Fire Shark

For the 2020 re-release by Retro-bit, see Fire Shark Collector's Edition.

n/a

NTSC-U NTSC-J PAL
Fire Shark/Same! Same! Same!
System(s): Sega Mega Drive, Sega Mega-Tech
Publisher: DreamWorks (US), Sega (Europe), Toaplan (Japan)
Developer: Toaplan
Distributor: Hent Gruppen (SE rental)
Original system(s): Arcade boards
Genre: Shooting
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1990-11-02 ¥6,5006,500 T-40013 US 1990-11 34016 EU 1991-12 T-34016 UK 1992-04 £34.9934.99 T-34016 SE (rental) 199x AU 199x UK 199x £? ?
Non-Sega versions Arcade

Fire Shark, released in Japan as Same! Same! Same! (鮫！鮫！鮫！), is a 1989 arcade shoot-'em-up by Toaplan ported to the Sega Mega Drive in 1990. This is one of the few Mega Drive ports developed by Toaplan themselves.

The Japanese title of the game is an homage to "Tora! Tora! Tora!" (トラ！トラ！トラ！), the codeword used by the Imperial Japanese Army for the attack on Pearl Harbor in World War II.

Story

On an alternate Earth, heavy-arms producing nation S Corps starts invading other countries, and the Fire Shark, a biplane, seems to be the only hope for stopping S Corps.

Gameplay

Bomb

The game is a vertical shoot-'em-up where players control the biplane Fire Shark over a constantly scrolling background, fighting enemies until reaching an airport at the end of the stage. Enemies appear in the land, sea, and air. The Fire Shark moves in any direction using the D-Pad. The playfield is slightly wider than the viewable area. It fires its weapon with or . Rapid-fire can be enabled in the options before starting the game. The weapon power can be upgraded by collecting power-ups. There are three different weapons, which are changed by collecting items. The plane is equipped with a limited supply of bombs, which are fired with . Bombs explode in a large radius and can be replenished through item pick-ups.

The Fire Shark catches fire and blows up if it takes damage from an enemy projectile or from colliding with a flying enemy. It respawns at a predetermined checkpoint so long as the player has extra lives in stock, but the weapon power is downgraded and the speed upgrades are lost collected and the player starts over with three bombs. The game ends if the player runs out of lives, but it can be continued if the player has credits remaining. The player gains an extra life at 70,000 points and then every 200,000 points after that.

Typically for Toaplan, once the game has been completed, it loops back to the first stage with increased difficulty and denser enemy bullet patterns. The game has three selectable difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, and Hard). There are three endings, depending on the difficulty level.

Weapons

	Wide Shot
	The starting weapon. Shoots multiple streams in different directions and covers a wide area. Upgrades increase the number and density of the streams.
	Shark Beam
	Green lasers that move in a helical pattern for focused damage. Upgrades widen the pattern.
	Super Fire
	Continuously firing beams of fire. Upgrades add more beams. The beams on the side sweep to cover a large area.

Items

Items bounce off the edges of the screen until they are collected.

	Zeppelin
	Destroy to release an item.
	Bonus Box
	Destroy to release a Bonus item.
	Wide Shot
	Changes to the Wide Shot weapon (or awards 5,000 bonus points if already equipped).
	Shark Beam
	Changes to the Shark Beam weapon (or awards 5,000 bonus points if already equipped).
	Super Fire
	Changes to the Super Fire weapon (or awards 5,000 bonus points if already equipped).
	Speed Up
	Upgrades the movement speed of the Fire Shark, up to 3 times.
	Power Up
	Upgrades the Fire Shark's weapon after 3 are collected. There are 3 weapon upgrades.
	Bonus
	Awards 100 bonus points.
	Bomb
	Increases the Fire Shark's bomb supply. The Fire Shark can hold up to 10 bombs at a time.
	One Up
	Gives the player an extra life.
	Two Up
	Gives the player two extra lives.

