropriate ones for various scenarios.
gollark: They're bad at it and it would not be easier if you could just spin off new threads at random. There would also probably be issues with synchronization overhead.
gollark: No, that would cause horrible race conditions constantly.
gollark: Anyway, threads and the various synchronization primitives in C (or, well, commonly used with C?) are not a particularly good model for concurrency given the many, many bugs created through use of such things, as opposed to actor models and whatever.
gollark: What? That makes no sense.

References
  1. Akagi, Masumi (13 October 2006). 東亜プラン (Toa Plan); Romstar; F. アーケードTVゲームリスト 国内•海外編 (1971-2005) (in Japanese) (1st ed.). Amusement News Agency. pp. 50, 130, 152. ISBN 978-4990251215.
  2. Harris, Steve; Semrad, Ed; Alessi, Martin; Williams, Ken (October 1990). "Outpost: Genesis - Fire Shark". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 15. Sendai Publishing. p. 73.
  3. "ソフトウェア一覧（ソフトライセンシー発売）| メガドライブ". SEGA HARD Encyclopedia (in Japanese). Sega. 2020. Retrieved 4 July 2020.
  4. "Power Previews: The Shape Of Things To Come - Three New Shoot-'Em-Ups From Sega! -- Fire Shark". Sega Power. No. 26. Future plc. January 1992. p. 10.
  5. Satomi, Yasuyuki (January 1990). "Super Soft Corner - Video Game: 鮫! 鮫! 鮫!". Micom BASIC Magazine (in Japanese). No. 91. The Dempa Shimbunsha Corporation. pp. 288–290.
  6. Fire Shark instruction manual (Sega Genesis, US)
  7. Zverloff, Nick (1 February 2011). "Fire Shark". Hardcore Gaming 101. Archived from the original on 21 May 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  8. "鮫！鮫！" (in Japanese). Shooting Star. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  9. Fire Shark arcade flyer (Toaplan, JP)
  10. Fire Shark arcade flyer (Toaplan, EU)
  11. Abeto, Kobatsu (September 1989). "東亜プランインタビュー". PSG (in Japanese). Vol. 10. FSG. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2017-05-31 at the Wayback Machine).
  12. "PCCB-00007 | Same! Same! Same!". vgmdb.net. VGMdb. Archived from the original on 9 January 2016. Retrieved 30 November 2019. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-10-22 at the Wayback Machine).
  13. blackoak. "Toaplan Game Music – Composer Interview Collection". shmuplations.com. Archived from the original on 22 October 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  14. "当世ゲーム業界 働く女性事情 - ワーキング・ガール: 田高祐子•二藤早苗 (東亜プラン) Character Designer". Beep! MegaDrive (in Japanese). No. 14. SoftBank Creative. November 1990. p. 87. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-11-21 at the Wayback Machine).
  15. "東亜プラン シューティングクロニクル". SweepRecord (in Japanese). SuperSweep. 14 November 2011. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2018-07-11 at the Wayback Machine).
  16. "東亜プラン シューティングクロニクル 特設ページ". SweepRecord (in Japanese). SuperSweep. 27 October 2011. Archived from the original on 27 February 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2020. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-10-02 at the Wayback Machine).
  17. Kiyoshi, Tane; hally (VORC); Yūsaku, Yamamoto (3 February 2012). "東亜プラン特集 - 元・東亜プラン　開発者インタビュー: 弓削雅稔". Shooting Gameside (in Japanese). Vol. 4. Micro Magazine. pp. 41–48. ISBN 978-4896373844. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-09-06 at the Wayback Machine).
  18. Lambie, Ryan (21 June 2018). "Toaplan: the rise and fall of Japan's greatest shooting game company". Den of Geek. Dennis Publishing. Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  19. "BEメガCM - 『鮫! 鮫! 鮫!』". Beep! MegaDrive (in Japanese). No. 38. SoftBank Creative. November 1992. p. 34.
  20. Tatsuya Uemura (24 July 2019). MD版『鮫！鮫！鮫！』TV-CM　メイキングVTR. YouTube. Retrieved 12 December 2019.
  21. "The Softouch - Software Information: 新作情報 -- 鮫! 鮫! 鮫!". Oh!X (in Japanese). No. 143. SoftBank Creative. March 1994. p. 25.
  22. Baize, Anthony (1998). "Fire Shark (Arcade) - Review". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 16 November 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  23. Baize, Anthony (1998). "Fire Shark (Sega Genesis) - Overview". AllGame. All Media Network. Archived from the original on 15 November 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  24. Regan, Matt (January 1991). "Reviews - Megadrive -- Sky Shark". Computer and Video Games. No. 110. Future Publishing. p. 67. Archived from the original on 27 June 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  25. "鮫! 鮫! 鮫! (メガドライブ) - ファミ通.com". Famitsu (in Japanese). No. 113. ASCII. 9 November 1990. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  26. Alter, Sandra (January 1991). "Konsolen - Einer gegen alle". Aktueller Software Markt (in German). No. 48. Tronic Verlag. p. 100.
  27. "BEメガ•ドッグレース – 鮫! 鮫! 鮫!". Beep! MegaDrive (in Japanese). No. 14. SoftBank Creative. November 1990. p. 22.
  28. Rignall, Julian (November 1990). "Complete Guide to Consoles – The Complete Games Guide – Megadrive – Flying Shark". Computer and Video Games Mean Machines. No. 4. EMAP. pp. 26–39.
