Where the Darius Love at?

[ACSeraph]

I can't speak for the MD version since I haven't played it, but it sounds like it works totally differently from the arcade one. like you mentioned in your hard run you had a gold shield at Red Crab? That's impossible in the arcade game; you won't have enough shield powerups to get a gold shield until the very last one you ever pick up in the final stage.

To give you an idea of the difficulty, if you die in it and get powered down, the game becomes totally impossible to clear. That's some sadistic game design right there. Don't let me scare you away from it though, with a solid plan and memorization the Arcade version can be consistently dominated.

As for Saturn, mostly it's the same difficulty as the arcade one, but some points are easier (like the stage 4 midboss for example) and some points are harder. The satellite thing is an isolated problem, but it is serious enough that it totally breaks the stage in question. And unfortunately, that is the stage that is best for survival runs in the actual arcade version (not that it's easy mind you).

[stryc9]

Wow. This is making me want to play the arcade version. Looks like the 1LC is the only way to fly

So in the arcade Tiat Young functions the same I guess? As in you start the game mildly powered up and when you die the same?

[ACSeraph]

Not sure, I don't think you can use her in single play, and I'm guessing all it changes is the ship color.

[Sinful]

Wow. This is making me want to play the arcade version. Looks like the 1LC is the only way to fly

So in the arcade Tiat Young functions the same I guess? As in you start the game mildly powered up and when you die the same?

No, Tait Young is exactly the same as the first ship. Only Sega Genesis & Master System have that perk.

Arcade version is a whole entirely different beast. Level structure is completely different, save for level themes, which actually get a shuffled order in the Genesis version too (stage B is another cave level in the Arcade just like stage C. D is supposed to be an open space level, but it's a mountain sunste level, whereas in the Arcade that level is F. And so on). As a bonus a lot of bosses get new moves in the Genesis version. That snake boss has electrical current around him in the Genesis version so that if you get to close to him you get shocked and your movement speed slows down a lot for a bit. Would of 1cc'ed the game already if the last boss of upmost stage Z would of been exactly the same as the Arcade. He' seems much harder in the Genesis version...

I did finally discover a relatively consistent counter-strategy, but it requires perfect memorization and makes the stage infinitely harder than it was originally intended to be...

I've tried that too. Nowhere near as consistent as the method I've describbed, why I didn't bother to mention it.

Really, the only trick is not to get too close. Just learn to keep tapping back from a safe enough distance and it'll go down soon enough (it's not always, if ever, ASAP). Just watch out for other enemies too. Only thing that worked consistently with me. For stage L, that is.

I'm guessing Very Hard MD is the equivalent of the arcade difficulty, or maybe not even by the sounds of it. So the Saturn version is more difficult than the arcade on account of broken level sections is it? That's not good at all

I don't know if the Genesis version can match the Arcade even on Very Hard, but I'm hoping it comes somewhat close at least? ... And the Arcade version also has two extra harder difficulty levels too.

I put in over 60 hours for the Arcade version and couldn't beat it. Finally I put it on Easy and secure a 1cc that way. Gonna keep it on easy for practicing all other levels, then once I feel I'm ready I'll go back up to noraml again.

The game doesn't do anything remarkable as such, it just does what it sets out to do really well as it were. The control is butter smooth and the firepower is satisfying to use. I also rate the music highly. It's strange, coming form Zuntata, that's a given, but the way it blends with the action is unlike many other MD shooters.

Darius II Genesis seems very well balanced the more I play it (with default ship at least). And the difficulty really does seem just right too? (Well, I've been sticking to the upmost path for some time now, though) And yes, the control is very smooth, but what impresses me also is how very smooth the game & enemies move by. By comparison Darius Twin on the SNES is feels pretty freakin choppy (once I tried the PAL version with ZSNES emulator defaulting to 50fps without me knowing, and I was like "what the heck, why's the frame rate so super choppy? Emulator bugging out?" lol)

Yes, I've noticed the music matching the game pace too. Like on the first level the guitar solo type thing starts to kick in as them fish start jumping. It's matches so well.

