Flying Shark

Flying Shark
North American arcade flyer of Sky Shark.
Developer(s)	Toaplan Banana Development Catalyst Coders Firebird Graftgold Images software kaneko Software Creations
Publisher(s)	^JP Taito (original) ^JP Kaneko ^JP Ving ^NA Romstar (original) ^NA/EU Firebird ^EU Electrocoin (original) ^EU Model Racing (original)
Composer(s)	Tatsuya Uemura
Platform(s)	Arcade Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, FM Towns, MS-DOS, Nintendo Entertainment System, PC, X68000, ZX Spectrum
Release date(s)	March 1987 Arcade ^JP March 1987[1] ^NA 1987 ^EU 1987 Commodore 64 ^NA 1987[2] ^EU 1987[2] ZX Spectrum ^EU 1987[3] Amiga ^EU 1988[4] Amstrad CPC ^EU 1988[5] Atari ST ^EU 1988[6] Nintendo Entertainment System ^NA September 1989[7] MS-DOS ^NA 1989[8] PC ^NA 1989[9] X68000 ^JP November 22, 1991 FM Towns ^JP September 1993
Genre(s)	Scrolling shooter
Mode(s)	Up to 2 players, alternating turns
Cabinet	Upright
Display	Vertical, Raster, standard resolution

Flying Shark (飛翔鮫 Hishōzame), released in North America as Sky Shark, is a 1987 vertical scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Toaplan and published by Taito in Japan, Electrocoin in the United Kingdom, Model Racing in Italy, and Romstar in North America.

In 1989, the game received a sequel titled Fire Shark.

Gameplay

Screenshot of the arcade version.

Piloting a biplane, the player takes out enemy land, air, and naval craft across various environments. Certain waves of enemy airplanes produce bonuses when shot down, such as powerups, point bonuses, and extra lives. Each stage begins and ends at a runway, and every time the player lands at a runway beyond the first takeoff, the amount of bombs multiply 3,000 points to the player's total score. The player gets 3 bombs at the start of each stage (or death). The game has five stages and then it loops from stage two indefinitely.

Conversions

Front cover of the Amstrad CPC version.

This game was converted to the Amiga, Commodore 64, MS-DOS, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, X68000, FM Towns, and the Nintendo Entertainment System. The NES version of the game was Tim Follin's first composed soundtrack on the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Most of the computer conversions were only released in Europe or North America. The NES port is also a North American exclusive.

References

1. "Arcade Release Date". Retrieved 2013-11-06.
2. "Commodore 64 Release Dates". Retrieved 2013-11-06.
3. "ZX Spectrum Release Date". Retrieved 2013-11-06.
4. "Amiga Release Date". Retrieved 2013-11-06.
5. "Amstrad CPC Release Date". Retrieved 2013-11-06.
6. "Atari ST Release Date". Retrieved 2013-11-06.
7. "Nintendo Entertainment System Release Date". Retrieved 2013-11-06.
8. "MS-DOS Release Date". Retrieved 2013-11-06.
9. "PC Release Date". Retrieved 2013-11-06.

External links

• Flying Shark at the Killer List of Videogames
• Flying Shark at World of Spectrum
• Sky Shark reviews at Solvalou.com