[Intro]
Bitwave is back with yet another Steam bundle of late 80s/early 90s arcade shoot em ups by one of the most respected and influential genre developers of that period Toaplan. This time we get 1986’s Slap Fight (Alcon), 1987’s Flying Shark (Sky Shark), 1990’s Fire Shark which is Flying Shark’s sequel, and 1989’s Hellfire which was Toaplan’s first attempt at a side scroller. Are any of these games worth paying the $19.99 USD bundle for? Let us take a deep dive into all 4 titles.
[Slap Fight]
Slap Fight at its core is a spiritual successor to Tiger-Heli. Just like that game all of your foes are ground-based vehicles. What sets it apart from Tiger-Heli is the Gradius-style power-up system. Each time you collect a star the highlighted item moves to the right. You simply select the item with the power-up button. Items include speed-ups, side shots, wings which widen the length of your ship, bombs, lasers, homing shots, and a temporary shield which makes you invulnerable for about a minute. Having multiple wings enhances your current weapon and makes it easier to get rid of popcorn tank enemies sneaking from the sides with your side shit but the downside is you’ll be more vulnerable to enemy fire and your wings will easily be destroyed. You’ll occasionally run into boss enemies that range from large tanks, crab-like robots, and an enemy base. There are also secret bonuses throughout the game like palm trees that only grow with the laser weapon, blocks that can only be destroyed with bombs and homing shots, and a brief cameo of the iconic Taito space invader which will give you a massive amount of points if you keep shooting it rapidly with your normal gun. The game is endless and will keep looping with faster enemy projectiles.
[Flying Shark]
Flying Shark is Toaplan’s 2nd military-themed shooter (Tiger-Heli being the first). You control a blue biplane flying over jungles, beaches, harbors, and oceans shooting down various enemy biplanes, tanks, or boats. It is much like Capcom’s 1942 only with a little more variety. Like Capcom’s classic, when you shoot down a wave of red planes you reveal power-ups. “S” widens your shot and “B” increases your bomb stock. The yellow planes award you 1000 pts if you shoot down their formation. Each time you start a new stage you’re equipped with 3 bombs by default. The bombs cause a powerful blast radius which is very useful against bosses or the moments when you want to avoid unavoidable enemy fire. The downside with repeated bomb usage is you’ll be awarded less points at the end of each of the 5 stages since each bomb is worth 3000 points at the end. So if you want a big score you’ll have to only use bombs as a last resort option. Oh did I mention this game is HARD? Enemy projectiles move at Mach speed in this one so you’ll really have to pay close attention or you’ll be losing lives in no time. Like Slap Fight before it, the game will loop forever until you have no lives left.
[Fire Shark]
Fire Shark I personally have fond memories of playing on my Sega Genesis back in the 90s. This is actually the sequel to Flying Shark. Same deal as the original. You’re a biplane shooting down enemy military but now you have more weapons in your arsenal. Blue squares give you a wide shot akin to the default weapon from Truxton. Green squares give you a wave laser. Red squares give you a ridiculously awesome flamethrower that moves back and forth while you’re fully powered up. Like in Truxton you collect a series P icons to upgrade your current weapon. S icons speed up your plane. B icons increase your bomb stock. You collect lightning bolts throughout the game that award you huge points at the end of each level depending on how many bombs you have. There are a total of 10 stages, double the amount of the original Flying Shark. This is a pretty lengthy one for sure and just as brutally difficult as the predecessor if not more.
[Hellfire]
Released shortly after their mega-hit Truxton, this was Toaplan’s first attempt at a side-scrolling shooter akin to Gradius or R-Type. Hellfire isn’t exactly a carbon copy of those legendary shooters though. What sets it apart is it has a gimmick where you change the formation of your gun with a flick of a button. You can fire forward, from the rear, diagonally, or vertically. The 6 stages as a whole are designed for the game’s multi-aiming gimmick. There are situations where you have to fire in certain directions to survive (especially at boss encounters where you have to fire at weak points) and like in Gradius games you also have to fly over narrow obstacles to avoid crashing. The weapon system is pretty basic, you only have the same gun throughout the game and you collect P icons to strengthen it. You also get S icons to speed up your ship. Since this is the arcade original you don’t get the shields, drone, or the laser bombs from the Genesis port making this one a bit harder for inexperienced players. Still, it’s not a bad shooter at all but if a challenge is your cup of tea you definitely will not be disappointed.
[Sound]
The sound in these games is unmistakingly vintage Toaplan right down to the loud clangs. Slap Fight is the only game in this bundle that isn’t in Yamaha FM format. All the games have very catchy tunes by Masahiro Yuge and Tatsuya Uemara.
[Graphics]
All 4 games have nicely detailed and well-animated pixel art from that era. Especially in Hellfire where they went all out with color and the main ship’s design. I love those rotating wings. 🙂
[Bells & Whistles]
Each of the games allows you to change video options, border art, game settings (such as the difficulty, amount of lives, scores to get extends, game region, etc), controls, sound options. I’ve tested these games out with my Sega Mega Drive Mini 6 button USB pad and I haven’t noticed any lag. The controls were very spot on. I was able to dodge those fast bullets in Flying Shark easily.
[Verdict]
If you grew up playing these games back when they were new or if you’re a diehard shmup fan like me getting this bundle is an absolute no brainer. $19.99 USD digitally is quite a bargain compared to how much the physical import M2ShotTriggers versions on Switch and PS4 go for. So if you’re on a budget and don’t collect physical Bitwave’s Toaplan arcade ports for Steam are the way to go. Thanks for reading this review. Happy shmupping
Disclaimer: Review keys were provided
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