Double Post! Cleared Hard with Tiat Young, final score 4269450. A-C-E-I-M-S-Y was the route used.

Allright, some detail on your run. I like. And that was quick!!

I was surprised at this game. On defaults Thunder Force III and MUSHA Aleste put up more of fight, and they are the two MD shmups that always take shit for being too easy. You'll get the clear of this before you know it dude. Just remember it's not a good idea to die at the later bosses, level recovery seems easier on that front.

I'll agree with you on MUSHA, but no way on ThunderForce III. Only thing you have to learn in ThunderForce III is memorizing all the cheap deaths. Once that's down, game is way too easy. But luckily that game has two extra difficulty option, so no reason folks should be complaining about it being to easy still. Yet all complain, don't they.

[EmperorIng]

In the arcade version, there is no difference between the two ships. In the Genesis version, Tiat Young starts with one more powerup. The Genesis version is generally a good game and a good translation, but in terms of level layout, it's its own thing. The Genesis Sagaia's scoreboard is as populated as the arcade scoreboard, in any event.

So seriously I think stage V in the Saturn version is impossible to no-miss because of the satellite glitch. Somebody please prove me wrong. Seriously fuck that shitty broken porting. I think I will have to take a Yamato course in order to clear this version, and I hate that douchebag.

Satellite glitch?

Are you talking about those ground-based enemies (the yellowish satellite dishes)? The ones that fire constantly leaving no room to get through?

If so, yes, those have ruined MANY a run for me.

Yeah those assholes. They are broken in the Saturn version, their lasers hit and kill you even when they don't actually connect, ruining the stage and rendering the proper arcade strategy against then useless.

You know, I could have sworn they were killing me when I was nowhere near the actual lasers themselves. I have nearly howled in frustration when an otherwise-flawless run was stopped by those things.

That is a serious oversight. You almost have to plan around their appearance, making sure you don't end up in one of those stages where there are four lined up on the ground or something.

Well, good to know, at the least.

[Sinful]

A-C-E-I-M-S-Y

This route has the Ice stage!!! ... I mean; Wow, just tried that route to see how it was on my second run and I just barely missed my 1cc by a scratch. Basically the Crab boss of stage 6 surprised me, scared me & cost me 1 life. So I had to start the last stage naked. Stumbled my way to the last boss with the red ship with one life to spare. White Strips really is way easy. Was figuring out how to defeat him on the fly. But man, the fight was lasting forever? Started to worry about them timeout cubes... then I realized "This _ is _ Darius! Shoot the Core!!" ... Err, mouth. Shoot the mouth. Well, I got him really red, I was like "This is it!! But in my excitement I must of dropped the ball and/or got to gready in getting in more shoots to finish him off already, cause I got caught in one of his lame easy to dodge wave shots. >_< So embarrising.

In a way I'm kind of glad it didn't happen. Seemed like too easy of an victory for 1cc'ing such a great game. Gonna give the upmost top route a few more tries first. Or maybe even the bottom? If I run out of patience with this 1cc, I can always go back to Strips.

Also, tried one more middle route for my third session yesturday after the 1cc one, and I can confirm that the middle route seem to have way more powerups, helping to make things quite a bit easier. Was able to point blank that Turtle mid boss before he go any shots off once, and the second time he got a few shots off but still killed him before he tucked his head in again. Something that's not possible on the upmost route. + You get the Gold shield as early as stage 4!!! ... Well, needless to say, I like this variety in powerups. The Arcade had a fixed amount for all stages and they all came in the same order (that goes through them all in a looping cycle). Not sure if the Genesis version changes the order too? Thought I got 2 red powerups in a row once?




