Genesis Fire Shark thread

[louisg]

Hey, I just got this guy for my Genesis and I have to say, as top view 16-bit shooters go it's fairly intense. The only thing that is bugging me is the weapon balance -- with the default spread, some of the larger enemies practically require bombs; and if you're fast on the draw with the more concentrated weapons, most of the bigger enemies don't really get a chance to fire.

So, anyone else have experience with this version, and what do you think about the port or game in general?

[sjewkestheloon]

trust me the spread shot is powerful enough to destroy anything within a few seconds and there should never be anything that leaves the screen alive. the only thing i'd say about the weapons is to avoid the green one at all costs unless picking up the 5000 points bonuses from multiple collections.

personally this is one of my favourite all time shmups and i'm currently working on a 2 loop clear on defaults and a 1cc on normal. there are a few spots that still give me problems as i always forget about them and then struggle with crappy weapons on the restart.

i'd say this is probably the only game that has made me desperately want a supergun so that i can get my hands on a japanese same!same!same! to try it out. apparently the difficulty is insane though, much harder that hard mode on this game.

this game is my first toaplan game aswell and from this one i can't wait to pick the others up, especially batsugun when i finally get a saturn.

[SuperGrafx]

I bought this back in the day (EGM Magazine shamelessly mentioned that it features 100 stages...that's not exactly true, but whatever) because it reminded me so much of Sky Shark.

Overall, it's pretty good based on my short experiments with the arcade version on Mame. The collision detection feels a little "off" and the weapons don't feel very satisfying, but you adjust and get in the zone pretty fast. When you're fully powered up with the spread, it's pretty tough to die unless you lapse into a lazy spell.

What I liked a lot were the little intermissions between stages when you land and take off. They're not really intermissions, but you can see little soldiers on the ground going about their business, taking off and crashing planes, etc. Nice touch back then!

IMO, the best arcade to home Genesis shmups were Twin Cobra and Truxton. They felt closer to the source material despite missing many graphical elements.

[louisg]

trust me the spread shot is powerful enough to destroy anything within a few seconds and there should never be anything that leaves the screen alive. the only thing i'd say about the weapons is to avoid the green one at all costs unless picking up the 5000 points bonuses from multiple collections.
. . .
apparently the [arcade] difficulty is insane though, much harder that hard mode on this game.

Yeah, I should mention I'm playing on hard, where enemies take more hits.. normal was too easy for me, but on hard it seems almost like the arcade one (though the arcade version is still a bit harder, but will not start you back). You can try it on MAME if you won't miss the sound. I hear you get an even harder second loop upon a clear; can anyone verify this?

[sjewkestheloon]

apparently the loops get much harder progressively, with possibly the third loop on hard being the fastest bullet wise. however i only heard this from another member and i cannot confirm it.

[CMoon]

One of my favorites. I actually think the genesis port turned out a bit better than the arcade, in part due to auto-fire (I don't think the arcade has it) and more approachable difficulty.

As far as the weapon choice goes, while spread ends up being the most damaging (short of the useless green), the red weapon comes in handy later with its reverse shot (given how many enemies come at you from behind later in the game!)

I adore Fireshark, but the unforgiving results of dying make this game (and all early toaplan games) difficult beyond what they should be. As others have said before, the early toaplan games were really meant to be 1-lifed.