Darius (video game)
Darius (pronounced "Da-RYE-us") is a series of horizontally scrolling shoot 'em up computer game produced by Taito and first released in arcades in 1986, with many subsequent titles in the series.
Description
Uniquely among shoot 'em ups, the game screen is three times wider than conventional size, and the arcade version uses an arrangement of three screens to accommodate it.
The player flies an ornate fighter craft called a Silver Hawk. The craft is equipped with two attack weapons: Missile, which refers to the forward gun, and Bomb, which refers to ballistic bombs dropped from the craft. A third capability of the craft is referred to as Arm - a green energy shield that can absorb damaging impacts without harm to the ship.
During the course of the levels the player must navigate the terrain, and battle a variety of fighter craft, ground vehicles, turrets, and other obstacles.
At the end of every level, the terrain fades away and the game issues a textual warning of the form "WARNING! A HUGE BATTLESHIP x-y IS APPROACHING FAST.", where x is the name of a boss and y is a letter identifying the current level. The player then arrives in a tunnel where the boss resides, and must defeat it to progress to a new level. The bosses in Darius, although mechanical, are frequently in the form of aquatic animals, such as fish or squid. There have been exceptions in later games - most notably a foetus(Bio Strong), a Terminator-style robot torso (Galst Vic) and a gigantic Silver Hawk (Mother Hawk).
If the player defeats the boss, the tunnel splits into two and the player must decide whether to take the upper or lower tunnel, both of which lead to a different stage. This allows many different paths to be taken through the game.
Power ups
In Darius, there are three power-up bars; one each for Missile, Bomb, and Arm (Armour). Each bar has seven divisions.
Power-ups can be obtained by shooting enemies of a certain colour. The power-ups are in the form of coloured bubbles, and the colour corresponds to one of the three weapons, as follows:
- Red - Missile
- Green - Bomb
- Blue - Arm
Collecting a bubble powers up the corresponding weapon, and highlights a new division on the corresponding power-up bar. The Arm, if it is diminished or absent at the time of collecting the Blue power-up, is regenerated and powered up.
If the player powers up a weapon more than seven times, the weapon changes to a new, more powerful type. This then becomes the player's default, and can be powered up further.
There are two other colours of power-up bubble - white, and orange - which can be obtained by shooting at certain points of the terrain; there are, however, no visual clues as to where these may be in the level.
- White - gives a score bonus
- Orange - a smart bomb; kills all enemies on screen
The Silver Hawk
The game's attract mode displays diagrams and statistics on the Silver Hawk, providing the following physical information:
- Length: 65.6 FT
- Height: 26.2 FT
- Width: 49.2 FT
- Weight: 77160 LBS
Darius II
The direct sequel to Darius, first released in arcades in 1989. It was also ported to the Sega Genesis, Sega Master System, where it was known as Sagaia.
The arcade version kept the same three-screen format as the first game. The power-up system changed slightly - now, to obtain power-ups, the player had to destroy complete waves of a particular enemy.
Two new power-ups were added: a new weapon power-up which gives the player green, vertical lasers, and a rainbow-coloured item that powers up all the players weapons.
The game is set in the inner half of the Solar system, and has the same branching level structure as Darius.
Another new feature in Darius II is the appearance of minibosses - large enemies that appear near the middle of a level, with similar abilities to the game's normal bosses (such as extravagant weapons, or the inability to be damaged without first exposing a vulnerable area). The minibosses in Darius II are in fact smaller versions of the bosses from Darius. This is possibly the first incidence of minibosses in a shoot' em up.
Darius Plus/Super Darius
An expanded port of the original Darius for the NEC SuperGrafx. The game retained the music of the arcade game, and included several new bosses. Super Darius, released for the PC Engine CD and developed by NEC Avenue, had an original boss for every stage (the first game to do so).
Darius Alpha
Darius Alpha, a "boss fest" version of Darius Plus, is one of the rarest PC Engine games - around a thousand copies were made. An eBay auction is reported to have reached U$1,400. [1]
Sagaia (Game Boy)
Released for the Game Boy in 1991, this is a port of the original Darius with a few new bosses. The stage layout is also completely linear- the only Darius to be so.
Darius+
The Edge released Darius+, presumably a port of Darius Plus to various home PCs in the early 90s. It bears little or no resemblance to the original game, though it has been described as the "poor man's R-Type" by one gaming magazine.
Darius Twin
The first Darius for the SNES, released in 1991. As its predecessors, it can be played by two players simultaneously. However, the weapons systems is reworked. Instead of raising the weapons' level by filling the bar, it can be powered by just taking the power-ups. As a result of this, losing a life does not reduce any of the weapons' levels. Also, there is only one final level.
This version has been passed unnoticed by many players and anyone played it as well as fans, panned the game because of its uninspired levels and lack of innovation or distinction even within the series.
Darius Force/Super Nova
Also for SNES, it was released in America under the name of Super Nova in 1993. It tries to correct many of the mistakes found in Darius Twin. For instance, there are three final levels, some of these levels have been improved (with obstacles and even rotating levels) and there are three ships to choose, each with different abilities; two are from the original Darius games, and a new third one.
Super Darius II
A port of Darius II for the PC Engine CD, also developed by NEC Avenue. A somewhat rare game, it features several new bosses and a hard-rock remix of the original soundtrack.
Darius Gaiden
Darius Gaiden was first released as an arcade game (1994), then a Sega Saturn title (1996), then ported to Microsoft Windows and PlayStation platforms (1999). Only the Saturn version was released in America by Acclaim.
The graphics and sound are superior to those of the preceding Darius games, and the game employs a lot of theatrical effects: for example, the Silver Hawk warps in to a stage dramatically in the fourth-tier stages, and begins to burn as in re-entry at the start of the sixth-tier stages. The bosses are huge and far more complex than those of the previous games, each employing several attack patterns. The atmospheric musics are especially noticeable.
G-Darius
G-Darius was released in the arcades in 1997, and in the United States only for the PlayStation by THQ. It is the first (and only) game in the series to use real polygonal graphics, and the last 'new' game of the series.
It puts some new elements on the series gameplay. The Silver Hawk can now capture some enemies, which can be used as a shield, exploded like a smart bomb, or used to generate the powerful Alpha Beam, which can easily destroy hordes of enemies.
During boss encounters, the boss can counterattack the Alpha Beam with a Beta Beam. If both beams collide, the player must press a button repeatedly to push back the Beta Beam and hit the boss, or the Beta Beam will hit the player's ship. If the player successfuly overtakes the Beta Beam, his Alpha Beam will double in size. This can be repeated until it covers the entire height of the screen.
While the levels are arranged like almost every other Darius game, G-Darius also has branch zones within the levels themselves. It may affect the level background and enemy formations, and slightly affects the level boss attacks.
Besides the original arcade mode, G-Darius also sports an easy mode and a boss only mode, like in Darius Alpha.
Darius R
Released in 2001 for the (Game Boy Advance) and developed by PCCW. This is mostly a watered-down version of Darius Plus, with fewer stages and fewer bosses. The game also has a score attack feature - individual stages can be played, which can be useful to practice destroying bosses. Most interestingly, the music of the game is a mixture of music from the previous Darius games, with two new tracks added.