Overall 8.9 Graphics 8 Sound 8.5 Addictive 7 Story 6 Depth 5 Difficulty 6
7
The beloved Toaplan formula is getting old AdMan
Sometimes you’re playing one game, and you have this unsettling déjà-vu feeling: I’ve played this before! Only you know you are really thinking of a different game. Fire Shark is an eminent example of this, since it bears more than a little resemblance to Toaplan’s earlier Twin Cobra.
Though the graphics are updated, and you now control a plane rather than a helicopter (don’t worry, this doesn’t introduce any actual changes in game play) the game feels decidedly uninspired. They might as well have just taken Twin Cobra and switched out the sprites. That’s what Fire Shark feels like. Sure, it’s fun to fire a flamethrower at hordes of enemies and incinerate the whole screen at once (one of the admittedly awesome power-ups in Fire Shark) but it was also fun to fill the whole screen with blue spread shots in Twin Cobra four years earlier.
There is simply nothing new and original in Fire Shark. Even the music starts to sound like “Toaplan music”, which by 1991 we have heard many times before. The play is also just as challenging as Twin Cobra but more aggravating. The formations of enemy planes swoop down at you unpredictably, making it not so much challenging as plain annoying to stay alive.
My review is short because this game is so bleh. It's not too little, but it is too late. By 1991 the shmup genre needed a shot in the arm and Fire Shark merely goes back to the past. Try Aero Fighters on SNES for a new take on the old formula.
If you have an insatiable urge to blow things up and Fire Shark is your only option, by all means go for it. But for a 1991 shooter, Fire Shark delivers little more than the fleeting satisfaction of exploding screen after screen of tanks, boats, and planes. But hey, who doesn’t need that once in a while?
Graphics 7 Sound 8 Addictive 6 Story 4 Depth 4 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 4.5/5
Submitted: 09-15-12
Review Replies: 0
9
Heavy Metal Gamer: Fire Shark (Sega Genesis) Review HeavyMetalGamer
Fire Shark is a top down view shoot em up on the Sega Genesis. It was originally released in the Arcade in 1989 in Japan and then 1990 in North America. The Sega Genesis port was developed by Toaplan and published by Dreamworks. Fire Shark is a sequel to Flying Shark.
If you love top down shoot em ups, this game is right up your alley. The story behind the game has you in the year 19X9, on an alternate Earth. S Corps, which specializes in heavy industrial armies begin invading various countries. You must pilot a super powered World War II plan through 10 levels blasting away a variety of enemies and save the alternate earth. You get some power ups that make you more powerful, on top of that, you have bombs you can drop on your enemies to wipe them off screen.
The graphics are awesome looking, well designed especially on a 16 bit console, the game runs smooth, doesn't glitch or flicker. It does look better in the arcade, but for being on the Sega Genesis, I can't complain. The music is bad ass, and very well composed, it fits the game perfectly, and it is something I expect in a game like this. The sound effects are nice as well. The controls work great, using your primary weapon, and bombs is very simple to do, they respond very well, nothing I can complain about.
Fire Shark is a bad ass shoot em up, it's not a bullet hell shooter, and it's not impossible, hell I can get quite far, you are gonna die at times unless you are really good at shoot em ups, but the game is a classic, the graphics are awesome, the music and sound effects are damn good, the story is nice, the controls are great, the only thing I wish is that the game was a bit longer, maybe 2 to 4 more levels, but other then that, definitely pick up Fire Shark!
If you want to watch my video review, you can check it out here below.
[youtube]SUkdhYj0NO8[/youtube]
Graphics 9 Sound 9 Addictive 8 Story 8 Depth 6 Difficulty 5
Review Rating: 3.5/5
Submitted: 08-12-16
Review Replies: 0
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