Flying Shark - Information

Flying Shark was a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up coin-op from Taito. The original Japanese name for the game was Hishou Zame. In the US it was also known as Sky Shark.

Although Flying Shark looks like it was set in WW1, the plot was extremely vague. In fact, no mention was made as to whom the player was fighting for or against!.

High Command has recalled their best flying ace to go on one last mission - a lone mission against overwhelming odds to save mankind!

Starting at the bottom of the screen, the game scrolled from bottom to top, with dozens of attacking planes, gun emplacements, tanks and boats trying to thwart the player's bi-plane.

Their plane could shoot a stream of single bullets, or use up to four smart bombs to obliterate anything on the screen. Weapon upgrades (to shoot multiple bullets or gain extra smart bombs) were awarded when an entire 'wave' of enemy planes were destroyed.

Gun emplacements and tanks could turn their gun turrets and shoot from the side or behind, so the player also had to be adept with the controls to out-maneouvre the enemy bullets.

Although the upgraded weaponry definitely gave the player an advantage, they still had to use a fair amount of concentration and skill to battle through each of the levels.

Flying Shark wasn't spectacular to look at or to play, but it was a good solid blast that had that all-elusive 'just one more go' factor.