G Darius

"You Are in for a Difficult Challenge"

When I first played the demo of this, I was so thrilled about this game, I loved it. Then I bought the game($5 thankfully), and it killed me. I could not believe how incredibly hard the later levels were. Perhaps other might disagree and say that ''I'm just not good enough at the game.'' But I must admit, and so will some of you, that this game was just INSANELY HARD on arcade mode. Nevertheless, I still like this game, but honestly wish there were some other things such as a save feature.

Graphics: 9/10

For a 2-D side shooter, this game had nice visuals. Mainly the backgrounds of the levels. For example, the first level consists of you destroying enemy forces in a city while they destroy the city in the background, setting off huge explosions and toppling buildings. Sometimes, slowdowns would occur, but not often.

Sound/Music: 7/10

Good sounds, fair music, but nothing special or great. Many explosions, and variety of gun sounds and such, the typical sounds of a space shooter. There is no voice acting, but there really aren't any characters.

Gameplay: 7/10

G-Darius is a left to right side shooter. You shoot enemy forces and make sure they do not hit you. At the end of each level is a boss, usually a giant fish mech. After completing the level, you can choose a path to continue the game, which are different levels and different bosses. The ability to upgrade weapons, shields, and even your ship during gameplay is a good way of staying alive during levels. Unfortunately, the upgradable parts only last for as long as you stay alive. As you progress through the levels, the enemies get harder to kill, and shots get harder to dodge. It is sometimes unbelievable, at some points more than 75% of the screen is filled with enemy fire in which you have to dodge or you die. If you lose all your lives and continues, game over, got to start all the way from beginning. Two player co-op is available, and could be very helpful, but might not since you share the lives and continues. Just like most arcade games, there is no feature. Too bad, because I really feel sorry for those people who were at the last boss and died, and have to start all over. Their pain must have been excruciating. There are many different types of enemies, and you can catch and capture the common ones so they will help you and add to your firepower. All in all, the concepts and ideas are quite original since there are not much games of that genre.

Replay Value: 5/10

If you are a hard-core space shooter gamer and decide to fully complete this game, you will spend many hours trying to do so. If your crazy skills get you through this game, I will have to congratulate you in person if you beat this in arcade mode without changing the settings. I had to put unlimited lives so that I could get through this game, so I don't consider that a legal completion, but since I had it I just decided to go through it, and boy did I die a lot of times. Anyways, once you beat the game, that is pretty much it. But occasionally you will want to come back to the game and repeat it just for fun, wether its by yourself or with a buddy. If you are able to beat it, it will take less than two. I was only able to beat this game on normal (unlimited continues) and I have not really tried beating it on arcade version, and probably never will. But that doesn't mean you won't.

Rent or Buy?

I definitely recommend renting first. If you want a serious challenge, the go ahead and buy this game. But when I say difficult, I mean unbelievably crazy hard challenge, so don't say I never warned you!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 03/31/02, Updated 09/19/02