Genesis

Fire Shark

I’ll close with one final virtue to bestow upon Fire Shark: you can play the game forever. Once you complete all ten stages, once the credits have rolled, you play through the game again, on a harder (and I mean HARD) setting. This is really the thing that made Contra on the NES so perfect; you’d think this would be standard-issue for every console video game. You’d be wrong.

The graphics are of an extremely high standard and, for once, don't stop you from seeing the enemy's bullets coming! There are too many continues available, but that's a common problem in Megadrive arcade games, and even Truxton had infinite continues. I recommend this game very strongly to all shoot 'em up fans - you'll have a blast!

Fire Shark is a turbo-charged version of the arcade game 1942. This highly regarded shooter certainly delivers in terms of sheer firepower and number of enemies. Your biplane is swarmed by dozens of enemy forces from the air, ground, and sea. Fortunately, your powerful guns are up to the task, and you also have a supply of devastating bombs. The bombs take out a large area, and you can time their detonation by holding the deploy button. There are three types of weapons, and each can be powered-up to an insane degree. Fireshark is a shooter lover's shooter. The action is fast and furious with no hint of slowdown. The graphics are a little weak, especially the desert and water backgrounds, but the animation is smooth and flicker-free. Fire Shark is a little on the easy side, mainly because the power-ups bounce around the screen until you catch them. It's cool how your plane catches fire when hit, allowing you to get off a few extra shots before going down. This one's a winner.

Fire Shark weist zwar keine gröberen Schnitzer auf, spielt sich ganz gut, ist aber ziemlich eintönig - trotz zehn Levels. Angriffsformationen, Feinde sowie Grafik wiederholen sich recht oft und eindrucksvolle Riesengegner à la Tatsujin tauchen hier kaum auf. Lobenswert ist allerdings, daß Fire Shark auf Stufe “Easy“ (wird in dem üppigen Option-Menü eingestellt wirklich einfach ist.

Fire Shark is the quintessential Genesis shooter that isn’t noteworthy in any way but isn’t bafflingly bad in any way, either. Not even vanilla is this plain. In a library with many excellent and exquisite vertical shooting entries, this may be one of the most unremarkable because it doesn’t offer anything beyond battling tanks and planes. But where previous images of military conquest led by a single stalwart fighter conjured moments of exhilaration, no such emotions arise here.