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* ItsHardSoItSucks: ''Fire Shark'' is one of Toaplan's more divisive games due to being one of the hardest games they put out, if not one of the hardest commerically-produced shmups ''period'' (rivaling even the likes of ''VideoGame/{{Mushihimesama}} Futari'' on Ultra and the arcade version of ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}} III''). In addition to absolutely mean enemies that fire lightning-speed bullets, the game is infamous for its powerup system that intentionally tries to screw over the player. The American ''Fire Shark'' build (as opposed to the Japanese ''Same! Same! Same!'' original) build [[DifficultyByRegion attempts to alleviate this by removing the checkpoint system and dialing down some of the enemy behaviors]], but it's still a sadistic experience for many players.
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* ItsHardSoItSucks: ''Fire Shark'' is one of Toaplan's more divisive games due to being one of the hardest games they put out, if not one of the hardest commerically-produced shmups ''period'' (rivaling even the likes of ''VideoGame/{{Mushihimesama}} Futari'' on Ultra and the arcade version of ''VideoGame/{{Gradius}} III''). In addition to absolutely mean enemies that fire lightning-speed bullets, the game is infamous for its powerup system that intentionally tries to screw over the player. The American ''Fire Shark'' build (as opposed to the Japanese ''Same! Same! Same!'' original) build [[DifficultyByRegion attempts to alleviate this by removing the checkpoint system and dialing down some of the enemy behaviors]], but it's still a sadistic experience for many players. The Genesis port of the game is generally regarded as superior simply for being based on the 1-player edition, but having a much more reasonable difficulty curve.
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Nintendo Hard is now YMMV
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* NintendoHard: The game is already this by nature of being an arcade shooter, but it soon quickly turns ''sadistic'' with how often enemies flood the screen and their absurdly fast bullets even on the first loop. Add in a power-up system that requires three P items to level up, a slow initial plane speed, and the inability of certain weapons to effectively cover the screen, and you've got what is frankly one of the hardest shmups ''in existence'', with not even most modern BulletHell games matching it in terms of utter difficulty. Toaplan would later make a "2P" variant, which serves as an alternate build in Japan and the only release of the game in the US, with lowered enemy difficulty and the checkpoint system removed, but it's still not easy. It's rather telling that in the Genesis version, despite its Normal difficulty being tuned to be easier than arcade, the game still defaults to Easy difficulty.
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** The end-of-stage score bonus (and scoring is important in this game, as [[EveryTenThousandPoints you gain extra lives through it]]) is proportional to how many lightning icons you picked up on the life that you finished the stage with ''times the number of bombs you have''. Which means if you have no bombs at the end of the stage -- [[NintendoHard and you likely will]] -- you get ''no bonus!''
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** The end-of-stage score bonus (and scoring is important in this game, as [[EveryTenThousandPoints [[Every10000Points you gain extra lives through it]]) is proportional to how many lightning icons you picked up on the life that you finished the stage with ''times the number of bombs you have''. Which means if you have no bombs at the end of the stage -- [[NintendoHard and you likely will]] -- you get ''no bonus!''
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Flamethower does not make the game significantly easier. Its damage output isn't actually all that great despite being a continuous-damage weapon rather than a bullets-based one, and it doesn't negate the absurdly fast bullets that enemies shoot out.
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* GameBreaker: The [[PlayingWithFire Flamethrower]] weapon. At max level, it shoots out 6 streams of fire that almost sweeps through the whole screen except for directly behind the player character. Not to mention it does massive damage too...
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* AuthorsSavingThrow: The Genesis version's lowered difficulty is essentially an apology to players for making the 1P arcade version needlessly difficult in the name of pleasing profit-hungry arcade operators.
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* SequelDifficultySpike: A ''massive'' one over ''VideoGame/SkyShark''. Despite the player having more firepower options, the perks are easily outstripped thanks to rapid enemy bullet speeds coupled with difficult placements, a powerup system where just powering up one level requires 3 'P' tokens, the player having a very slow initial plane speed that has to be improved by collecting fast-moving 'S' tokens, and weapon change items lingering on the screen for a long time meaning the player can be forced to switch an undesired weapon. The game is more than twice as long too, with 10 stages that take 45-50 minutes as opposed to ''Sky Shark''[='=]s five stages that take only 15-20 minutes.
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* SequelDifficultySpike: A ''massive'' one over ''VideoGame/SkyShark''. Despite the player having more firepower options, the perks are easily outstripped thanks to rapid enemy bullet speeds coupled with difficult placements, a powerup system where just powering up one level requires 3 'P' tokens, the player having a very slow initial plane speed that has to be improved by collecting fast-moving 'S' tokens, and weapon change items lingering on the screen for a long time meaning the player can be forced to switch an undesired weapon. The game is more than twice as long too, with 10 stages that take 45-50 minutes as opposed to ''Sky Shark''[='=]s five stages that take only 15-20 minutes.minutes.
* UnderusedGameMechanic: In the ''Hishou Same!'' port, none of the M2 Gadgets or most convenience features besides savestates and rapid fire are available for the "alternate" versions of the game (US ''Fire Shark'' and JP ''2P Same! Same! Same!''), which are better-regarded by players due to the lowered difficulty. If you want the full package, you have to play the brutally difficult "1P" ''Same! Same! Same!'' version of the game.
