Fire Shark - Toaplan - Sega Genesis - 1990
The shoot-em-up is just about the longest staple of videogames. If games let you do anything, it’s shoot. Toaplan was the famed Japanese developer that probably did more to advance the vehicle shooter genre than anyone. With rare exceptions, shooters were all Toaplan cared about. At their best, they focused with a laser precision that probably hasn’t ever been bettered. Sadly, that’s partly because this style of games are rarely made anymore. This is a once-vibrant genre slowly headed for extinction.
I can’t imagine why anyone who loves videogames would choose to live without a handful of shooters in their library. These are the very definition of instant-gratification, dazzling the senses and fraying the nerves in less time than it takes to read most instruction manuals. Casual players dominate the market now, and they want simple games; not simple to learn, but simple to walk through. Toaplan shooters cannot be easier to grasp – shoot or be shot – but they require a skillful combination of reflexes and memorization that punishes the casual.
There are a string of classics created by Toaplan from 1986’s Slap Fight to 1993's Batsugun, each brilliant and somehow unique in its own way. Right in the middle of this pack lies Fire Shark. A close cousin to other Toaplan titles like Sky Shark and Twin Cobra, it features a bi-plane set against waves of tanks, boats, cannons, and airplanes, over cities, forests, oceans, deserts, and tundra. This isn’t a game that redefines shooters in any obvious way, but each element is fine-tuned to perfection, and retains a timelessness all its own.
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