  29. Schneider, Boris (March 1992). "Test - Mega Drive - Fire Shark". Gamers (in German). No. 3. MLV-Verlag. p. 62.
  30. "Tests - Megadrive - Same Same Same". Génération 4 (in French). No. 29. Computec Media France. January 1991. p. 108. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  31. "Console Test – Fire Shark – Megadrive". Génération 4 (in French). No. 40. Computec Media France. January 1992. p. 139.
  32. Sanz, José Luis (July 1992). "Lo Más Nuevo - Megadrive - Fuego en el Cielo - Fire Shark". Hobby Consolas (in Spanish). No. 10. Axel Springer SE. pp. 88–89.
  33. Morisse, Jean-François (March 1992). "French Collection - Un Bon Plan Pour Un Sacré Biplan! - Flying Shark". Joypad (in French). No. 6. Yellow Media. p. 142.
  34. Demoly, Jean-Marc (September 1990). "Tests - Megadrive - Flying Shark". Joystick (in French). No. 8. Anuman Interactive. p. 89.
  35. "Fire Shark". Mega. No. 9. Future Publishing. June 1993. p. 20.
  36. "Review: Fire Shark". Mega Drive Advanced Gaming. No. 5. Maverick Magazines. January 1993. pp. 92–95.
  37. "Zapping - Megadrive - Fire Shark". Mega Force (in French). No. 4. MegaPress, S.A.R.L. January 1992. p. 103.
  38. "Game Index - Tora! Tora! Tora!". MegaTech. No. 1. EMAP. December 1991. p. 81.
  39. D.M.L. (July 1992). "Video Consolas - Un Viejo Héroe - Fire Shark (Megadrive)". Micromanía (in Spanish). Vol. 2 no. 50. HobbyPress. p. 79.
  40. Gnad, Stefan (May 1992). "Mega Drive Review - Fire Shark". Play Time (in German). No. 12. CT Computec Verlag GmbH & Co. KG. p. 95.
  41. Drevet, Cyril (February 1992). "Tests De Jeux - Mega D. - Fire Shark". Player One (in French). No. 17. Média Système Édition. p. 88.
  42. Gaksch, Martin (February 1991). "Power Tests / Videospiele - Strohfeuer - Fire Shark". Power Play (in German). No. 35. Future Verlag. p. 148.
  43. "Import - Fire Shark (Mega Drive)". Raze. No. 4. Newsfield. February 1991. p. 74. Archived from the original on 7 October 2016. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  44. Pitt, Adrian (June 1992). "Mega Drive - Reviewed! - Fire Shark". Sega Force. No. 6. Europress Impact. pp. 68–69.
  45. Jarratt, Steve (October 1991). "The Hard Line - Tora! Tora!". Sega Power. No. 23. Future plc. pp. 54–55.
  46. Lawton, Rod (February 1992). "Power Review - Fire Shark". Sega Power. No. 27. Future plc. p. 50.
  47. "Mega Drive – ProReview: Fire Shark". Sega Pro. No. 2. Paragon Publishing. December 1991. p. 67.
  48. "The A-Z of Sega Games – Fire Shark (Mega Drive)". Sega Pro. No. 3. Paragon Publishing. Christmas 1991. p. 18.
  49. "Mega Drive – ProReview: Fire Shark". Sega Pro. No. 18. Paragon Publishing. April 1993. p. 65.
  50. de Castro, Juan P. (February 1993). "Consola - En pantalla: Fire Shark - Guerra por tierra, mar y aire". Superjuegos (in Spanish). No. 2. Grupo Zeta. pp. 24–25.
  51. "Review - Mega Drive - Fire Shark". Zero. No. 33. Dennis Publishing. July 1992. p. 38. Archived from the original on 17 April 2013. Retrieved 1 December 2019.
  52. "Game Machine's Best Hit Games 25 - テーブル型TVゲーム機 (Table Videos)". Game Machine (in Japanese). No. 371. Amusement Press, Inc. 1 January 1990. p. 29.
  53. "東亜プラン". Gamest (in Japanese). No. 49. Shinseisha. September 1990. pp. 68–69. (Translation by Shmuplations. Archived 2019-11-07 at the Wayback Machine).
  54. Gaksch, Martin; Fisch, Henrik (April 1990). "Power Tests / Automatenspiele - Zurück in die Zukunft". Power Play (in German). No. 25. Future Verlag. pp. 130–133.
  55. Thomas, Daniel (5 July 2004). "Genesis Reviews – Fire Shark". sega-16.com. Archived from the original on 7 July 2018. Retrieved 7 December 2019.
  56. "ライセンス事業" (in Japanese). TATSUJIN Co., Ltd. 2019. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  57. Bravo, Roberto (12 September 2018). "Nueva compañía «Tatsujin» asegura tener gran parte de las IPs de la extinta Toaplan" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  58. "Tatsujin". exA-Arcadia. 2019. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  59. Bravo, Roberto (25 January 2019). "Tatsujin, los dueños de Toaplan, anuncian que están trabajando para exA-Arcadia" (in Spanish). Gamercafe. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
  60. "［JAEPO2019］TATSUJINやナツメアタリの参入が発表されたexA-Arcadia。出展コーナーの模様を紹介". 4Gamer.net (in Japanese). Aetas Inc. 26 January 2019. Archived from the original on 21 October 2019. Retrieved 30 November 2019.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.