Well, I noticed more difference with the Genesis version + with what I knew;

- Stage 3 Snake Boss (Drio Sawn). Well in stage E he don't have that electricity around him that shocks you if you get too close, thus slowing your speed a lot for a bit. Hoping there's more variety like this between the same boss fights only on different routes. Gives some nice extra variety.
- I know about stage C Boss fight not having the bomb there, thus making this fight actually a tad challenging.
- Stage six "S" in the Genny version has the level where you start in a cave then go underground more into an underwater stage with the Red Crab boss. This is Stage 5 "O" (I think?) in the Arcade with boss Leadain
- Stage E is based of stage E of the Arcade enemy & enemy pattern wise, but the stage theme changed from a sunset cloudy sky to a outer space star lit background.
- Stage F Aracde is stage D for the Genesis version. The way you handle that Eel eeml-midboss wannabee type thing is different here. He only shots from his tale in the Genny version, while in the Arcade he shots from around those things you have to destroy, making it more tricky. Thought in both versions you can quickly dispose of this threat with the green lazers ASAP making this boss thingy nothing but a dud prop for the pretty background.
- Stage L for the Genny with Yamato was stage K for the Arcade (err, maybe I'm a bit wrong? I forget how the only other Yamato Arcade stage is? PS, there are 3 Yamot stages in the Genny version. So maybe one of them is more like the Arcade?). And in the Genny version it starts of underground for bit then goes above ground for quite a bit before the boss fight. The pre-boss fight were you take on the ship turrets seems much, much harder in the Genesis version too. Need to figure a way to make this much easier...
- each higher difficulty level in the Arcade version adds one more blank dud pwoerup in the powerup cycle (meaning from one powerup enemy wave you get nothing). So Very Hard has 3 duds total! Making it super hard to powerup. Easy is the only difficulty without duds. PCE CD version follows this rule too, but the Genesis version doesn't. There never are any duds.
- Genesis levels are longer. For me, personally, this is a good thing. It's only bad for bad STGs. :p

[stryc9]

Yeah White Stripes comes on the screen I'm already sipping ice tea and smoking a cigarette

I predict you will have your 1CC in the next couple of runs, Sinful.

So in terms of me trying for a Very Hard 1CC, which is the easiest route on the Genesis version? Stick to the middle and hope for the best? I don't really want to fight Ledain if I don't have to.

[Kollision]

So in terms of me trying for a Very Hard 1CC, which is the easiest route on the Genesis version?

As suggested by Sinful I just did it. No missed ABEIMSY on Very Hard. I think it's an easy route, used to be my favorite, this or ABEINTY for Yamato.
With the exception of the lightning fast bullets and more resilient bosses, this is quite doable.

And am I the only one who thinks Leadain is easier than Yamato?
I beat Leadain unscratched. In the MD version he isn't really aggressive on the thorns (no triple horizontal thorns when his shell is closed, for instance).

[ACSeraph]

I don't really want to fight Ledain if I don't have to.

Is Leadain way harder in the MD version or something? I find this fight very manageable and interesting in the arcade version.

Wow, just tried that route to see how it was on my second run and I just barely missed my 1cc by a scratch.

Very nice! Keep at it and get dat clear And after you finish go beat the hell out of the arcade version too. Try out the strategies in the ST.

I did finally discover a relatively consistent counter-strategy, but it requires perfect memorization and makes the stage infinitely harder than it was originally intended to be...

I've tried that too. Nowhere near as consistent as the method I've described, why I didn't bother to mention it.

Really, the only trick is not to get too close. Just learn to keep tapping back from a safe enough distance and it'll go down soon enough (it's not always, if ever, ASAP). Just watch out for other enemies too. Only thing that worked consistently with me. For stage L, that is.

My positioning must be wrong, because like I said, especially for the first satellite I only get past it unscathed about 50% of the time and it seems random. The laser clearly isn't connecting when I'm taking damage though, it's fuckin' infuriating. Maybe I ought to use a saturn emulator with save states myself to work towards a solution, because having to get through the first 4 stages over and over again to practice those ten broken seconds is making me rage in new and exciting ways.

