Darius Gaiden (Saturn)

Submit your reviews here - please see guidelines topic
Post Reply
User avatar
JoshF
Posts: 2833
Joined: Thu Nov 23, 2006 11:29 pm
Contact:

Darius Gaiden (Saturn)

Post by JoshF »

TITLE: Darius Gaiden
DEVELOPER: Aisystem Tokyo
RELEASED: 12.15.95
GENRE: Shooting
PLAYERS: 1-2

Darius Gaiden is the fifth installment in one of the truly classic series of the shmup genre. After a couple of new titles and various ports during the 16 bit era, Darius finally returned to arcades with this game, half a decade since the last release. Not long after this, Aisystem Tokyo (known for their ports of popular Taito arcade games) were charged with the task of porting the game to still relatively new Saturn console. So how does the port, and the game itself, fare against the Darius legacy?

As you might expect Darius Gaiden plays similarly to previous Darius games; colored powerups are collected to enhance your ships ability (e.g. red, green, and blue shield icons upgrade your rapid fire, missiles, and force field, respectively,) level progression is non-linear and split into zones labeled A through Z, and of course you'll face off with with trademark HUGE BATTLESHIPs based on aquatic animals. There are a few additions to the formula, namely the screen clearing "black hole bomb" weapon, and the ability to capture minibosses a.k.a. captains and use them to your advantage. The scoring mechanics have also been elaborated, with an assessment at the end of the game. You'll be awarded points based on your Silver Hawk stock (1mil per ship,) black hole stock (300k per bomb,) and amount of captures (200k per captain.)

Having originated on the Taito F3 arcade board, Darius Gaiden looks and sounds impressive. You can expect plenty of visual effects at almost any given time (sprite scaling and rotation, parallax scrolling, alpha blending, etc.) This does cause some slowdown problems during a few points, most noticeably when a black hole bomb is activated. It's a rare occurance but still worth mentioning, and I'm sure it's due to poor programming rather than hardware limitations. The game is just as lavish in the sound department. Taito's Zuntata sound team really did a great job with the soundtrack. It's not something I'd put in my CD player mind you, but it's very distinct and works well with the atmosphere. And speaking of which, the soundtrack is red book audio.

Darius Gaiden has 28 levels in total, 7 of which comprise an actual run through the game. At the end of each level you're given a choice between two routes. Depending on the routes you take the game changes in various ways. Some are more difficult than others and have more scoring oppurtunities, as well as determining the final boss. This layout adds quite a bit of replay value. After playing the game regularly for months trying to perfect a particular route, it still feels like I've only scratched the surface. Another way the game changes is through the rank system. Rank means that after certain conditions are met, the game becomes harder. In Darius Gaiden's case the more red powerups you collect the harder the bosses become (more life, more attacks, faster projectiles.) The upside to this is that you'll have more chances to exploit them for points. It's a relatively basic system but gives the game a little more depth.

Aside from the slowdown issue mentioned earlier, there's only one other flaw that deals with the game's autofire. I've seen a bunch of reviews where the game is docked pretty hard for having "too many enemies on the screen" or "not enough bombs." Well, there's a reason for this. The default firing rate is downright horrible. Luckily, this can be remedied with either an autofire controller or a code (hold B, press Y, right, left, X, Z, L,R at "Game Start" screen.) What's odd is that during the attract mode demo, there's an obvious increase in the firing rate from the default, so you have to wonder why they didn't change it for the actual game.

Darius Gaiden on the Saturn is arguably the best home conversion of the game available to date. That's including the more recent Taito Memories Joukan version, which uses filtered and upscaled graphics, a big no-no in case you're wondering. Along with Layer Section, Darius Gaiden is one of the cheapest 2D shooters you can import. It's also one of the few shooters that got an American release (turns out there is something we can thank Acclaim for.) Which ever route you choose (sorry!) Darius Gaiden is sure not to disappoint.

-JoshF

Image Image
Image Image
Image Image
MegaShock! | @ YouTube | Latest Update: Metal Slug No Up Lever No Miss
Post Reply