Darius is a legendary shoot em up series from Taito, that has graced arcades and consoles for decades. The Darius series has spawned many entries, and now Taito has released two collections to re-release as many of the games as possible. Today we will be taking a look at the Arcade collection and will see how worthy it stacks up.
Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade collects the first Darius, II and Gaiden, along with two additional versions of the first game and two additional versions of Darius II. Darius Gaiden Extra and G Darius are not part of this collection however, so you are out of luck if you wanted those. Darius 1 was released on a setup that used three arcade monitors tp create a panoramic view. To replicate this presentation, M2, the developers of the collection, utilized a letterbox format to get as close to the experience as possible. Its fine on the TV, but it will be too small to see anything and hurt your eyes if you play the game on Switch’s handheld mode. That said though, the game does allow you to adjust the screen size away from pixel perfect mode, which works great on Switch. The first Darius is a decent side-scrolling shooter with multiple ways to fire your weapons and take out the cybernetic fish enemies. What makes Darius 1 stand out so well is the unique visuals and the sublime music that lured you in and got you into the groove. Also included as mentioned, are two additional versions of the game. Darius New Version changes things by giving the bosses more life when you power up your ship the Silver Hawk, but the rebalancing actually made the game easier. Darius Extra Version on the other hand, altered things a lot more, both for ease and difficulty. The Silver Hawk is made even more powerful in this version, but the altered enemy health and placement as well as the increased difficulty in boss battles balanced things out much better. You can even challenge yourself by not upgrading the ship and fighting the more difficult bosses for more of a challenge.
Darius II is the dual screen version rather than the three screen version and looks beautiful in both handheld and TV mode. This game actually managed to grow the formula by adding in new features. You can now orient the Silver Hawk let and right during boss fights for more strategic movement and attacks, while also making the ship more powerful and giving more attack options. The enemies and bosses have also had their offensive capabilities increased and now have identifiable attack patterns that make things more enjoyable. The music and visuals have also been greatly improved over the first game, making this a superior sequel in every way, Also included are two revisions of the game including Sagaia version 1, which was a remix for overseas. The game moves faster, stages are shorter, bosses are easier and some zones and bosses are not present at all, with the zones present being moved around and shifted. Sagaia version 2 does a similar remix but changes how the levels and enemies are shifted and what zones and bosses are replaced. This version is extremely obscure and may not have ever been released on the market before these, something even Taito is not sure of.
Lastly, we have the best game on the collection with Darius Gaiden. The first single screen arcade entry in the series, the game used pre-rendered visuals, semi-transparent effects and parallax scrolling to create a truly memorable experience. The game has some of the best music in the series so far, and the visuals are truly amazing, with stages that stand out far more than ever before in the series. The boss fights are amazing, and the parallax scrolling allows you to see the bosses of many areas lurking in the background before the fight begins. You are given more attack options here, and while you can just breeze through many areas with auto firing, you can also take time to engage the enemies for fun fights. You can also defeat mid-bosses and get them to fight alongside you until you lose a life or finish the area. Like the other games, Darius Gaiden is an intense game, but everything just felt like it was taken to greater heights here. This is one of the best arcade shooters ever made, and an arcade perfect port like this is incredible to have on modern systems.
I do wish there were more games though, like Darius Gaiden Extra, which revamped the levels for more challenge and merged the different branches, as well as changing the weapons slightly, G Darius was a 3D side scrolling entry released for arcades three years after Gaiden, and would have fit perfectly for this collection. I am baffled by its absence, and also by the price of the collection. The cost of this collection is at the higher end and I am not honestly sure if it is worth getting right now. The games are amazing, and the content is all great, but the price is a bit off putting. If you like classic shooters, including one of the best ever made, and do not mind the cost of entry, then this is for you. It is well made and M2 did some great work here.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided
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