IndieGo #31: Slap Fight and Flying Shark

IndieGo #31 looks at two oldies but still goodies from the STG maestros at Toaplan, now available on Steam.

Any respectable overview of shooting game history wouldn’t be complete without a discussion of Toaplan. Once situated in the cedar-lined streets of Suginami, the prolific developer released sixteen STGs between 1985 and 1993. Over these eight years, innovations were abundant.

1985’s Tiger-Heli was one of the first STGs to introduce the now ubiquitous bomb mechanic. Its sequel, 1987’s Twin Cobra popularized the color-coded weapon system that would form a foundation for franchises like Seibu Kaihatsu’s Raiden. Toaplan’s swan song, 1993’s Batsugun even instigated the danmaku sub-genre. Following the company’s bankruptcy one year later, key staff would continue to transform the shooter, founding famed companies such as Cave and Takumi.

Last February saw the release of a quartet of Toaplan titles, with Outzone, Truxion, Twin Cobra, and Zero Wing, making their way onto Steam. Six months later, publisher Bitwave Games is back with a new salvo of shooters. As with the previous package, there’s little historical context, so don’t expect any of the archival materials that often accompany these compilations. Likewise, there’s no connective tissue that links these Toaplan titles. Instead, they are sold via a piecemeal approach. That said, let’s look at the oldest two games in this wave of releases: 1986’s Slap Fight and 1987’s Flying Shark.

With vertically scrolling stages that send you soaring over busy, bitmapped landscapes and waves of saucer-shaped enemies, Slap Fight (aka ALCON in North America) might remind you of 1982’s Xevious. Typical for the era, you probably won’t be inundated by throngs of foes and skies filled with firepower. Instead, all adversaries are ground-based, so there’s no worry about collisions.

The danger stems from the sheer speed of the projectile launched into the air, requiring a succession of quick evasions from your experimental aircraft, known as the SW475. Like Toaplan’s Sky Shark, there’s no worry about immediately adjacent adversaries shooting at you- at least at first. Turrets won’t fire at you when you’re in their immediate range, but that distance shrinks the longer you persevere.

But Xevious is hardly the only influence. When certain enemies are defeated they’ll drop a star that’s used as currency in a Gradius-like power-up system. While a single star can purchase a speed boost, augmenting the maneuverability of the SW475, you can also bank stars for offensive upgrades. These range from remarkably effective lateral shooting, far-reaching lasers, bombs that cover sizable areas, as well as the ability to gain double, triple, and even quadruple wing-mounted guns.

But unlike most of its peers, power-ups can have their disadvantages, too. While obtaining shielding won’t carry any consequences, most of the offensive power-ups increase the size of your ship. In turn, swells the size of your hitbox, making the SW475 an easier mark for enemies. Like Konami’s iconic shooter, a single accidental death can send you pack to a checkpoint without many stars around. As such, Slap Fight conveys a sense of momentum. When you’re laying down a persistent trio of bombs, you can often feel untouchable. But it’s also possible for a single mistake to cascade into a game over.

With its curious blend of inspirations, Slap Fight remains engaging 37 years after its original release. Sure, flying around a fully fleshed-out SW475 can feel cumbersome. But it’s one of the few STGs that conveys a sense of being a slow and bulky bomber laying waste to a ground-based opponent. And that means it’s worth checking out for dedicated STG fans.

Score: 80

A recurring motif in Toaplan shooters is the use of contemporary military hardware. 1985’s Tiger-Heli kicked off the trend, with the vertically scrolling shooter sending a lone aircraft against dozens of tanks, battleships, and artillery turrets. Similarly, 1987’s Flying Shark would send a solitary biplane to face endless waves of air- and ground-based foes. Of course, this formula would be reproduced for Toaplan’s Fire Shark, which holds the distinction of being the fifth most popular tabletop arcade game of all time.

Undoubtedly, Flying Shark deserves its place in gaming history. The game represented Toaplan shifting development to the Motorola 68000 microprocessor, allowing for a driving FM synthesis-driven soundtrack as well as more onscreen sprites. Purportedly, the developer team even took a trip to Thailand to inject a bit of realism into the game’s visuals.

Revisiting Shark shows that time on the trip wasn’t squandered. From the tread trails left in the sand by tanks to the battered sheet metal roofing of military warehouses, the game delivers a credible context. The shift to more powerful hardware even allows for effects like defeated enemy planes to fall downward, a bit of smoke signaling their defeat. Meanwhile, the ability to move the vertically scrolling battlefield right and left suggests that Flying Shark’s game world is larger than your high-flying perspective.

Beyond its aesthetics, Flying Shark doesn’t have too many distinctions. By shooting down an entire wave of conspicuously colored foes, you might release an “S” icon which beefs up your offensive weapon. Alternatively, there are opportunities for point bonuses, as well as increasing your inventory of lives. Bombs aren’t quite as powerful as the screen-clearing explosions in most games. Instead of an instant deployment, they’ll take a second or two before detonating. As such, they can’t be used as a last-ditch effort, since they won’t immediately clear the area around your aircraft. They also require a bit of aiming. Although they’ll devastate hardware caught in their swirling blast radius, adversaries in the peripheral tend to survive.

As STGs go, Flying Shark is tough, requiring precise projectile dodging right after the game starts. While coin-op enthusiasts might want to have this in their collection, less dedicated players will probably want to pick Fire Shark instead. Not only does the sequel offer formidable Raiden-like weapons, but there’s a cooperative mode that’s great for projectile-eluding pairs. Getting your ass kicked alongside a partner seems to lessen the sting of Toaplan’s tendency for fast-moving bullets.

Score: 75

Like last winter’s foursome of Toaplan STGs, Bitwave Games’ added some amenities to the collection. Each game’s menu allows for options like integer scaling, tate mode, and rendering options that include simulated scanlines, smoothing, pixel interpolation, or the look of unadorned accuracy. Beyond that, multiple difficulty settings recreate the DIP switch settings of the original cabinets, as well as the blessing of turbo fire. If you forsake a spot on the online leaderboards, you can rewind, give yourself extra health, or even display the hitbox of your aircraft. Just be aware that the ‘dodge’ cheat shows that artificial intelligence is still inferior at STGs. For better or worse, it’s no match for human experience.