G-Darius is one of those games that should have caught on bigger but just didn’t quite hit. When it came out for the PS1 in North America, it was released by THQ, a rather unsuccessful publisher who put out a lot of licensed titles. It was a fairly inexpensive game and was easy to find new around the $30 mark at the time. Keep in mind that the internet had only been a thing for about 5 years at this point, people were just learning about email, and no one was really hunting Japanese shmups in the West. But G-Darius was a unique game and one that stuck out in the series as being over-the-top and interesting, a distinct change of focus from Darius Gaiden for the Saturn.
The Darius series has been getting a spectacular amount of love lately, almost like it was a long-lost treasure uncovered by ancient explorers or something. We’ve had Darius Burst Another Chronicle EX+ come out, Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade (review here) released, Darius Cozmic Collection Console (my review here) come out alongside it, and Darius Cozmic Revelation (review here) including G-Darius HD all in the last few years. On top of that, the original Genesis game was remixed to Darius Extra version and put on the Genesis Mini, a spectacular release in itself! Whew. That’s a hell of a lot of flying robot fish!
Now G-Darius HD has been released separately for anyone who just wanted to play it without buying Cozmic Revelation and honestly, it’s worth it. This is not only the best game in Revelation, but it’s also one of the best Darius games period, though that’s up for debate as some hardcore aficionados call it Darius for people who hate the franchise. But for anyone unfamiliar with the game, what are you getting into?
G-Darius HD is an HD remaster of the original G-Darius horizontal shmup for arcades. The entire game has been cleaned up and re-released by M2 and publisher ININ Games to create a modern-looking faithful arcade experience. You’ve also been given the option of playing the original arcade version in all its low-poly glory, which, to be fair, is still pretty awesome. Aside from that and a few background options, an achievement list and a manual, this is a fairly bare-bones release, but that’s a good thing! The key here is gameplay and M2 is known for its flawless arcade ports. Everything is faithfully preserved in G-Darius HD, and that includes the slowdown originally present in the game. As the screen gets more and more crowded with enemies and fire, your ship will slow down a bit, allowing you to dodge some of the worst incoming firepower and maneuver through the levels. While it feels like a glitch, be assured, it’s not. G-Darius, as with many shmups of this era, maximized hardware and designers actually incorporated slowdown into the gameplay as part of the experience. Some games are unplayable without it.
Speaking of unplayable, let’s look at G-Darius. The first time you play through, you’re simply going to get slaughtered. It’s a fact. And the second time. And the third, and so on ad nauseum. But then you’ll start to find out that this isn’t your average side-scrolling shmup. In addition to powerup bars for missiles, bombs, and armor, you also have purple capture balls. These can be shot out to hit enemies who are then brought back to accompany your ship for additional firepower like options in other shmups. The captured enemies generate score bonuses for kills, allowing you to rack up the points and can also be detonated like a bomb to clear the screen in tough areas. The bigger the captured enemy, the more points you get, up to and including mini-bosses. Each enemy has different fire patterns or can soak up bullets for you as well as giving you those score boosts too! But the real meat of the game are the Alpha and Beta beams, and real success in G-Darius HD requires mastery of this mechanic.
Once you capture an enemy, you can use its power to charge up your Alpha beam, holding down A on the Switch controller. After a few seconds, the Alpha beam charges and you blast a gigantic laser out of your ship, obliterating anything in its path! There are massive score modifiers for killing enemies with Alpha beams and strategic use of the beam will net you a huge score, as well as clearing the screen in tough areas. But that’s not even the best part. Manage to hang on and not get killed while holding a captured enemy until you reach a boss and the real fun begins. Each boss has a powerful blast that they emit, thundering across the screen with reckless abandon. If you’ve charged your Alpha Beam and time things right, you can block their attacks with a Beta Beam. The two beams collide and it’s a contest to see who’s attack will win. At this point, it’s button mashing time and forcing your beam down the throat of the enemy boss is your goal. Succeed and you’re rewarded with points and massive damage! Fail and, well, die. And make no mistake; the bosses in G-Darius HD are wildly unforgiving. In fact, the entire game is a vicious credit-feeder until you really manage to master the mechanics of the Alpha and Beta Beams and the capture system.
Sounds like a lot to take in, right? Well, in Darius games, you also get to choose your levels! There are 15 levels to choose from, starting with Alpha and all letters of the Greek alphabet. As you play through the game, you select pathways through and each playthrough is only 5 levels, meaning that there are a myriad of combinations of pathways through the game, some of which have wildly different scoring than others, tougher bosses, or unique levels, offering excellent replay value. Selecting zones is half the fun because learning each pathway is like playing a whole new game!
The visuals and sound are excellent in G-Darius HD as well, with epic music from Taito’s in-house music department, Zuntata. If you love this style of music, then don’t hesitate to go check the soundtrack out, you won’t regret it! With the graphics overhaul, G-Darius also looks surprisingly modernized and clean. It doesn’t look overdone either, more like they cleaned up an old paint job and put a brand new one on. This is a gorgeous game to begin with, with unique and dynamic backgrounds and activity all around and the crisp new graphics make the entire game shine. It’s an excellent job and the presence of the original game means preservationists and purists don’t have to work about any changes to the original.
If you’re a shmup fan, G-Darius HD is worth checking out. It’s a tough game with a high difficulty curve and quite unforgiving, but if you like a challenge, look no further. For beginners, this might be a tough shmup to cut your teeth on, but it’s also a rewarding one with the new achievements added in to spice things up a bit! Considering Darius Cozmic Revelation was a physical-only release, it’s excellent that ININ didn’t forget about the rest of us players that would love to play G-Darius but didn’t pick up the limited edition physical, and honestly, $30 is a fair price to pay for a shmup of this quality. Hopefully you aren’t afraid of fish!
This review was based on a digital copy of G-Darius HD provided by the publisher. It was played on a Nintendo Switch in both docked and undocked modes and was excellent in both. G-Darius HD is also available on PS4.