|
| “ | Roger! | „ |
| ~ Battle Shark captain replying to communicator after having been briefed of the submarine's mission. |
The Battle Shark (in Japanese: バトルシャーク) is a titular protagonist submarine from Taito's 1989 FPS arcade game Battle Shark.
Overview[]
| “ | Watch out! Let's take this one real easy. | „ |
| ~ Battle Shark captain after destroying enemy submersible tank Romanos. |
Third World War has broken out, extremely vicious battles have taken place on lands and airs. Inevitably the intense flame of the global war has expanded onto oceans. After waging many battles and warring for many years, the war is brought to a standstill, with none of belligerents achieving the upper hand. Countries involved in WW3 decided to settle the war through the diplomacy by creating a peace negotiation. But due to greedy political leaders attempting to gain leverage by any means before them, the peace negotiation dragged on with no definite settlement on sight, all the while the war continues with mounting losses of lives on all sides.
Then the intelligence from the allies discovered an unpleasant information: peace negotiation that had been created to bring the war to an end turned out to be a deception. The enemy axis had been exploiting the peace negotiation to drag on settlement conditions to buy themselves time in their attempt to establish a huge undersea fortress to continue the war - and the fortress just had been completed. After discussion within the allies, a latest state-of-the-art, one-of-a-kind high-tech super-submarine named Battle Shark with elite crews of sailors was tasked to search the enemy axis' fortress, and ultimately destroy it. As Battle Shark submerges and ventures into enemy sea, the world will either be saved by Battle Shark or be sunken into abyss of deep sea along with Battle Shark.
Battle Shark's task will not be easy one. The super sub must go through total of 10 stages of hostile sea territories heavily populated with enemy naval and air forces eager to send the super sub to the bottom of an ocean permanently. There are two phases: Stages 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 involve an underwater warfare in which Battle Shark must engage enemy submarine packs, mines, concealed automated batteries and shiver of sharks laden with bombs that kamikazes on targets. Stage 3, 7 and 10 involve Battle Shark surfacing out to sea engaging enemy surface combatants including carriers, gunboats and air force involving fighters, attack helicopters. Stages 2, 3, 5, 7, 9 and 10 involve boss enemies that guard territories of stages they appear, and they must be defeated in order to progress to the next stage (except stage 10 which is the final battle that leads to ending after defeating it).
Powers and Abilities[]
| “ | This is a piece of cake, with Battle Shark's power! | „ |
| ~ Battle Shark captain after sinking enemy super-battleship Vasum |
Battle Shark is capable of deep-sea diving, able to withstand the crushing pressure of the deep sea. It is also capable of carrying various amounts of destructive all-purposeful missiles that replenishes (depending on situation the speed of replenishment can be either slow or fast). For some strange reasons, the amount of missiles Battle Shark can carry varies underwater (16 in default, 20 in first offense upgrade, 24 in second offense upgrade, 28 in third and final offense upgrade. Missiles' quantities decrease back to their previous numbers when taking enemy hits and thus causing downgrade in attack system) in contrast to Battle Shark's missile stocks when surfaced (30 missiles regardless of the upgrade).
Another factor to note is its resilience. Battle Shark is very durable as it can take up to 6 enemy attacks before it gets destroyed. Starting from the second hit, the alarm is triggered. The more hits Battle Shark takes, the more frequent alarm sounds as well as sounding louder. By the fifth hit, the damage indicator changes from DAMAGE to WARNING. In this state one hit from anything will destroy Battle Shark. However, in spite of taking kind of damages that would sink and destroy any normal submarines, Battle Shark amazingly is still able to pursue its mission and fight on with upgradeable offense capability still intact.
- When taking the third damage, Battle Shark's computer announces, "Communication System Has Been Damaged". But Battle Shark crew can still engage communication freely with operators.
- When taking fourth damage, Battle Shark's computer announces, "Computer System has been Damaged". But Battle Shark is still able to estimate the depth which the sub is presently in and able to spot approximate distance of enemy bosses.
- When taking the fifth damage, Battle Shark's main engine system has been damaged but the sub is still able to submerge, surface and move around effortlessly.
Bonus Mines[]
However powerful Battle Shark might be it is still one submarine against many. And no matter how powerful it is, it can still be destroyed after taking the sixth and the final hit. Throughout its quest, Balle Shark will encounter various colorful capsules floating around the screen. These capsules are called Bonus Mines which contain items Battle Shark needs to obtain to have a better chance of survival and completing its mission.
- Blue Bonus Mine: Replenishes Battle Shark's shots to the max immediately. This can be a godsend during the thick of battle with enemy minions. When fighting enemy minions, shots replenish slowly which can spell trouble. If blue bonus mines are not present, the rate of shots fired by Battle Shark must be constantly in check, for shots run out quickly if fired carelessly. When all shots are launched indicator word 'EMPTY' pops up. This can lead to many problems when enemies fire multiple shots; on surface battle this problem is even more critical, because shots fired from both sides fly even faster. In underwater blue mine will only fully replenish shots based upon the current status of the sub's offense upgrade.
- Green Bonus Mine: Provides Battle Shark lock-on targeting sights which upgrades Battle Shark's offense capability as well the quantities of shots the submarine can shoot underwater. Can be upgraded up to 3 times. Not only Battle Shark will have more shots underwater, but this item enables Battle Shark to cover more attacking radius thus able to shoot down more enemies from various locations more quickly and efficiently.
- Red Bonus Mine: This mine reduces damages Battle Shark received by 2. Another very important item as there are no other ways to reduce damages and Battle Shark continues its combat after a stage is cleared without respite. But unfortunately, this mine appears infrequently and in later stages it moves very fast, potentially missing the mine unless prepared for its appearance through memorization. At times the mine might not even appear at all.
- Yellow Bonus Mine: There is fourth and secret bonus mine with yellow color. This mine provides Battle Shark limited quantities of special extra shots that do not expend main shots. What Battle Shark would get depends upon its status of offense upgradability.
- When Battle Shark is in its default state, the mine offers the sub bombs which explodes in wide radius.
- When Battle Shark is in upgraded offense system, the mine grants the sub homing shots. Shots launched match with the number of enemies present in the screen. Every shots pushed from Battle Shark's control is one missile spent, regardless of enemies present in the screen.
yellow bonus mine offers 10 shots total.
Trivia[]
- Some enemy vehicles such as gunboats, attack helicopters and fighter jets appear in Taito's another shooter video game called Aquajack. In that game, a villain named Banglar is revealed to be the game's mastermind but is never caught. Banglar appears as a final boss in The Ninja Warriors, also a game created by Taito. These tie-ups led many gamers to speculate that Battle Shark, Aquajack and The Ninja Warriors might share the same universe.
- Two Battle Sharks exist in different medias. First Battle Shark is from a 1979 Super Sentai series called Battle Fever J as an all-purposeful warship tasked with carrying and transporting Battle Fever Robo, which is the series' main mecha. Although this Battle Shark is supposedly a warship, it is capable of operating underwater as well as on land and above air. Second is the submarine from 1989 arcade game made by Taito. This article deals solely with the latter.