Fire Shark

It's the familiar Toaplan's vertical shooter with all their favourite set-pieces. But now you can pick up three types of main weapons of different colours. (Which of course turns the colours you don't like into mines.) The weapons can be improved a couple of times by collecting three power-ups each. Your default speed suck and it must be improved by picking up s-power-ups. The bombs have low range, low damage, delay, and don't wipe the screen as a defensive option. The enemies can come out and attack you from below. You die in one hit, while milliards of enemies want to ram you. The graphics are pretty noisy it's very easy to miss incoming damage because it's covered by two or three other sprites. It's a typical pay 2 win arcade coin-racket scam to pray on vulnerable kids with gambling addiction. It's made not for players to play, but for owners of gambling drug dens to profit. Each player's death directly fills their wallets, so of course there's nothing even remotely fair in this game. On death you lose your guns and speed, to make sure you die even faster next time, and have no chance to recover. But this is a great release you can rebind and multi-bind the keys. There’s diffe…

No matter what version of the original arcade game you play, it's brutal. This is functionally okay, but as usual the emulation is subpar and there are some noticeable issues with the added features that take away your focus. My favorite version of the game remains the Genesis port, which is a lot fairer anyway.

✍️ A Theory of Shmup Evolution By: Joseph Salomonsen Gradius → R‑Type → Darius → Toaplan → Cave / Treasure / G.rev 🟨 Foundations — Designed Space Gradius (Konami, 1985) The origin of control: resource systems, checkpoints, and authored space. The player shapes their ship to survive the level. R‑Type (Irem, 1987) The Force system: space becomes weaponized. A slow, methodical philosophy—positioning over reflex. Darius (Taito, 1987) Branching structure and spectacle. The first step toward non-linear shmup identity. 🟥 Line 1 — Density → Pattern → Bullet Hell (Toaplan → Cave) Twin Cobra (Toaplan, 1987) The definitive military shooter. Discipline, routing, survival. (my personal fave) Truxton / Tatsujin (Toaplan, 1988) The birth of the “Mega-Bomb” aesthetic—power as expression. Batsugun (Toaplan, 1993) The bridge to Bullet Hell. Density begins to dominate space. DoDonPachi (Cave, 1997) The system is complete. Patterns become language. Mushihimesama (Cave, 2004) The organic extreme. Bullets form ecosystems, not just obstacles. Deathsmiles (Cave, 2007) A divergence: horizontal design fused with atmosphere. Bullet hell becomes mood, not just system. 🟩 Line 2 …

I hate this game. It's great. Maybe my favorite Toaplan game.

Absolutamente Cinema! eu simplesmente amei as qualidades de vida que eles trouxeram pra esse relançamento ce é loko tem uma opção que faz o avião desviar sozinho das balas tipo WTF? Mas realmente valeu cada centavo xD.

Great game play Plays well on the Steam Deck