* UnderusedGameMechanic: In the ''Hishou Same!'' port, none of the M2 Gadgets or most convenience features besides savestates and rapid fire are available for the "alternate" versions of the game (US ''Fire Shark'' and JP ''2P Same! Same! Same!''), which are better-regarded by players due to the lowered difficulty. If you want the full package, you have to play the brutally difficult "1P" ''Same! Same! Same!'' version of the game.
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* SequelDifficultySpike: A ''massive'' one over ''VideoGame/SkyShark''. Despite the player having more firepower options, the perks are easily outstripped thanks to rapid enemy bullet speeds coupled with difficult placements, a powerup system where just powering up one level requires 3 'P' tokens, the player having a very slow initial plane speed that has to be improved by collecting fast-moving 'S' tokens, and weapon change items lingering on the screen for a long time meaning the player can be forced to switch an undesired weapon. The game is about twice as long too, with 10 stages that take 45-50 minutes as opposed to ''Sky Shark''[='=]s five stages that take only 15-20 minutes.
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* SequelDifficultySpike: A ''massive'' one over ''VideoGame/SkyShark''. Despite the player having more firepower options, the perks are easily outstripped thanks to rapid enemy bullet speeds coupled with difficult placements, a powerup system where just powering up one level requires 3 'P' tokens, the player having a very slow initial plane speed that has to be improved by collecting fast-moving 'S' tokens, and weapon change items lingering on the screen for a long time meaning the player can be forced to switch an undesired weapon. The game is about more than twice as long too, with 10 stages that take 45-50 minutes as opposed to ''Sky Shark''[='=]s five stages that take only 15-20 minutes.
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* SequelDifficultySpike: A ''massive'' one over ''VideoGame/SkyShark''. Despite the player having more firepower options, the perks are easily outstripped thanks to rapid enemy bullet speeds coupled with difficult placements, a powerup system where just powering up one level requires 3 'P' tokens, the player having a very slow initial plane speed that has to be improved by collecting fast-moving 'S' tokens, and weapon change items lingering on the screen for a long time meaning the player can be forced to switch an undesired weapon. The game is about twice as long too, with 10 stages as opposed to ''Sky Shark''[='=]s five.
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* SequelDifficultySpike: A ''massive'' one over ''VideoGame/SkyShark''. Despite the player having more firepower options, the perks are easily outstripped thanks to rapid enemy bullet speeds coupled with difficult placements, a powerup system where just powering up one level requires 3 'P' tokens, the player having a very slow initial plane speed that has to be improved by collecting fast-moving 'S' tokens, and weapon change items lingering on the screen for a long time meaning the player can be forced to switch an undesired weapon. The game is about twice as long too, with 10 stages that take 45-50 minutes as opposed to ''Sky Shark''[='=]s five.five stages that take only 15-20 minutes.
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** Even the flamethrower isn't safe from this trope. A level 3 or 4 flamethrower may rain death upon your enemies, but at level 1 or 2 it only shoots forward beams with all the problems of the green vulcan.
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** Even the flamethrower isn't safe from this trope. A level 3 or 4 flamethrower may rain death upon your enemies, but at level 1 or 2 it only shoots forward beams with all the problems of the green vulcan.vulcan.
* SequelDifficultySpike: A ''massive'' one over ''VideoGame/SkyShark''. Despite the player having more firepower options, the perks are easily outstripped thanks to rapid enemy bullet speeds coupled with difficult placements, a powerup system where just powering up one level requires 3 'P' tokens, the player having a very slow initial plane speed that has to be improved by collecting fast-moving 'S' tokens, and weapon change items lingering on the screen for a long time meaning the player can be forced to switch an undesired weapon. The game is about twice as long too, with 10 stages as opposed to ''Sky Shark''[='=]s five.
* SequelDifficultySpike: A ''massive'' one over ''VideoGame/SkyShark''. Despite the player having more firepower options, the perks are easily outstripped thanks to rapid enemy bullet speeds coupled with difficult placements, a powerup system where just powering up one level requires 3 'P' tokens, the player having a very slow initial plane speed that has to be improved by collecting fast-moving 'S' tokens, and weapon change items lingering on the screen for a long time meaning the player can be forced to switch an undesired weapon. The game is about twice as long too, with 10 stages as opposed to ''Sky Shark''[='=]s five.
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* ContestedSequel: On one hand, you have players who love this game because of the iconic flamethrower weapon and the absoultely fantastic synthesized metal soundtrack. On the other hand, there are people, even fans of Toaplan's other games, who dislike this game because of its ''sadistic'' difficulty, not helped by the game's intentionally-unhelpful powerup system that can force the [[ScrappyWeapon green beam]] onto the player.
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* ContestedSequel: On one hand, you have players who love this game because of the iconic flamethrower weapon and the absoultely fantastic synthesized metal soundtrack. soundtrack, considering it to be a vast improvement upon ''VideoGame/SkyShark''. On the other hand, there are people, even fans of Toaplan's other games, who dislike this game because of its ''sadistic'' difficulty, not helped by the game's intentionally-unhelpful powerup system that can force the [[ScrappyWeapon green beam]] onto the player.player, and prefer ''Sky Shark'' for being simpler yet much more fair and refined.