Is there any way you could get a screen shot of your exact positioning? Are you able to duplicate the method consistently every time you do it? For me it only works some of the time. Also does the method work for every situation in the stage where you have to indirectly destroy a satellite? Some of them can be easily dealt with by direct shooting, but there are multiple parts throughout the stage where they are protected. Particularly I'm wondering if your strat works for the satellite that follows the midboss. Anyhow if at all possible I'd really appreciate screenshots of the positioning. If I can get it down and working consistently, I'll add it to the ST and credit you.

[stryc9]

Nah, I'm just shit at it. The first time I fought Ledain I think I survived with no shield and minimal power ups but still killed him.

Now I'm losing all my shield by misjudging those two halves of his body that line you up and close on you. Which is a shame because it's pretty damn easy

[Sinful]

So in terms of me trying for a Very Hard 1CC, which is the easiest route on the Genesis version?

As suggested by Sinful I just did it. No missed ABEIMSY on Very Hard. I think it's an easy route, used to be my favorite, this or ABEINTY for Yamato.
With the exception of the lightning fast bullets and more resilient bosses, this is quite doable.

And am I the only one who thinks Leadain is easier than Yamato?
I beat Leadain unscratched. In the MD version he isn't really aggressive on the thorns (no triple horizontal thorns when his shell is closed, for instance).

Wow, what the heck?! How many runs did that take? I figured it was doable, given to how well balanced the game seems, but how much harder do you think it is? Or, if one were to start with that difficulty, how much longer would you think it would take?

And no, you're right, now that I've faced Leadain a few more times and got comfortable, he does seems easier. But he sure can take a serious beating. Fight seems to go on forever even with non-stop point blank shooting. ... And man, that ship form of Yamato for the Genesis version sure seems tuff...

Is there any way you could get a screen shot of your exact positioning?

It's about a whole ship's distance away. Can be a tad less too, but if you're always keep about a ships disatnce away, you should be fine.

Fired it up again and had a few more goes, so I can be more detailed. For the first & single one, I was actually a couple of times able to get behind it. To do this consistently for the first one, stay about mid-screen distance, and as the first enemy wave comes in, fire away at the top enemy wave while moving forward too, thus dodging away the bullets from the bottom enemy wave of the set. Only when I do this on the fly my mind daydreams sometimes and I don't get the timing right and just do whatever to dodge, and then fall back to my ships distance away from lazer & hugging the top of the screen tactic. Then I sweep under the remaining lazer animation to pass. ... Though sometimes I really daydream and get to the satelite to late to take it out in time and get crushed, lol.

For the next one, which is a set of two satelites; you can still do both methods, but it's trickier to go behind these ones, and not sure how consistently I can get it to happen? But the ships distance method works.

For the next one, which haa 3 of them in a row, you can just blast 'em from you main shot.

For the last two; the first one you can just get with your traveling ground missile while you deal with that spinning bullets everywhere enemy. Then the satelite after that ... er.. now I forget? Maybe you can main shot shoot it? Or the ships distance method.... Crap, I think I forgot both of these already and may have them backwards?

For the one after the mid boss... well, after and during the midboss; hit the bomb that appears behind it with your main shot, by hugging a bit low to the ground, to take it & the midboss out. (This tactic happened by accident every time, lol. But the last time I made sure to aim for the bomb)

All the other ones can be shot from the front with your main shot.

And yes, use an emulator, it's a pain in the butt alright. SSF Saturn emuiator is the only one I ever use. If your computer is a little slow, use an older version, as they require less powerful computers.

[Kollision]

So in terms of me trying for a Very Hard 1CC, which is the easiest route on the Genesis version?

As suggested by Sinful I just did it. No missed ABEIMSY on Very Hard. I think it's an easy route, used to be my favorite, this or ABEINTY for Yamato.
With the exception of the lightning fast bullets and more resilient bosses, this is quite doable.

And am I the only one who thinks Leadain is easier than Yamato?
I beat Leadain unscratched. In the MD version he isn't really aggressive on the thorns (no triple horizontal thorns when his shell is closed, for instance).

