Where the Darius Love at?

[ACSeraph]

I don't suppose anyone here has played Darius Alpha for PCE. Or maybe it has been emulated, and in that case: What's it like? I'm guessing it's not worth $1000 gameplay wise.

Some of the crazy collections showcased on the first page display their copies proudly. I for one don't have that kind of cash to blow, no matter how much I love Darius.

As far as I know the game is just a boss rush, pretty similar to the boss rush in Super Darius (playable with a code).

[CStarFlare]

It's been emulated, and it's a Darius Plus boss rush. It was a lazy promo item, not a game meant to be worth playing in its own right.

[professor ganson]

Interesting. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that the ability to play this boss rush with enhanced graphics on a SuperGrafx system is not worth the price. Sounds like this is purely a collector-kind-of-thing. That's too bad. When I heard it was a PCE holy grail, I thought that might have something to do with gameplay.

[EmperorIng]

Collector holy grails rarely have anything to do with gameplay!

[Perikles]

Darius Alpha works remarkably worse than it should be. One should think that the boss fights are the strong suit of any given Darius game, so consequentially Darius Alpha should be able to emphasize the fortitude of Darius Plus/Super Darius. It is, however, not exciting at all to effortlessly blast 16 bosses away. I realised then and there that the pleasant anticipation of a boss fight is just as important as the boss fight itself. If you're just unspooling one battle after another without any sort of filler (and let's be honest here, that's what the stages are in Darius games ) the intensity diminishes greatly.

[Batchee]

HAPPY DARIUSMAS! Inhabitants!!!

Made by IMO

[Skykid]

Right, this being the final route to clear in Dariusburst AC, I'm pretty confident that B - F - J is the hardest of all. Phantom Castle + Hungry Gluttons.

Also J stage is an absolute dick. That meteor shower at the end... wtf. It's got two encircling snakes and a hail of bullets simultaneously!

I can try A - E - J, but the problem is F gives you a ton of power-ups in a very short stage - mainly because Phantom Castle is the boss. Missing out on that many power ups is a killer if you want to take on J. So that's how it's gotta be.

I manage to reach Gluttons on every try, but by that point I'm either down to my last life or scant remaining shields (same thing essentially).

I'll get it done. After this one I've pwned the cab.

[trap15]

I don't think BFJ is all that tough. There are tricks to making Phantom Castle's second form more manageable, mostly just by manipulating his lasers. Takes a bit to figure it out. Hungry Gluttons isn't that tough either, but I don't know which ship you're using so maybe you're using Origin or something In any case, I'd certainly say Zone E is probably the hardest zone just for the boss. I've never found any half-decent strategy to fighting him without taking tons of hits. I might even consider Great Thing easier

[Skykid]

^ You're playing PSP or arcade? Only asking because they're really different.

Remind me of who is the boss of E?

[trap15]

Arcade EX. Zone E is that bastard turtle. Forget his name.

[CHI]

^I play with Origin most of the time, cos it has no burst i normally have problems fighting these bosses 1. L the whale 2. F the pufferfish and 3. E the turtle...
But when i play with Legend, i only have problem with L boss...

Skids i recommend you play CFJ

[trap15]

CFJ is probably my favorite route, I would recommend that one as well

[JBC]

I just remembered that these exist now.

[professor ganson]

I'll take a remake of the original specifically for that monitor.

Recently played Super Darius II. Better than expected. One of my favorite PC Engine shmups so far.

[Skykid]

Arcade EX. Zone E is that bastard turtle. Forget his name.

Gotcha. I'm on regular arcade AC - again the two are quite differently balanced from what I understand.

Personally I don't consider the turtle too difficult on AC, but he probably has different attack patterns on EX.

J's maelstrom at the end is certainly the hairiest part of the basic stages for me, it's just nuts. Gluttons isn't so tough I suppose, I just get there worse for wear and he likes to overstay his welcome.

CHI I'll try C - F - J, although there may be some variance with EX?

[JBC]

I've been playing Burst on my iPad & getting drunk on Zuntata for the last couple hours. The game is great but feels a little lacking compared to G-Darius. The music is as incredible as ever though, I love it. I hope the arcade ends up online someday. I'd love to get one of those stretch monitors & fire it up.

[Skykid]

I've been playing Burst on my iPad & getting drunk on Zuntata for the last couple hours. The game is great but feels a little lacking compared to G-Darius. The music is as incredible as ever though, I love it. I hope the arcade ends up online someday. I'd love to get one of those stretch monitors & fire it up.

I just want the cabinet. I feel the taikan is inextricably tied to the experience. On PSP it feels more simplistic, but on the arcade with those screens, that rumbling seat, those speakers, those blaring warning lights - it's a rich journey every time. I look forward to it's eventual port, but it will never be the same.

[CHI]

Personally I don't consider the turtle too difficult on AC, but he probably has different attack patterns on EX.

J's maelstrom at the end is certainly the hairiest part of the basic stages for me, it's just nuts. Gluttons isn't so tough I suppose, I just get there worse for wear and he likes to overstay his welcome.

CHI I'll try C - F - J, although there may be some variance with EX?

