Fire Shark

US flyer

**Fire Shark**, known in Japan as **Shark! Shark! Shark!** (鮫!鮫!鮫!, *Same! Same! Same!*), is a vertical screen scrolling arcade shooting game released by Toaplan in 1989. Outside of Japan, this game was licensed to Romstar. It is the sequel to *Sky Shark*. It was later ported to the Sega Mega Drive in 1990. In 2022 the game was included in the *Flying Shark! Shark! Shark!* compilation by M2 for the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, as part of their *Toaplan Arcade Garage* label. In 2023 it was released digitally for PC on the Steam and GOG storefronts by Bitwave games.

The game was short-lived in Japan due to difficulty problems, but an interview in a special feature on Toaplan in the game magazine "Gamestop" revealed that the game was quite a hit outside of Japan. Only the 2-player version was released outside of Japan, and in Korea, it was released by Doyang.

## Story

### Japanese Version

In 19X9, the S Army Heavy Machinery Corps "Red Star", which boasts overwhelming military power in the war triggered by the S Army's invasion of Gabul, was about to drop the small country "Republic of the Middle East" due to its ferocious power. The nation's liberation army "Yumin", who was driven into the S army that repeatedly invaded cruel and outrageous, put the last power on the hero machine "Flying Shark" of the previous holy war and revived it as "Fire Shark". It's time for you to take off as a pilot for "Fire Shark". Go! The code name for "Fire Shark" is "Same! Same! Same!".

### Western Version

Govemments around the world watch in dread as enemy forces amass on a small South Pacific island. Their numbers grow with each passing day, yet no violent actions are taken. As weeks and months pass, Earth's peace-keeping nations begin to relax their guard. Then Command Central receives this message from a team deep in the field.

*REPORT: Enemy forces mobilizing. Objective unknown. information unreliable. All attempts at intelligence retrieval have failed. Will continue to monitor...*

With only this as a warning, the feared strike begins. On land. On water. In the air. The invasion force attacks with unmerciful precision. Communication lines are cut. Army, Air Force, Naval and Marine bases are crushed. All seems lost. The people gather to surrender... when from out of the smokey haze of battle, a single biplane emerges. The old plane seems to fade away, then grow stronger; more distinct. On its sides, a gleaming "FIRE SHARK" stares straight ahead, a dire apparition with frightening hypnotic power.

"Who is he? Where did he come from? What kind of plane is that'?" The battered soldiers watched in awed amazement as the biplane flies straight into the jaws of the enemy. Inside the biplane, a phantom aviator prepares for battle. He is a time-traveler, a flying ace who has gone renegade and flown to the ends of time and back. His mission...self chosen...is to face the impossible and win. Anywhere Earth is threatened he will do battle...to defend the planet that has been his home in another time and place. He has plundered the technologies of the ages to outfit his plane for war. A quick weapons check shows wing-mounted cannons and blockbuster bombs armed and ready. Other weapons are available... if he can find them. With unerring precision and frightening power, the aviator begins his assault. He hits the enemy full force. Planes, ships, tanks, bunkers — no enemy is safe from this strange specter's attack!

## Gameplay

The player controls their biplane with an 8-way lever, a shot button, and a bomb button. The game has a total of 10 stages as an endless loop.

The type of shot switches depending on the item. The bomb goes straight up the screen as long as the bomb button is pressed and held, and explodes when released, damaging enemies near the center of the explosion and canceling enemy bullets at the same time.

### Power-up Items

Power-up items appear when certain enemies are destroyed:

* Speed Up (S): Increases the speed of the player's aircraft; obtaining 3 of these items results in the maximum speed. The maximum speed is slower than that of *Truxton*, making it easier to fine-tune. This is an important item in this game, where the initial speed of the player's aircraft is slow.
* Power Up (P): Collecting three of these items will power up the shot by one level. There are a total of three levels. The stock of power-ups does not decrease even if the player dies. Also, at the highest power-up level, three power-ups can be stored in the stock gauge, or one power-up level, making resurrection a little easier. When the stock gauge is full, there is a chance that weapon change items will appear more often. However, the difficulty level increases in several ways: enemy bullets become faster, the interval between enemy bullets becomes shorter, and bullets are fired even when the distance between your ship and ground objects (but only small fry such as tanks and ships) is rather close. This is one of the factors that make it difficult for beginners to enjoy the highest level of power-ups.
* Bomb (B): Increases the stock of bombs by one; up to 10 bombs can be stocked. It greatly affects the stage clear bonus. Initially, the player has 3 bombs.
* Bonus: A lightning bolt-shaped item that appears when the bonus box or red turret is destroyed. It affects the stage clear bonus. The clear bonus is calculated as "number of bonuses collected x number of bomb stocks x 1000 points." If you clear the stage with no stock of bombs, you will receive 0 points (no bonus) no matter how many bombs you collect. If you die, the number of bombs collected will be reset.
* 1UP and 2UP: The 1-up item appears on rare occasions when an Otakebi (medium-sized aircraft) is defeated, and the 2-up item appears when a certain number of General Porters (item carriers) are defeated without any misses (the number is reset when the aircraft misses).
* Weapon Change Item: In "Twin Cobra" the color of the item changed every few seconds, and the weapon of the shot changed according to the color of the panel when it was acquired, but in this game, items are of a predetermined color. Therefore, players need to avoid items that are not their objective. Acquiring an item of the same color as the equipped shot does not increase power, but it does add bonus points.

## Differences In The 2 Player Version Of The Game

Because the difficulty level was too high and the game was not supported by general fans due to its mania-oriented difficulty, a two-player version with a reduced difficulty level was also released at a later date.

* The overall difficulty was reduced.
* The way some enemies, including the General Porter and Kimigayo (the first-side boss), shoot bullets is different.
* Speed-up items appear when some turrets are destroyed.
* The game does not scroll left and right. Therefore, there are some areas, such as Jennifer Connelly's (stage 8 boss), where you cannot scroll out to eliminate the turrets, resulting in a higher difficulty level than the one-player version.
* The player instantly respawns upon dying.
* The number of general porters that appear is counted without being reset, so if you keep shooting down general porters from the first stage, you are sure to find 2-up items in the fifth stage.

## Enemies

* Small Fighter 1~8
* Medium General Purpose Tank
* D-3 Fujimaru
* Cyker Cock
* S-Inter
* Gunboss 313
* FB-K2
* 1KK-Bron
* Yaemon
* KU-Barazo
* Sabu CO-2
* 99A-Samson
* Raidon-4A
* FB-Utamaru
* H-Great
* Okakebi 2
* 554 Kobanza
* Adon 603

## Gallery

JP flyerUS Mega Drive coverJP Mega Drive cover
## Trivia

* The Japanese title of the game is a homage to the code "Tora Tora Tora", which was used by the former Japanese army in their attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II.

## External Links

* GOG store page
* Steam store page
* Bitwave Games