Darius (series)

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Darius series is a series of horizontally-scrolling shoot 'em up video games, released by Taito.

1 Series
2 External links

[edit] Series

Darius, Arcade, 1986
Darius II, Arcade, 1988
Darius Alpha, PC Engine, 1990
Darius Twin, SNES, 1991
Darius Force / Super Nova, SNES, 1993
Darius Gaiden, Arcade, 1994
G-Darius, Arcade, 1997
Darius-R, Game Boy Advance, 2001

[edit] Darius Plus/Super Darius

An expanded port of the original Darius for the NEC SuperGrafx. The game retained the music of the arcade game, and included several new bosses. Super Darius, released for the PC Engine CD and developed by NEC Avenue, had an original boss for every stage (the first game to do so).

[edit] Darius Alpha

Darius Alpha, a "boss fest" version of Darius Plus, is one of the rarest PC Engine games - around a thousand copies were made. An eBay auction is reported to have reached U$1,400. [1]

[edit] Sagaia (Game Boy)

Released for the Game Boy in 1991, this is a port of the original Darius with a few new bosses. The stage layout is also completely linear- the only Darius to be so.

[edit] Darius+

The Edge released Darius+, presumably a port of Darius Plus to various home PCs in the early 90s. It bears little or no resemblance to the original game, though it has been described as the "poor man's R-Type" by one gaming magazine.

[edit] Darius Twin

The first Darius for the Super NES, released in 1991. As its predecessors, it can be played by two players simultaneously. However, the weapons systems is reworked. Instead of raising the weapons' level by filling the bar, it can be powered by just taking the power-ups. As a result of this, losing a life does not reduce any of the weapons' levels. Also, there is only one final level.

[edit] Darius Force/Super Nova

Also for SNES, it was released in America under the name of Super Nova in 1993. This game has been changed to resemble the older games more than Darius Twin. For instance, there are three final levels, some of these levels have been improved (with obstacles and even rotating levels) and there are three ships to choose, each with different abilities; two are from the original Darius games, and a new third one.

[edit] Super Darius II

A port of Darius II for the PC Engine CD, also developed by NEC Avenue. A somewhat rare game, it features several new bosses and a hard-rock remix of the original soundtrack.

[edit] Darius R

Released in 2001 for the (Game Boy Advance) and developed by PCCW. This is mostly a watered-down version of Darius Plus, with fewer stages and fewer bosses. The game also has a score attack feature - individual stages can be played, which can be useful to practice destroying bosses. Most interestingly, the music of the game is a mixture of music from the previous Darius games, with two new tracks added.