Shark Shooter Terrafin Review with Shark Tank
Shark Shooter Terrafin is a new SuperCharger version of one of the old original Skylanders: Terrafin. If you thought you knew Terrafin before, think again. The new SuperCharger version Shark Shooter Terrafin has a brand new set of attacks, and because of this, he plays very differently. He’s still the same dirt shark trained in the art of boxing who is the champion fighter of the Dirt Seas. But this time, he’s left his boxing gloves at home and instead he has put on a shark rocket launcher! His earth swimming skills also remain intact from the days when he was a lifeguard so he still has the ability to quickly gain ground on his opponents by swimming underground. However, it’s shooting sharks that Terrafin does best now which makes Shark Shooter Terrafin much improved.
Shark Shooter Terrafin is a bit bulkier and more solid than his older versions. Part of this is due to his massive shark shooting rocket launcher that is covering almost his entire right arm, and part of it is because he is now wearing some thick looking armor. His shark launcher is a very metallic grey which stands out against Terrafin’s earth tone browns and greys. This is good because it draws your eye to it, and if you are familiar with previous versions of Terrafin, it immediately sends the message that Terrafin is changing. His armor is a welcome addition because almost every Skylander is wearing some kind of armor or clothes, but Terrafin never did. The armor looks like it’s heavy and made of some kind of stone or strange earth corral. After all he does swim underground, so who knows what kinds of strange wildlife lives in the Dirt Seas. In any case, Shark Shooter Terrafin is a much more interesting looking Skylander than is prior versions.
Shark Shooter Terrafin’s main attack is now called Ballistic Frenzy. This shoots shark rockets into the air which then will burrow into the ground and towards their target. The shark rockets will curve a little to hit their target as well, so they don’t have to be aimed exactly. Also, if you are in close range, the rockets don’t need to go in the ground to do damage, they are just as powerful when they strike from the air. His second attack is the Earth Swim Blast which allows him to burrow (swim) underground. Unlike previous versions of his character he no longer just pops out and slams on his opponents, he now pops out and shoots a rocket at the ground. It has the same basic effect though. Once you purchase the Slam Support upgrade, you’ll get a third attack where Terrafin will slam his gun on the ground knocking back all nearby enemies. When you perform this attack while underground he will jump out for a second to launch a shark ally that will attack nearby enemies before continuing to earth swim. Another basic upgrade called Surface To Air To Surface Missiles, will fire a bunch of shark rockets straight into the ground. These sharks then burst out of the ground straight up into the air and rain back down on nearby enemies like a mortar strike. It’s a pretty good upgrade, but it takes a bit of time to set up and Terrafin is stationary and vulnerable to attack as long as he is firing shark rockets into the ground. So it’s a little dangerous to use against big strong enemies. The final couple of basic upgrades will add more damage to the rockets and allow the Ballistic Frenzy rockets to hit enemies twice. Once you find his Soul Gem, you can purchase the Sand Snare attack. This attack will create a sand whirlpool which will trap enemies in it for a short time. I was a little disappointed with this Soul Gem ability. It didn’t seem to be very powerful. The area of the whirlpool seems small, and it doesn’t seem to hold the enemies for long. Once you have an enemy trapped it almost takes too much time to pop out from swimming and line up an attack. Before you know it, the enemy is released from the whirlpool.
There are two new upgrade paths to choose from as well. You can now focus on enhancing his shark ally attacks (ie rockets) or his earth swimming abilities. We chose the Shark Team Squadron Pat
h which improves the shark allies. Since the shark rocket launcher was new, I thought this would be the more interesting path to choose to improve those new attacks. The Three Best Fins upgrade will allow Terrafin to shoot three shark rockets instead of one while swimming underground. The What Goes Up… upgrade will allow the Surface To Air To Surface Missiles to do more damage while they are going up and when they are coming down, so this becomes pretty devastating against larger groups of weak enemies. Finally the Land Shark upgrade allows you to fire a mortar which summons a sand whirlpool and a large land shark. This is the coolest attack to use, and the land shark does heavy damage. It acts more like a cool Soul Gem attack than an upgrade.
The other path you can choose is the All Terrain Trooper Path. This upgrades the underground swimming abilities. Though we didn’t choose this path it does have some interesting sounding upgrades. The Mentor Program upgrade will replace the shark allies shot while underground, with a larger shark ally that lasts longer and hits enemies multiple times with extra damage. That sounds better than the three shark upgrade in the other path. The Finesse upgrade increases the speed of earth swimming, and adds damage from a fancy new fin. Without this upgrade, Terrafin will pop out from swimming any time he hits an object or enemy. This upgrade should allow Terrafin to stay under the earth longer and also do some damage while underground. The final upgrade is the Mega BoomFlop which is a throw back to his old Mega Belly Flop upgrade. While earth swimming, he can pop out, fire rockets and perform a powerful bellyflop that knocks back enemies.
Shark Shooter Terrafin’s signature vehicle is the Shark Tank. This is an Earth elemental Land vehicle. The toy is fun to look at and play with. It rolls w
ell, and being a metallic looking shark with spiky wheels makes it look very dangerous. Sure the spiky wheels are for burrowing not attacking but when the kids are playing with it like a toy, it doesn’t matter. In the game it works OK during the adventure, but it seemed to be greatly lacking while trying to race with it. Like all vehicles the Shark Tank has two attacks. The main attack is called Ballistic Drill Missile and shoots shark missiles at your opponents. These do a good amount of damage, which is why this vehicle works pretty well in the adventure mode of SuperChargers. The other attack is called Street Swimming and as you would guess, this allows the Shark Tank to go underground, much like Terrafin does with his Earth Swim Blast attack. This can keep the Shark Tank from taking damage, but like Terrafin, if you hit an object or enemy, the Shark Tank will pop back out where it will take some damage and be exposed. The top speed of the Shark Tank is pretty good, but unfortunately it doesn’t have enough handling even when using the handling improving mods. It’s quite hard to win the harder races in the Shark Tank, while other vehicles do it more easily. It’s not horrible though, and you should be able to win some of the races at the normal difficulty with it.
Overall Shark Shooter Terrafin is a much improved Skylander. He is now more ranged focused instead of melee focused, and he has a more interesting set of moves. The ability to swim in the earth gives him the feel of all the other Terrafin versions which is nice. He’s different, but he’s not completely different. He is still a little slow in his movement, but being able to avoid getting hit by going underground is a welcome trade off. I always thought Terrafin could be more than he was and now he is. He’s not the strongest SuperCharger, but he is definitely respectable. On the other hand, his vehicle the Shark Tank, leaves a lot to be desired. It’s fine to play with in the adventure mode, but racing with it seems like a waste of time when there are better cars to use. It does make a good toy though. If you don’t need every SuperCharger combination, then I would pass on the Shark Tank while still picking up Shark Shooter Terrafin.
SkylanderNutts gives Shark Shooter Terrafin…7.5 out of 10
SkylanderNutts gives The Shark Tank… 5.5 out of 10
Shark Shooter Terrafin Review with Shark Tank (Video)
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