First post here, I thought I had an account here from a few years ago but I guess not
As a quick intro, I am an arcade operator in Utah (Game Grid Arcade) where I have a few shmups in my collection, some on the floor, some as just PCBs needing a cab. Dariusburst Another Chronicle Unlock B, Armed Police Batrider, Blazing Star, ESPRade, Macross Plus, 1945 Strikers II, Last Resort and Mars Matrix are all a part of that and of course I have some for home consoles and PC.
I wasn't really familiar with Darius until Dariusburst AC came along and some local fans here convinced me to convince Taito to give the game an English release, which I did work with them to do. Unfortunately that didn't all work out as planned for a wide release. In getting DBAC I gained a huge appreciation for it, not just because I had to spend a pretty penny on it (which I am still making payments on) but as shmups go, it's where I find a good balance of play that I can get into. I've been able to 1cc certain runs on Darius more often that I have on other titles. It could be that I'm just not very good at bullet hell
One part of it has gone beyond myself and to my kids who are ages 9 and 5 respectively. My son in particular loves Darius now, in part because he is into sea creatures and squids but any time he drops by the arcade, he has to play a round or two. He found the CG art from DBAC on the Japanese site, printed out all of the bosses and made his own little 'boss encyclopedia' for the game; He also has convinced his classmates at school as to how awesome Darius is, it once being the focus of a class discussion thanks to a picture of himself standing in front of it for some project they had. Overall, he's become pretty good at the game,
here is a video of him getting a counterburst which 99% percent of the people I see play the game don't have a clue as to what that is.
He's also played some Darius Gaiden and Darius Twin, I need to get Darius 1 and 2 running on MAME to show him those.