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You could have been forgiven for passing Flying Shark in the arcades. Yet another bi-plane game in the 1942 mould, filled with super tanks, gun emplacements and other things your average bi-plane pilot would be most unlikely to encounter flying over any jungle. The flying shark in fact, according to our resident expert on such matters, Tommo, was not even a bi-plane – so there goes historical accuracy right out of the window. Nothing new, you think and that is exactly what I was thinking about Flying Shark as I booted it into the Amiga.

In the arcades, this game had a strange attraction to a lot of people, and you may well find this, once you have overcome an initial bout of irritation, to be of the more playable vertically scrolling shoot ‘em ups released to date. The backdrops are violently dazzling. The jungle is bright green and the sea bright blue, like some deranged travel agent’s feverish hallucination. This helps enormously to add to the general feeling of sensory overload which you need to really get into a frenetic game like this.

Initially, you will probably find it seriously difficult to negotiate blowing away the red squadrons to gain essential extra fire power, whilst staying in the sky yourself. And be careful, you are going to need those smart bombs (awkwardly accessed by use of the space bar) for those end-of-level guardians. Persevere, and you will find yourself coming back to Flying Shark a lot more than you might thought at first.

This is a sort of game which holds few surprises. Five levels, icons for extra lives, extra smart bombs and so on. Flying Shark is aiming at quality rather than originality. Given its crisp graphics and addictive gameplay, it would be a game to recommend – especially considering the weakness of some similar conversions – if it were not for some serious niggles. First off, the ST version is better! I hate to say it, but it is true, the plane handles much more smoothly and the gameplay and graphics are better. If the Amiga is meant to be the superior machine, this should not be allowed to happen. It is true, the plane handles much more smoothly and the gameplay and graphics are better. If the Amiga is meant to be the superior machine, this should not be allowed to happen. It is true that some programmers find it easier to work on the ST, but to an Amiga owner that is no excuse. But maybe it is of little relevance too. Sound too is below average, despite the jolly tune.

Point two, finding a joystick which makes the most of the Shark’s firing capacity is a nightmare. At best it is slow and stuttery. On auto-fire you cannot muster the extra pace needed to get yourself out of tricky situations. I have tried five and I am far from satisfied with any of them.

If you can get to grips with this, Flying Shark is irritatingly addictive – in fact, as fluent a shoot ‘em up as you could wish to find. Build up your firepower enough and virtually nothing can stand in your way. A very satisfying feeling. The skill, of course, is in acquiring the firepower in the first place. Not an obvious purchase, perhaps, but one I think that will last.
Mark Heley

Title Flying Shark
Publisher Taito (1988/89)
Game Type Shoot-em-up
Players 1-2
HD Installable NO
Compatibility OCS
Submission Lempkee Of Tulou Aka Tony Aksnes

Review
Back in the early days of Amiga and C64 times, there were a lot of
vertical shooters, some of them were really bad, but this one is the one
you should boot up and think...Why the .... havent i tried this excellent
game before? Its a simple game these days, but tough. It has far better
playability than the average 3D games these days.

This is one of those games which has to be finished (like 1942 :) ). The
graphics on the Amiga version are far better than on Atari and C64 versions
(though the C64 version is also a CLASSIC) and the music is something you
will hum for ages...

The game starts off with you flying out of a Hangar , and it has the same
idea as with 1942, if you punch out 7 red planes you will get a bonus
item; either a smart bomb or better arsenal/speed etc. When you lose a
life you will be degraded 1 step down in your arsenal's status. Loads of
variety in airplanes and tanks on the ground the usual quality on
landscapes and infact there are noticeable differences when progressing
further and further in the game... (so you will always recognize where you
left off earlier)

The disk loading is tedious on a 512k Amiga , but when upgrading to one
meg the loader is noticeably better/faster..

There is even a Highscore saver on the European Version!!!!

There is one problem with this game that is still annoying me, this is not
an easy thing to fix for normal users! , the game doesn't want to run on 2
meg chip machines, or even on 500+/600 machines, it needs a 68000 and it
needs 512k fast mem; pretty annoying!!

These days i have an A1260 , and I can't even insert the disk before the
machine reboots!!


I have asked around for a WHDLoad/JST type installer, but without luck..

If this game would work on my A1200 by just pressing "2" on my keyboard
to disable the 060, then I would be playing this game over and over again
as its so excellent!, but that wont work.

If you have an A500 with 1 meg mem (512k Chip + 512k fast) then you must
try this game, as it will not bore you to death!



score : 92% (A500 1 meg)

60% ( on all other machines , as it wont work :) )