Toaplan's Flying Shark and Fire Shark are coming to Switch and PS4

Clear River Games has opened preorders for Toaplan Arcade Garage: Flying Fire Shark, a physical and digital collection of classic shoot 'em ups launching on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch on August 29.

The collection costs 499 SEK (approximately $53.93 USD as of May 11, 2026) and bundles six arcade variations of the 1987 hit Flying Shark and its 1989 sequel Fire Shark. The base package has the worldwide, US, and Japanese arcade ROMs for both games, along with the two-player version of Fire Shark (known in Japan as Same! Same! Same!). The physical release also includes a DLC pack with seven additional console ports. That bonus pack contains the NES version of Sky Shark, the Sega Genesis and Mega Drive ports of Fire Shark, and multiple regional versions of the 1987 action platformer Wardner. The puzzle game Teki-Paki is a separate free download for anyone who has purchased any Toaplan Arcade Garage game.

M2 brings the training wheels

M2 handled the emulation for this release. The Tokyo-based studio has a long history of obsessively preserving arcade games through their M2 ShotTriggers line. They do not just dump ROMs into a basic wrapper. They dissect the original code to reduce input latency and build elaborate training tools around the core game to help modern players survive.

These Toaplan shooters are notoriously difficult, so M2 added a Super Easy Mode alongside the authentic arcade difficulty. They also built an Arcade Challenge Mode. This mode chops stages into small sections and automatically rewinds the game when your ship takes a hit. It lets you grind out practice runs on specific boss patterns until you can manage a one-credit clear. The screen borders also house M2 Gadgets, which are custom UI elements that track hidden items, display real-time boss health, and warn you about enemies sneaking in from blind spots.

Before Cave and Raizing

Toaplan basically laid the groundwork for the modern vertical shoot 'em up. The studio operated from 1984 until their bankruptcy in 1994, and their alumni went on to form influential developers like Cave and Raizing. Flying Shark (released as Sky Shark in the US) was a massive arcade hit in 1987. It earned praise for its tightly tuned difficulty and simple bomb mechanics. The bomb system gave players a panic button when the screen got too crowded.

It was also the developer's first game to use the 16-bit Motorola 68000 processor and FM synthesis for its soundtrack. This hardware upgrade gave the game a distinct audio profile compared to older arcade boards. Fire Shark followed in 1989 and traded the balanced approach of its predecessor for absolute chaos. It armed players with massive weapons that filled the entire screen and caused severe slowdown on the original arcade hardware.

Flying Shark is available on the Evercade system as part of the Toaplan Arcade 1 cartridge. Fire Shark is not listed as being on a 'Toaplan Arcade 2' cartridge. Those Evercade releases are great if you just want the raw arcade ROMs on a physical cartridge.

I think the $45 asking price for this new Clear River Games collection is steep if you only look at the raw game count. The value really comes from M2's obsessive training tools and the inclusion of the 16-bit console ports. If you want to actually learn how to beat these games without pumping in endless virtual quarters, the ShotTriggers version is the way to go.