Wow, what the heck?! How many runs did that take?

Two runs.
The first one ended in stage B when I rammed the Silver Hawk across walls.
The second one almost ended early when those tiny bullets started coming really fast before BFG (Baby Fatty Glutton) in stage E. Shield was gone for the rest of the level, I think I got one before Drio Sawm.
Bear in mind I played this game to exhaustion before going to college (I'm old ), so I could pretty much remember everything. The biggest differences in Very Hard are what I've already mentioned, especially them fast bullets. Weirdly enough, minibosses don't actually get any more aggressive while everything else does.

[stryc9]

Nice one Kollision.

I'm gonna try those routes out on Very Hard and see what happens. Although it's about 44 degrees celcius here at the moment and my gaming room is on the top level, nice and boiling hot, kind of a concentration breaker having to wipe sweat from your eyes every 30 seconds!

[ACSeraph]

Time to bring the Darius Love back from the dead

So last night in preparation for my trip to Tokyo next week I decided to practice Darius. I want to get the PCB clear at Taito Hey! I recently learned to play Darius 1 for Wolfman's tournament, but the version at Hey! is Darius Extra, so I sat down with it for the first time last night.

My god. This game is classic.

Darius Extra fixes pretty much every single thing that is fucked up about vanilla Darius. The original version has some majorly bullshit milking involved for high level scoring which is removed by instating a point limit on bosses and an absolutely massive bonus for each life remaining at the end of the game. So basically the scoring in the game boils down to what was originally intended: a very high kill rate on enemy waves and no-missing. It's as pure as it gets, no more sitting there for ten minutes milking the popcorn spawned by the bosses, just get in there and kick some ass!

And the difficulty has been heavily rebalanced too. Fatty Glutton in the original is extremely unfair if you power up to the laser before facing him. It literally takes forever to kill him and is probably 10 times harder than anything else you will face in the game. "Why not just wait to upgrade?" you might ask, well the problem is in certain courses, like the all up path waiting to upgrade makes the later stages basically impossible. But in Extra his health count is lowered immensely, so that now using the intended strategy and fighting him with the laser he will go down in about the same amount of time all the other bosses do.

And it doesn't end there, they also made pretty much every boss that follows him slightly harder, particularly the way their bullet patters work. Great Thing has also been changed so that it is no longer possible to just anticlimactically point blank him to death.

The result of this is pure 80's style robo-fish slaying shmup gold. No bullshit, the game is straight up and the difficulty is very balanced. Every stage is harder than the last, culminating in an exciting final boss battle, unlike vanilla which peaks at stage 4 and then gets easier with each following stage. It's just... godly. A perfect 80's shooting game.

So why am I telling you this? Because our scoreboard only has 2 registered scores for Darius Extra. Two. This is a crime. Go fire up MAME, and play Darius Extra right now. It is an unknown classic. Never play vanilla Darius again, it is garbage in comparison. Extra is god tier.

[EmperorIng]

I wasn't aware of the finer details (like the point limit on bosses), but I whole-heartedly approved of Extra's readjusting the boss difficulty (basically making Fatty Glutton easier, and the other bosses having minor adjustments). It does make the game far more playable.

[ACSeraph]

It's hard to really spot the small details until you've played the shit out of Vanilla like I did for the tournament. There's changes all over the place, it's clear a lot of love went into the rebalance.

So the bosses get point limit's as I said, and various changes to HP and patterns. Some changes are not so obvious to the average players. I mentioned Great Thing is no longer point blankable, but there's more than that. Keen Bayonet for example had a relatively safe spot you could point blank in vanilla right under his head. Basically he wouldn't move down far enough to crush your ship. He now moves down ever so slightly further so that you will be crushed if you try to abuse it.

The mecha-roe that show up prior to the boss fights actually can be dangerous the farther you get into the game, because of the way they arc behind you when they split.

