Darius

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Description

Darius was Taito's effort to compete in the arcades against the likes of R-Type and Gradius. Technically impressive, it featured three screens depicting the largest playfield seen in a game so far (the same system was employed for Ninja Warriors), with the player sitting atop a big set of loudspeakers. Visually and audibly, it was a league above Irem's and Konami's offerings.

When Taito (and others) ported the game to home machines, they were forced to shrink the playfield to fit in one single screen, and re-dubbed it Darius Plus.

The plot of Darius involves the two heroes Proco Jr. and Tiat Young fighting the menaces posed by galactic fish and other sea animals again their homeworld.

What sets Darius apart from other shoot'em-ups of the time is its way of letting the player choose his path with a certain amount of freedom. At the end of each area (level), you are able to choose between one of two worlds which the area branches into. This renders a higher replay value, since there are many paths to reach the end of the game by. Apart from this, the gameplay is on the simplistic side, both due to unimaginative attack waves and little interaction with the surroundings, but mainly due to the very basic powerup system, which is nowhere near the complexity of the aforementioned R-Type's and Gradius'.

Screenshots

Promo Images

Alternate Titles

• "Super Darius" -- PC Engine CD title
• "Sagaia" -- Game Boy title
• "Darius Wide" -- Mobile title (widescreen devices)
• "Darius Plus" -- PC Engine title
• "Darius+" -- Amiga/Atari ST/ZX Spectrum title
• "Arcade Archives: Darius" -- PS4 title
• "ダライアス・プラス" -- PC Engine Japanese spelling
• "ダライアス" -- Japanese spelling

Part of the Following Groups

• Arcade Archives series
• Darius series
• Genre: Scrolling shoot 'em up

User Reviews

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Critic Reviews

Power Play	TurboGrafx-16	Jan, 1991	80 out of 100	80
Computer and Video Games (CVG)	Amiga	Jan, 1990	79 out of 100	79
Amiga Joker	Amiga	Dec, 1989	74 out of 100	74
ACE (Advanced Computer Entertainment)	Atari ST	Feb, 1990	725 out of 1000	72
1UP!	TurboGrafx-16	May 09, 2008	72 out of 100	72
ST Action	Atari ST	Jan, 1990	62 out of 100	62
Retro Archives	Atari ST	Jan 27, 2018	12 out of 20	60
Video Game Den	TurboGrafx-16	Mar 01, 2012		60
Retro Archives	TurboGrafx-16	Jan 27, 2018	11 out of 20	55
ASM (Aktueller Software Markt)	Atari ST	Dec, 1989	6.4 out of 12	53

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Trivia

1001 Video Games

The Arcade version of Darius appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

References to the game

Darius references can be found in several other Taito games. Rainbow Islands has a secret Darius level with a cutesy rendition of the soundtrack, and tunes from the game are also used in the arcade game Metro Soldier Isaac II.

Cancelled C64 port

The Edge announced a C64 version of the game and there even was a test of in ACE 1990/2, which is unlike was really about the C64 version of the game. Just because after payment troubles at the Edge several programmers left and the graphic developer Tahir Rashid only ever finished the graphics for level 1 and the development for that version was stopped (Source: gamesthatwerent.com).