Stages

	Stage 1
	Stage 2
	Stage 3
	Stage 4
	Stage 5
	Stage 6
	Stage 7
	Stage 8
	Stage 9
	Stage 10

History

Legacy

The game was re-released worldwide as Fire Shark Collector's Edition by Retro-Bit as part of Toaplan Shooters Collector's Edition in October 2020.

Versions

Localised names

Also known as

Language	Localised Name	English Translation
English	Fire Shark	Fire Shark
English (US)	Fire Shark	Fire Shark
Japanese	鮫！鮫！鮫！	Same! Same! Same!

Magazine articles

Main article: Fire Shark/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Sega Visions (US) #2: "October/November 1990" (1990-xx-xx)
also published in:

• Game Players Sega Guide! (US) #0101: "Vol. 1, No. 1: Fall 1990" (1990-10-xx)

Print advert in Mean Machines Sega (UK) #11: "September 1993" (1993-07-30)

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1990-11: "November 1990" (1990-10-XX)

Physical scans

Mega Drive version

Sega Retro Average
Publication Score Source

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Based on 0 review

Sega Retro Average

Publication Version Score 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 50 1700 igr dlya Sega (RU) 80 Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 83 Complete Guide to Consoles (UK) 64 The Complete Guide to Sega (UK) 59 Console XS (UK) PAL 83 Cool Gamer (RU) 30 Computer & Video Games (UK) 90 Electronic Gaming Monthly (US) NTSC-U 83 Entsiklopediya luchshikh igr Sega. Vypusk 1 (RU) 50 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 78 FX (UK) 70 Génération 4 (FR) 88 Famicom Hisshoubon (JP) NTSC-J 50 Hobby Consolas (ES) 79 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-U 68 Sega Mega Drive Advanced Gaming (UK) NTSC-J 53 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 78 Mega (UK) PAL 78 Mega Force (FR) PAL 55 Mega Play (US) NTSC-U 83 MegaTech (UK) NTSC-J 59 Micromanía (segunda época) (ES) 73 Mean Machines Sega (UK) 59 Player One (FR) 51 Play Time (DE) 56 Power Play (DE) 59 Raze (UK) NTSC 87 Sega Power (UK) NTSC 50 Sega Power (UK) PAL 63 Sega Pro (UK) 83 Sega Pro (UK) 90 Sega Pro (UK) PAL 75 Sega Pro (UK) NTSC-J 75 Sega Force (UK) PAL 61 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 79 Tricks 16 bit (RU) 60 Zero (UK) 74

	69
Based on 38 reviews

Fire Shark

Mega Drive, JP
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, US
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, EU
Cover
Cart Manual

Mega Drive, SE (rental; Hent; black)
Cover

Mega Drive, AU

Mega-Tech version

Mega-Tech,
Cart

Technical information

Main article: Fire Shark/Technical information.

ROM dump status

System	Hash	Size	Build Date	Source	Comments
✔	CRC32 570b5024 MD5 dc1fa82af5d70b5a35e06b7f10f9bbcb SHA-1 453ca331d15c47171c42312c14585541a3613802	512kB	1990-08	Cartridge (US)
?	CRC32 9c175146 MD5 c00981929f3eca882d123809e81185df SHA-1 020169eb2a4b3ad63fa2cbaa1927ab7c33b6add4	512kB	1990-08	Cartridge (US)	Same as above ROM except 102 bytes blanked. Possibly pirate or hack.
✔	CRC32 2351ce61 MD5 de1cab62facb121904d0cb1da9cc00a8 SHA-1 54b9060699187bf32048c005a3379fda72c0fb96	512kB	1990-08	Cartridge (EU)
✔	CRC32 77bbd841 MD5 9b399dee13e33613a4bed61b76d0233d SHA-1 b0d2552c5aae75dbe2d63600c0dbd64868c2f2c5	512kB	1990-08	Cartridge (JP)
?	CRC32 MD5 SHA-1		1990-07-30					Page