Sky Shark

Sky Shark, also known as Flying Shark (飛翔鮫 which translates to Hishouzame in Japan) is an arcade game released in 1987. It is a vertical scrolling shooting game. The game was sold by Taito and produced by Toaplan, and licensed to Romstar for US distribution as Sky Shark.

Gameplay
You control your own biplane, the Flying Shark, as you avoid enemy planes, tanks, and other attacks, while destroying them with shots and bombers. If you are hit by a bullet or your planes collide with each other, you lose one of your planes, and if all of your planes are lost, the game is over. The game can be continued depending on the setting.

The game consists of five stages, and after clearing the fifth stage, the difficulty level increases to the second stage, which is a looping game that continues to increase in difficulty until the player's plane runs out. From the second week onward, the first stage is cut off and the game becomes a loop of stages 2 through 5.

There are two types of weapons for your ship: the main shot (up to six levels), which fires a radially expanding number of bullets as you take power-up items, and the powerful bomb, which explodes when you press a button, damaging enemies and canceling out enemy bullets.

There are no speed-ups or weapon changes. The power-up item is a yellow panel with an "S" on it. The yellow panel with the letter "S" on it appears when the red plane formation that appears occasionally is annihilated. A yellow formation will give you a bonus, and a white formation will give you a 1-up item. Note that neither formation fires any bombs.

The bombs do not explode immediately after being fired, but fly forward a short distance and then blast a certain area. They can only be fired once the stock is depleted. The stock is increased by taking the red item (B) that appears when certain ground objects are destroyed, but it is added to the bonus points when the stage is cleared, and returns to the default stock of three on the next stage. In addition, only one red item (B) can be displayed on the screen, so if there are multiple red items (B), you need to collect them one by one or you will miss them. The maximum number of bombs can be found on the 4th and 5th planes. The maximum number of bombs you can stock up on depends on each stage.

Towards the end of the stage, a large enemy appears, which can be called the boss of the stage. After that, regardless of whether or not you have defeated the large enemy, you will reach the landing area and the stage will be cleared. At this point, a bonus is added depending on how many bombs you have in stock.

When you shoot down a miscellaneous class fighter, the effect differs depending on the distance between the downed enemy plane and your plane. When you shoot down a mook class fighter, the effect varies depending on the distance between your plane and the enemy plane. This gimmick is also used in the sequel, "Shark! Shark! Shark! the sequel.

The weapons that appear in the game are mostly biplanes, enemy biplanes, monoplanes, tanks, ships and boats, and gun turrets from World War II or earlier.

If you hit a miscellaneous ground object (tank, ship, etc.) with a shot, the turret will be destroyed first, and if you hit the body of the object with another shot, it will be destroyed. This gimmick has also been used in "Raiden" and other vertical scrolling STGs.

The stage has a tropical feel, influenced by a company trip to Southeast Asia.

When an enemy plane shot down from a long distance crashes on a ground object, that object is also destroyed.

Items
(S)

Appears when the red squadron is annihilated. If you take it, your ship will be powered up one level.

(B)

Increases the number of bombers in your inventory by one. Basically, it appears when you shoot a certain ground character. Two of them will not appear at the same time.

(1UP)

Appears when you annihilate the white squadron. It can only appear a maximum of twice per game. The location where the white squadron appears is random, and it will appear twice at the beginning of the second stage at the earliest, and around the third stage at the latest.

Bonus Scoring
Earn 1000 points by annihilating the yellow squadron.

Earn 3000 points for each Bomber you have when you clear a level. After the score is added, the number of Bombers you have is reset to 3 and you move on to the next level.