There are also some changes to the stage enemies, particularly the satellites that shoot a line of bullets (not the laser ones) have more health and shoot at a much higher rate, making the stages they appear somewhat more challenging. Before they died in one hit, but now they take about three, which can be quite difficult at times, so it forces you to carefully time your way through their shots rather than kill them.

There were also bits of scenery your bullets would clip through in Vanilla, allowing you to destroy turrets that were meant to be protected. Extra removes the clipping so you can no longer cheese your way through.

Once you clear you get 1 million points for each remaining ship, completely negating any benefits of checkpoint milking.

So basically, the game is filled to the brim with changes, many of which are so minor the average player would never notice them. It's like Taito obsessively noted every single problem with Darius vanilla and sought to fix it, no matter how obscure the problem was. It's just crazy; the perfect Darius game.

[Aleksei]

Wow, I've never played Extra version and I'm a huge Darius fan. Thanks for the insight, I will definitely play this in the future, especially since I'm able to clear vanilla, how much harder would extra be, right? For some reason, I thought this version was like Gaiden's extra where you have to play every stage and I just ignored it without even trying it. One day I'll have the skill to do Gaiden's extra but for now a new Darius challenge has appeared

[ACSeraph]

I actually thought it featured all stages too at first. But I realized that wasn't the case after playing it at Hey! If you can clear vanilla I don't think it would be much more difficult to also finish off Extra. Just requires strategy adjustments at certain points. Nothing in it comes even remotely close to the difficulty of a vanilla Fatty Glutton laser kill. So even with the increased difficulty in other areas the top Z course is absolutely easier in Extra.

It seems like a much more compelling game for scoring too, since it pushes you to focus on maximizing everything within the stages and not missing enemy waves, particularly the high payout waves, instead of getting a huge bulk of your score from boring checkpoint milking of specific bosses. The only thing I'm curious about is whether or not the white orbs are still random. I always felt that was a big flaw with the scoring in vanilla. I'll do some research with it tonight and report back.

Anyhow make sure you post your scores in the high score thread! I'll do the same

[Mr.Dandy]

Hi all! I made an account here just to join this thread, which I found searching about the Darius Odyssey book. I can tell you, the Darius love is... in me ^_^ For a lonely summer in 1987, after moving to a new town, not yet knowing anyone, just about all I did was play Darius at the mall in Cerritos, CA USA. It's always been a very special game to me. Once I even tracked down and purchased a NinjaWarriors cabinet (with a Darius board and marquee installed), but I had to sell it for space a few years later. I got pretty good at it, it's one of the few games I can 1LC. I'm sure almost any of you guys could top my score, but last I checked I had the top rank with MAME Darius at Twin Galaxies, when it was working.

So I just thought I would jump in and post some quick pics of some of my Darius collectibles hoard. For few years I was obsessively looking for this stuff. I wish I could get ahold of more of the WonFes resin kits, and some of the doujin. Also I don't have Darius Alpha or the Darius Rebirth set (too expensive), but overall I have some rare stuff. I won't bore you with the obvious things, but here are some of the more obscure items.


In the top center is what I would consider the holy grail of Darius books, the 'Big Apple' edition.
Nearly all of the original enemy art, and painted backgrounds are shown, and even a short B/W Darius manga.
I'm not sure if there are full scans existing, but one day I might do it myself. Also, a lot of that may be in Odyssey, I will see when mine arrives.


Some VHS videos and promos, the Sony Darius promo laserdisc, and a vinyl copy of TGM Vol.2. I should hand that to a club DJ sometime and blow his mind!


Some arcade flyers, marquees and art. Also a couple shitajiki (pencilboards) and a magazine promo single with Captain Neo (you'd think it would be Inorganic Beat from the cover image


Sorry for the blur! A Darius velcro wallet (very 1986), a GD Ver.2 Banner and tote bag, a GD coin holder (left) and a Darius SD Silver Hawk phone charm (made of resin so I would never try to use it).


Two GD and one Gamest Darius phone card. I'd never seen that art before, interesting to see the Silver Hawk flying through the battleship zone from the front.


