Toaplan shoot ’em up collection Hishou Same! Same! Same! includes Hishouzame (known in the west as Flying shark) and Same! Same! Same! (known in the west as Fire Shark), as well as ports of the home console versions of each title. Included as a bonus is Toaplan platformer Wardner.
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Fantastic little package, big fan of the inclusion of Wardner! All 3 games are well worth playing and I have sunken many hours into Hishouzame at this point, as well as 1ccing Wardner.
Hishouzame is a very fun STG. I am very fond of how the game looks and feels, and while it can be challenging, the difficulty is very fair all throughout. Very important game historically, too, I believe it introduced things like bullet sealing? I find it to be quite addictive and I am still chipping away at the 1cc. I feel like this game would make for a pretty decent entry point to people who want to get into STGs as well, as it does sorta train you to route out what you are doing, rather than lying entirely on reflexes.
Same Same Same then, is to destroy your confidence once you have become reasonably proficient at Hishouzame. Starting at a ridiculous amount of difficulty, this game is tuned to destroy you, but that makes it all the more rewarding when you manage to get some stages out of the way. The powerup system can be quite punishing, the more undesireable powerups being pretty adamant about bouncing around the screen for ages to make your experience even more difficult. Probably the least played game in the collection for me, but it's still pretty cool. The 2 player version of the game eases down the difficulty a bit, and I believe player 2 also has some advantages in that version, but you miss out on all the gadgets, which is a little bit of a let down. It also doesn't have the side-to-side scrolling, which you may consider a blessing or a curse, as it can be used strategically in the original 1P version.
Wardner is the DLC game. It's a simple little arcade platformer with a nice child-friendly dark fantasy theming. I really like this game, it's fair and very straightforward, and has quite a few secrets to find as well. I think the backgrounds in this game are very pretty, my favorite spot is in stage 3 when a bunch of broken in half statues litter the back and foreground, and they line up at one point via the parallax scrolling to form a full statue. It's cute little details like that that make me really enjoy this one! This particular port does not sport gadgets, but it doesn't really need them anyway. As an extra, here's my first 1cc of the game.
Regarding the different console ports of the games, I have not really played any of them particularly extensively, but I am sure there are some pretty neat inclusions in there, too. Same Same Same's MegaDrive port seems pretty neat, and the FDS of Wardner could also be worth checking out. I mainly got this collection for the arcade versions, though, and as far as those are concerned, I would say this collection delivers.
Hishouzame is a very fun STG. I am very fond of how the game looks and feels, and while it can be challenging, the difficulty is very fair all throughout. Very important game historically, too, I believe it introduced things like bullet sealing? I find it to be quite addictive and I am still chipping away at the 1cc. I feel like this game would make for a pretty decent entry point to people who want to get into STGs as well, as it does sorta train you to route out what you are doing, rather than lying entirely on reflexes.
Same Same Same then, is to destroy your confidence once you have become reasonably proficient at Hishouzame. Starting at a ridiculous amount of difficulty, this game is tuned to destroy you, but that makes it all the more rewarding when you manage to get some stages out of the way. The powerup system can be quite punishing, the more undesireable powerups being pretty adamant about bouncing around the screen for ages to make your experience even more difficult. Probably the least played game in the collection for me, but it's still pretty cool. The 2 player version of the game eases down the difficulty a bit, and I believe player 2 also has some advantages in that version, but you miss out on all the gadgets, which is a little bit of a let down. It also doesn't have the side-to-side scrolling, which you may consider a blessing or a curse, as it can be used strategically in the original 1P version.
Wardner is the DLC game. It's a simple little arcade platformer with a nice child-friendly dark fantasy theming. I really like this game, it's fair and very straightforward, and has quite a few secrets to find as well. I think the backgrounds in this game are very pretty, my favorite spot is in stage 3 when a bunch of broken in half statues litter the back and foreground, and they line up at one point via the parallax scrolling to form a full statue. It's cute little details like that that make me really enjoy this one! This particular port does not sport gadgets, but it doesn't really need them anyway. As an extra, here's my first 1cc of the game.
Regarding the different console ports of the games, I have not really played any of them particularly extensively, but I am sure there are some pretty neat inclusions in there, too. Same Same Same's MegaDrive port seems pretty neat, and the FDS of Wardner could also be worth checking out. I mainly got this collection for the arcade versions, though, and as far as those are concerned, I would say this collection delivers.