Here's the Japanese cover art.. a little more
exciting than the US version I think..
Lovely
power-ups, gimme gimme!!
BLUE: Shield, RED: Lasers
GREEN: Sidearm
Above:
The first stage is, in a
strange contrast to most shooters, more difficult
than the next few levels following it. Probably
because the enemy comes in thick and fast and you
start off equipped with a pea-shooter..
Below:
Doesn't take long to gain
enough firepower to do some serious damage
though. 'WARNING: A Huge Battleship KILLER HIGIA
is dying fast..' ;)
Above:
By half-way through stage 2 you
start to feel pretty much invulnerable. The
strange lack of enemy bullets doesn't help..
Below:
Mr and Mrs. Fossil, Stage two
bosses, at your service. Any boss with those
colour schemes deserves a pasting quite frankly..
|
|
Arcade
classic Darius makes it's
first appearance on the SNES..
I'm really not sure what possessed me
to pick up this game back in March of '92. It
probably cost a relative fortune of $50 back
then. If I recall correctly, I was mainly
interested in a feature Darius Twin had that
Gradius 3 lacked... a two-player simultaneous
mode. So, now that a copy of Darius Twin probably
costs so little it doesn't matter much whether it
sucks or not, here's my take..
STORY:
A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, the
Peaceful Inhabitants[TM] of the planet of Darius
were attacked by the forces of the eeeviilll
Belser. Of course, this gave
some folks named Proco and Tiat
(not to mention millions of arcade-goers and
TG-16 owners) something to do, namely lead a
resistance movement and evacuate their fellow
Darius-ites to a free sector of space. Centuries
later, the descendants of these refugees are
attacked yet again by the forces of Belser. So
now, two nameless pilots are called upon to fly a
couple of pparently centuries old Silver
Hawks to stop this. Apparently, the most
noted scientists believe Belser's homeworld was
largely aquatic. Wonder what gave them that idea?
:)
PLAYERS: Two people can be
simultaneously tranquilised by this game.
GAMEPLAY: A fairly degenerated
version of Darius 2's gameplay, really. Your ship
has three major systems: Lasers,
Sidearm Shots,
and Shields. Your lasers are
powered up by collecting Red
Power Cubes, Sidearms by Green
Cubes, and Shields by Blue
Cubes. You have two different kinds of lasers;
you start out using the Photon Power Disc,
which when powered up is a large shot but pretty
weak. (It's vaguely similar to Darius 2's main
weapon, really.) Collecting a Switching Cube will
give you the Segmented Laser Wave
Beam, which eventually powers up into a
wave cannon that is better in every way than the
Photon Power Disc. Sidearms aren't worth
mentioning; they go from the standard Darius
bombs into Sagaia-esque lasers
into fireballs. Shields are standard Darius fare;
every five blue Cubes upgrades your defensive
ability. Also, just like other Darius titles, you
have branching paths so you can choose your route
through this game. Unlike other Darius titles,
your choice of paths is fairly limited. There are
only 12 Zones spread over 7
levels with 24 possible paths. (Compare to Darius
2 or Gaiden's 28 zones over 7 levels with 64
possible paths.)
DEATH
PENATLY: You lose a life. No loss of
firepower at all. (Funnily enough they
changed this completely for Darius Gaiden.. the
gits.. ;) Mike.)
CHALLENGE: For the most part,
nowhere to be found. You're only given two
difficutly levels, but once you get past the
second tier you'll probably not notice the
difference. This game apparently tried to correct
the balance problems of Darius 2,
but swung too far in the other direction. The
power-ups come pretty often; by the third level
your Sidearms will be fully powered, by the end
of the fourth tier you'll have a fairly decent
wave weapon. Also, the enemy placement is lacking
at times; there are several noticable dead spots
throughout the game. Enemies don't fire at you
much; then again, you can pretty much eliminate
everything before it has a chance to make it
onscreen. The bosses are pretty lethargic, as
they stick to pretty simple patterns and can't
take too much damage. All this is thrown out the
window once you get to the last stage, though.
The final level reaches Gaiden-like
difficulty levels, achieved by placing two or
three of the game's mini-bosses on-screen at
once. These buggers then leave you with little
room to move, while firing large and powerful
shots your way. Ugh. But, if you can get past
this, you'll be greeted by two more ridiculously
easy bosses. Zzzzzz...
GRAPHICS: Ripped more or less
from Darius 2. I guess they're quite good for the
time and system involved. Not much more to say,
really. Background recycling is pretty much a
common feature among the Darius series (with only
Darius Gaiden barely escaping its evil clutches),
but it's very noticable here. I'd guess there's
actually only 8 different backgrounds among the
game's 12 zones.
MUSIC: I truly suspect this
game's soundtrack is composed of outtakes from
Darius 2's recording session. That said, it's
really not particularly bad, but it's not going
to make you rush out and pay the outrageous
import prices for the CD. (If you do happen to
like the music though, there is a music test
option.)
CONTROL: No complaints here.
Having separate buttons for the lasers and
Sidearms is annoying though, but that's pretty
much standard Darius.
OVERALL: 5/10. A rather so-so
experience overall. If you somehow get stuck with
a copy of this, try to go two-player, as this
will even out the powerups somewhat and make this
game slightly more enjoyable. Otherwise, there
are much better SNES shooters available, so get
this only very cheap
or if you're some sort of Darius freak like me.
:)
Score
out of Five:
 
Zach
Keene
Zach is the
author of many FAQs including G-Darius,
Gradius III, Einhänder,CSOTN, and the AGVS FAQ
ftp://members.aol.com/fnlfanatic/arcanelore/
|
|
