Battle Shark

Battle Shark places the player in the cockpit of a combat submarine, offering a first-person view of underwater battles filled with enemy vessels, mines, and destroyers. Here Taito combined the popular "on-rails" shooter concept, where the game itself controls forward movement and the player only handles aiming and firing, with a theme that wasn't as common in arcades of the time as aerial or ground combat.

The controls used a joystick with a crosshair sight and a button to fire torpedoes, with the game emphasizing correct timing of shots relative to torpedo speed and target movement. The environment gradually shifts from shallow waters full of smaller ships to deeper sections with larger, tougher enemies, forcing the player to constantly adapt their tactics. Visually, the game benefited from then-impressive explosion and water-surface effects that gave the cabinet experience the right atmosphere. The cabinet itself also featured a massive body resembling a periscope and control panel, visually drawing the player into the role of submarine commander even before the game began.

Battle Shark never achieved the status of a genre icon, but among the on-rails shooters of the late 1980s it represents a solid and thematically refreshing variation on the classic "aim and shoot" formula. Taito was experimenting at the time with several similar concepts centered on military hardware, and Battle Shark ranks among the lesser-known but honestly crafted results of that effort. For players interested in the military theme of submarine combat, it's an interesting piece of arcade history.

Why play it: an unconventional submarine theme within the on-rails arcade shooter genre.