Design your own Darius boss names

[Skyknight]

A few to start off…

—Aegis Judge (goose barnacle)
—Fate Buckler (wiwaxia)
—Cruel Scissors (gafftopsail pompano: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trachinotus_rhodopus )
—Twilight Sword (thresher shark)
—Marlin Spike (appears as a swordfish at first, but that’s just armor for the grenadier inside: https://www.marinespecies.org/photogall ... &pic=31953 )

[ProcoTaito]

WARNING!!

A HUGE BATTLESHIP
Psychedelic Piranhadon

IS APPROACHING FAST!!

[DMC]

Wait, why are we doing this?

Killer Koi
Great John Dory
Gigantic John Dory
Galaxias Maculatus
IcyCalm Ilisha

[EmperorIng]

Disaster Bass

original fish, do nut steal

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

Titanic Hammer

[Stevens]

Titanic Hammer

Coney Island Whitefish.

[Jonpachi]

Cod Peace

Chum Guzzler

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

Cod Peace

Lost

Objectively the coney island whitefish is a higher effort joke, but it's always the simple ones that get me lmao

[SuperPang]

Rusty Starfish

[Jeneki]

Manatee Restored

[TransatlanticFoe]

If anyone's played the Xenoblade games, there are unique enemies with equally daft names as Darius bosses - madness like "Flabbergasted Jerome" and "Experienced Tristan"

Waiting for the Darius/Tintin crossover and Captain Haddock though

[BrianC]

Mighty Aquaman (mambo fish)
The Cat's Meow (catfish)
Crab (Crab)

[Rastan78]

Here's an archived Japanese web site from Darius Gaiden dev Akira Kurabayashi aka Kurabar that details the thought process behind the boss designs and includes pics of the sea creatures that inspired them.
https://web.archive.org/web/20080327033 ... boss.shtml

Interestingly he also worked on scuba based game series at Arika called Endless Ocean. Had to keep that underwater creature theme alive somehow I guess.
https://youtu.be/Ule32gCjhDI

[BIL]

WARNING
A HUGE F**KIN' MACHINE
IRON CHUB
IS APPROACHING FAST

Spoiler

[Rastan78]

BIL, in 1988 that boss' route was permanently banned from official Gamest score rankings when expert players discovered an infinite milking pattern. Inhuman 30hz autofire mashing speed cheats/hacks are required to achieve the milk.

Among Western players there's a bit of controversy as players say the best of the best can mash fast enough to pull it off, and autofire is for pussies. While others say they don't want to end up with carpal tunnel just to milk the Chub.

[BIL]

I had heard about that! It seems that bringing the Chub to its full potential left many an eager young scorer humbled, with just a select, hard-bitten few pounding on undeterred. I think the Japanese have the right idea, here - there's only so much human hands can be expected to withstand, versus a briefcase's worth of remorseless 30hz firepower!

[PerishedFraud ឵឵]

I've identified the species

[BIL]

Fascinating IRL bulletproof milky xenofish... WRT to the controversial 1988 Darius III boss, OST liner notes suggest he's just a little freshwater Chub who's embraced technology to overcome his middling stature. He may not be a HUGE F**KIN' MACHINE in the sense of Titanic Lance or Peace Destroyer - hell, he can barely measure up to King Fossil on his best day - but he packs an impressive array of high-voltage rigging!

OST booklet pg.6

Spoiler

[Rastan78]

Thanks for the rare scan. I had searched all over Akihabara for this complete Darius III laser disc to no avail.

Re: the Iron Chub (aka Titanium Chode if you face him on the lower route) milk, only one person could do it sans autofire. The ultimate master, Takahashi Meijin. His strict training regimen and diet allowed him to produce a ball-busting, melon-bursting 16hz finger vibrato. They said he could channel all of his life force into just the tip.

https://youtu.be/axArEP-6lMc

Rumors are there is a ultra rare doujin VHS documenting Takahashi's 30 hour long tantric Iron Chub milk-a-thon counterstop. But supposedly Gemant has the only copy, and he ain't sharing.

[KAI]

Ramming Barracuda
and
Cuddly Octopoda

Warning, they are approaching fast.

[BrianC]

Jabberjaw (great white shark)
Scooby Doo (dogfish)
Muttley (dogfish)
One Fish Two Fish (red fish, blue fish)

[Klatrymadon]

Just to pluck one from PerishedFraud's video, Bony Tongue would be a great one in the "simple, morphologically accurate but still batshit" genre of Darius names.