Trust me, you don't need to worry too much, the differences between DBAC and DBACEX are some stages has extra enemies (not a big bunch), much bigger Chronicle Mode (mahoosive galaxy/solar system map) and you're missing out EX Mode (12 extra stages and 12 extra boss fights, some bosses are repeated but harder)... during boss fights i don't see much of a difference, i could be wrong due to not spending much time with EX

Mind you, none of the boss fights (Great Thing not included) bothers me when using a burst ship, you just need to deploy/counter the annoying lasers
My favourite stage would be J... and favourite boss fight would be Great Thing

Oh, and please post your scores in this thread:
http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=38467
Regs, CHI

Edit:
Haha... I just found this, enjoy
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2csjq ... videogames
Correct info: CHI - 77,296,000 - Legend - ORV - DBACEX

[Skykid]

I think Great Thing is one of the most epic boss fights in shmupping, although I do concede that having a Burst cannon makes the game about tactical defense and finding ways to camp rather than pure dodging. Not that that bothers me - it's not the toughest game out there, but it's nonetheless fantastic fun.

Playing for score? I'm just after clearing all routes at the moment, but if you want to give me a brief synopsis on what I should be doing to score that would help. I was under the impression getting the multiplier to x16 by killing enemies in swathes was key, but I'm not definite on that.

[hdd60311]

General direction of score attack is that getting multiplier to maximum in the beginning ASAP, and using burst to kill enemies in order to get extra multiplier, it can get more score than general shot.
With boss fight using counter burst (or normal burst) to destroy boss's components and main body then you can get lots of score.

[CHI]

^Listen to the man Skids

Anyways, this thread has given me an idea
I've just spoken (message) to Skids briefly and we have decided to take-on Darius Gaiden Extra Version All Stages Player 2 Side Only for 2 weeks for a laugh
I hope Despatche is reading this cos I'm gonna hijack his thread I will PM him just to notify what's going on...

So, for the Love of Darius...
I would like to invite you, anyone and everyone to compete with me and Skids playing...
Darius Gaiden Extra Version All Stages Player 2 Side Only

I'm going to start playing after this and a PM to Despatche, Skids gonna join me tomorrow cos he's sleeping right now, i did say for 2 weeks but I'm gonna add an extra 3 days due to not everyone is going to notice this post (or take me seriously) so ending date would be 27th/28th January.

Please post your thoughts, comments or whatever here...
And for score please post to: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=37052

Regs, CHI

[FRO]

It's a crying shame that Taito hasn't released a "Darius Anthology" collection of some sort, to compile all the main Darius games into a single package. There are several other collections on the PSP and various other systems, but nothing of that sort exists for the Darius series. I'd love to see a modern console (PS3/XB360 at least) compilation to allow for a more widescreen original Darius experience, and of course, arcade-perfect conversions of Gaiden and G would be great to have. The inclusion of console exclusives like Twin and Force (aka Super Nova) would be nice as well, but not entirely essential. It's just unfortunate that Taito hasn't seen fit to package some of its running series into some kind of budget compilation.

[Skykid]

^Listen to the man Skids

Anyways, this thread has given me an idea
I've just spoken (message) to Skids briefly and we have decided to take-on Darius Gaiden Extra Version All Stages Player 2 Side Only for 2 weeks for a laugh
I hope Despatche is reading this cos I'm gonna hijack his thread I will PM him just to notify what's going on...

So, for the Love of Darius...
I would like to invite you, anyone and everyone to compete with me and Skids playing...
Darius Gaiden Extra Version All Stages Player 2 Side Only

I'm going to start playing after this and a PM to Despatche, Skids gonna join me tomorrow cos he's sleeping right now, i did say for 2 weeks but I'm gonna add an extra 3 days due to not everyone is going to notice this post (or take me seriously) so ending date would be 27th/28th January.

Please post your thoughts, comments or whatever here...
And for score please post to: http://shmups.system11.org/viewtopic.php?t=37052

Regs, CHI

I just need some time to get set up on my the big screen laptop - it has no emulator yet. I'll try to get it done today for your barking mad challenge. All stages in 2 weeks! Egads!

[Despatche]

might play this, edf is like darius right?!?!?!

[ACSeraph]

Haven't played Extra Version much, guess this gives me an excuse to fail at it. Whats different about 2P side?

---

And now for everyone's usual Taito Hey Darius swag update:





Took these pics on Christmas eve before flying out to Singapore. Unsurprisingly when I got back to Tokyo yesterday and went to pick up a hoodie, the posters were gone and the staff told me everything sold out right away. He did say that we might be seeing them again in the future though, so maybe if we are lucky they will hit the online store...

[Despatche]

extra version has two different modes depending on which player side you start with: 1p gets you a reshuffled stage order with the normal branching paths, while 2p has you play every single stage of the original stage order (top to bottom)

[CStarFlare]

Is Darius II the only game in thee series without an Extra version? (Counting G's Ver. 2 as an Extra)

[Despatche]

darius ii has sagaia

[CHI]

One time I've witnessed a short-chubby-middle-aged man 1LC this machine, it was Epic...
He would have his big rucksack on the player 2 side, have his tinned coffee on the fire button and just play with his left hand, every so often he would take a sip of his coffee when he beats a boss

On two occations I've seen this guy playing this machine, he would sit on the left seat and play on the right side (while in my head thinking 'what's he doing'), going through the game from A to Z (i never knew this game exist until recently)... Once he gets to the final zone Z with a 22mil/25mil score, destroying all the parts of the boss (i think it was a Crab), he would suicide ALL his lifes

Also met up with Nak (one time) and Kamui (another time), we double-played Battle Garegga
All from December 2013 Tokyo trip...

[ACSeraph]

^There are some really insane people at that arcade for sure. I was actually there myself during december 2013 playing, might have been there at the same time.

Unfortunately they have ruined the Huge Darius II machine now by switching it over to easy mode to make it more tourist friendly :\ I don't play it anymore and focus most of my attention on Darius Extra.