Darius II

"A blast from the past."

Darius II

Back before the advent of 3D side scrolling shooters such as Darius 2 were all the rage, coming to their peak around the late eighties to early nineties, legendary titles in this Genre included the R-Type and Gradius series. While Darius doesn't quite rank among such legends it's still none the less one of the better examples of it's line, originally coming out in the arcade in the late eighties before being ported over to the Genesis and finally the Saturn. The Saturn version is I've been told 100% arcade perfect. And while the game itself is at the time of this writing is around 15-16 years old it still holds it's own against many 2D games made in recent times in graphical terms, and in is in many ways superior to many 2D games made now in terms of actual game-play. For the most part I believe pure 2D games are starting to become a bit of a lost art since the advent of 3D, and many 2D games made for home systems now feel more like retro novelties rather than complete games. Darius 2 is like a game at the end of an era I feel, released as it was just at the very beginning of the 3D age, and on one of the last home systems to be primarily designed for 2D.

Now anyone who has played a side scrolling shooter before will be right at home with Darius 2, as it does everything by the book, everything you would expect from a side scrolling shooter is here, including various power ups, shields and new weapon to collect, an assortment of enemies from that pour on screen, each with there own particular attack patterns, hails of bullets and other projectiles that you have to manoeuvre through, and of course a gigantic boss to defeat at the end of each level. The story is the usual “defeat all the invading aliens” affair.

So nothing particularly new or original you may think, well in many ways no, though this isn't a new game don't forget, though Darius 2 does incorporate two unique features that I feel set it apart from many games of this genre. The first is the “zoom” function, where by you can alternate between a close view of your ship and your surroundings, and you a zoomed out view whereby your ship becomes little more than a dot, though you are able to view and blast at enemies from a great distance away, enemies that would not otherwise be viable to you in close up view. This feature lends the game to a certain level of tactics and thought not just the usual hand eye co-ordination and quick reflexes . At close quarters say a cave packed with enemies, flak and obstacles you will need a close up view to manoeuvre your ship through the hazards. On a long straight run a zoomed out view is often be best, enabling you to out waves of enemies before they get in close. On occasion you can come under attack from a distance by a particular large opponent, such threats must be dealt with in zoomed out view, though if you're in an area heavy with bullets missiles and obstacles this can be a risky thing to do. So you have to constantly judge the distance at which to view your ship, the key to victory in this game is the utilisation of this zoom feature. Another thing the zoom feature allows is truly massive bosses that dwarf your tiny little ship several times over. For these boss battles you must always zoom out to the fullest extent allowing you to view your gigantic opponent. Size aside bosses will always follow a fixed attack pattern, to defeat them all you really need to do is learn their patterns and find their weak spot, if you can defeat a boss once, you'll should be able to do it again without a great deal of difficulty.

The second feature that Darius 2 incorporates is a non-linear level progression feature, similar in concept in some ways to Starfox 64. In this game you essentially take a tour of the solar system, beginning at the surface of the sun then moving on to other planets including Mercury, Venus, the Moon, Earth, Mars and Jupiter, each level takes place within each of those planets. However each level is divided into a number of different “zones” and on completion of a particular level you are given a choice as to which zone, essentially entirely different levels in their own right in which you wish to do battle. On Venus for example one zone will be out in space near the planets surface, one will be with the it's acid clouds, one on the surface, and another within a cave system. Each zone on a world will share the similarly themed enemies, terrain, music and identical end of level bosses., but this does give Darius 2 a high degree of replay value, essentially you can play through an entirely different combination of zones each time you play.

Though Darius is relatively short in terms of the number of actual levels don't expect to complete it any time soon, this game is tough and will take a good while even for veteran shooters to crack. There is however a way to make the game a little easier, upon losing your last remain life you can restart from where you left died as player two by the by switching your controller to the second port and pressing start. Essentially it's a cheat that gives you double the number of lives, and to be honest you do them in this game, even with this technique I was only just able to battle through onto Mars, before finally succumbing to the continuous onslaught, like many shooters Darius 2 is a game where you can't take your eyes of the screen or relax for a second. You can of course use the 2D function the way it was intended and have two players battling side by side with each other, though having just the one Saturn controller this not something I've tried myself. The zoom view could possibly be a point of conflict though I imagine, say if one player wanted an up close view while the other wanted a zoomed out view.

Darius 2 utilizes some very nicely detailed graphics, with some well animated sprites with a good range of colours, some of the giant bosses look particularly impressive, though your actual ships appear fairly rudimentary and bland, and some back grounds look a little rough around the edges at times. The music score while nothing particularly ground breaking consists of a number of reasonably catchy techno sometimes military style tunes with the occasional “plinky plonky” bit you so often get in shooters for some reason. You wouldn't really want to listen to it on your stereo system, but it fit's the game well. There's even a tiny bit of voice acting at the very beginning, by a woman who claims she always wanted something called “Tsuni Shasimi” or something along those lines. I have no idea what she's going on about to be honest, and I doubt she does either, though she only speaks briefly at the very beginning of the first level and is never heard from again.

So overall I would only recommend Darius 2 to the veteran hardcore gamers who played what games such as this and remember what they were like back in their heyday. Newer or more casual gamers brought up on a diet of 3D games may not really understand the concept of games such as Darius 2, and will likely be put off by the pretty tough levels of difficulty, they just don‘t make games of this difficulty level anymore, save for a few exceptions. Darius 2 probably isn't the best introduction into the world of 2D shooters for the uninitiated. Though I would recommend this game to anyone who owns a Saturn, since it can be picked up at a reasonable price, and if you own a Saturn chances are that you've already had a fair amount of experience with games such as this anyway.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 12/05/04