Thanks to Bitwave Games for the review code
Title: Fire Shark
System: Steam (PC)
Price: $7.99
Release Date: 08/24/2023
Story
In the sequel to Flying Shark, you take control of a red plane with some powerful bombs in order to destroy enemies across ten stages. As usual, not much of a plot here, and so you can easily go in without playing Flying Shark!
Presentation
Same sort of Bitwave presentational features: TATE Mode, scaling/filter/border/info options, and hitbox toggles for accessibility and practice purposes. All look fine here, and the image scaled rather sharply on both my Steam Deck and my HDTV, showing those crisp pixels. Yet again, the music is perfectly fine with typical Toaplan FM high energy action, and I’m a lot happier to say the sound effects of this particular game are a lot closer to what they should sound like compared to the other titles in this volume.
They aren’t quite perfect, especially if you have the M2 set or Evercade release to compare to, but compared to the prior Vol 2 titles we covered so far, these sound effects are absolutely fine and still pack a lot of the same impact. The bomb packs a punch, multi-hit attacks won’t pierce your ears, and I’d argue maybe only a few slight pitch tweaks with the sound effects would be needed to make this pretty much Arcade perfect, which makes Fire Shark a more enjoyable experience when comparing it to Slap Fight’s sound emulation.
Gameplay
Fire Shark takes a couple of the ideas from Flying Shark such as the destructible environments, visible damage on enemies, and collecting items for an end of stage bonus, while adding a whole bunch of new elements to make this an exciting sequel, one more in line with the high energy Toaplan’s other games at the time offered. Just like other Bitwave ports, both US and JP variants are available here, and in Fire Shark’s case, it is by far the most important of the Vol 2 titles to sport this feature, since the Japanese version, Same Same Same, is vastly different in terms of game balance, scoring, and strategy.
To focus on the original JP version for a bit, Same x3 is vicious. Even on the first stage, the enemies will move with lightning fast bullets and require a lot of reflexes in order to dodge and destroy. As you set out, you start with the blue vulcan weapon by default, but can pick up either the red flamethrower weapon or the green laser, each of which I found various uses for over the ten stage adventure, with some bosses and formations being a lot better with certain weapons compared to others. (with the flamethrower usually being the big go-to for most situations)
Like most Toaplan shooters, your plane has a few bombs ready to drop in order to shield yourself from oncoming bullets, and these are especially vital to save for absolutely emergencies in Same, since bomb pickups from enemies, while occasional enough to not leave you completely starved, are still spread out far enough that holding onto your stockpile may be the difference between a life or death duel against a boss, especially with the bullet speed. Like Flying Shark, dying sends you back to a checkpoint, though you can continue as much as you wish or take advantage of the rewind/speedrup/DIP features to beat the game, along with the various accessibility toggles Bitwave has provided.
Nevertheless, I found Same x3 to be a remarkably addicting shooter, with the punishing difficulty still feeling fair enough that I could tell this was a well designed pattern based shooter; each attempt, I would slowly make my way further and further, knowing when to shoot down foes before they could fire their speedy bullets at me, and focusing on stockpiling the perfect weapon to try and maximize my score. Out of sheer curiosity, I decided to try a practice mode attempt of the final stage with max powerups, and still found myself getting utterly obliterated even with many bombs and a powerful flamethrower, yet even in that seemingly impossible scenario, I slowly found ways to improve and slowly get better, which is especially helpful for if you want to relax a bit with the US version of the game, Fire Shark.
See, Fire Shark is the same core game, with all the same weapons and general stage layout, but the enemies are way less mean. Bullets are a lot slower, and the stages ramp up a lot more gradually over time, making the later stages feel like a natural climb up a mountain rather than the sharp spike that they are in Same. In fact, I tried the final stage practice mode with the US version’s second loop, and I was able to easily destroy the final boss without a sweat thanks to the slower firing rate, which should give you a good indication of just how ludicrous Same can get. It also has two player co-op, and as a result, you respawn instantly upon dying, but the bummer to this change is that the strategic checkpoints from the JP version are now gone. You also have to just wait as the game scrolls on and on for a bit if you don’t want to continue and register your high score, since continuing will retain your current score and throw you right back in as if you simply lost a life, making credit feeding this version super easy.
Still, as much as I enjoyed the more relaxed pace of Fire Shark, I loved the strategic approach in Same Same Same, and both versions I feel are super fun to play and were ported really damn well here, from the typical low input lag the Bitwave ports offer, online leaderboards, and the various toggles to practice and mess around with the game. In the case of Same x3, the rewind feature in particular is excellent for learning enemy and boss patterns, especially considering how vital bullet speed knowledge is to survival in that version of the game. Unfortunately, it seemed my US Fire Shark scores wouldn’t register on the online leaderboard no matter what I tried, but the JP ones worked just fine in one player mode, so that’s something to be a bit aware of if you’re playing this for score. The Automatic/manual coin bug I noted back in the Flying Shark review is present here, just as it currently is in all Bitwave ports.
Conclusion
Just like the other Toaplan games, Fire Shark is a fun ride, and the multiple variants on offer do lead to some good variety with the difficulty and scorechasing aspects. The Japanese Same Same Same! version is the most fun for those wanting to give themselves a challenge, while the US Co-Op version is a lot more easygoing and perfect as a way to practice the game with less aggressive enemies, or have a friend tag around with you for the whole ten-stage journey.
The leaderboards differing per game version and DIP settings is also appreciated, especially due to how drastically different Same is to scorechase compared to Fire Shark, but unfortunately there are still some irritating bugs, including the returning manual coin option still glitching out to make the coin button get mistaken for the regular shot, and I’m pretty irritated by that for the same reasons I brought up in my last reviews. I also noticed playing the US Co-Op version of the game didn’t always register my leaderboard score, despite being connected to the internet in the same manner as my JP scores, so the leaderboards have some minor bugs to deal with as well.
Still, of the four ports in Volume 2, I feel this one is neck and neck with Hellfire for being the least bugged of the bunch, and the sound effects are actually pretty darn close to perfect now, so with the high response time, great practice options, and online leaderboards to tackle, this is still an excellent shmup to check out if you like retro shooters, and even the brutal Same Same Same is worth taking on. You might be surprised by how better you’ll get at it over time!
I give Fire Shark a 7 out of 10.