My Wonfes kits. From Top Left: Silver Hawk 3F-1B from Marching Out, G-Darius Silver Hawk from 13B-Specters, Fatty Glutton from Conflict, and Eternal Triangle from...?

Someday I will try to make proper scans of things, I have always wanted to archive this stuff in some way.
Thanks for looking!

[Mr.Dandy]

some of my stuff:

@ Sly Cherry Chunks! If you are casting those, I am very interested.
You can contact me with your info at my website, http://www.mrdandy.com
I make resin stuff too, I'd be happy to trade if you see anything you like there, or buy.

BTW are those from SLA outputs? Way to go with those, the results look great.

[EmperorIng]

That's some seriously cool stuff.

The Big Apple book looks quite alluring.
Who wouldn't want a Darius wallet? I know I would.

I still find it really interesting how Darius and other arcade games came out at a time where they would actually release a vinyl soundtrack of the game's music.

[Stevas]

Recently got back into the Darius (through a rediscovered copy of Taito Legends 2 I didn't realise I had!)

And it got me thinking, how did that Darius Burst work out? Was it any good? Could I play it on my Vita?

I'm assuming not, because Europelol.

[HydrogLox]

Depends if you want to go through the hassle of swapping to a separate memory card and create/manage a separate Japanese PSN account. See here.

ja-jp PSN Darius Burst (PSP/PS Vita)

[Stevas]

If it's just a case of swapping a card out, I'd go for that (once I eventually buy a bigger card, then my current one could be "relegated" to being used for a jap account, I guess).

But I thought it also involved resetting the Vita every time you wanted to swap cards?

[HydrogLox]

Yes unfortunately you will have to do a reset (with neither of the memory cards inserted) to switch.

I'm not sure what would happen if the PSP/PS Vita content is first downloaded to a PS3 with access to the (secondary) ja-jp PSN account. The PS Vita's content manager can probably only see files on the PS3 that originated from the PSN account that the PS Vita is currently linked to.

[Stevas]

Yeah, fuck that. That whole reset thing is why I just haven't bothered, I think. Pity.

As for your second point, I don't know, but I DO know that the vita will remote play stuff that isn't tied to the same account (I have, for example, a copy of Tokyo Jungle from another account, and my Vita can play that).

[mastermx]

I've tried darius burst on the psp. It's really disappointing that the game doesn't differentiate score with continues and a score without continues. You don't need a 1cc for score.

[Mr.Dandy]

I have a PSP, mainly for Darius Burst. Curious if anybody has tried the iOS version? I wish they'd put it out for Android, not that it's so great to play shooters on a touch screen, but just to have it on me anywhere.

BTW, my copy of Darius Odyssey (with the extra manga/posters) has arrived from Play Asia, what an awesome book. In some ways it's more compete on the original game than the Big Apple book, although the minor enemy art is small and in B/W. In the Big Apple book, they're larger and in color.

[Sly Cherry Chunks]

^If you like it on PSP then you'll like it on iOS too. Second Prologue is slightly remixed with different attack waves, a couple of extra bosses and an extra ship: the Assault. Its not quite as much fun, you have to unlock the drop beam and counter-bursts never miss. Touch screen dodging make it a lot easier too. I have it on my phone, I bet it looks great on an iPad.

That's a neat collection you've got there, would love to see those wonfest kits built. Thanks for the interest in my models. No SLA, they're hand made and cast. I got seven cast up before the molds deteriorated, including one in all clear resin (albeit a disappointing piss-colour). The silver hawks are toys.

[Mr.Dandy]

@ Sly Cherry Chunks Ah great to see people still modeling old-school with their own human hands, that's the way I usually like to work too. It was the transparent yellow parts that made me think of SLA plastic (and the overall pro finish). I did recognize the Silver Hawks from the Yujin toys, I was thinking it would be cool to do the same with a scale King Fossil or Dual Shears. If you want to part with a 'Glutton, seriously, contact me!