Darius Gaiden

Review by: John Yeman

There was a time when shooters ruled the arcades and there wasn't a fighting game to be found other than karate champ (which was controlled with 2 (!) joysticks per player). Certainly, times have changed and the shooter is in danger of going the way of the dodo. Well, Darius Gaiden may make people wish for the good old days.

Graphics: 6/10 if compared with today's newest games
10/10 if compared with the arcade original

No, this game isn't 3D and it doesn't have 60 frames per second action. But what it does have is no slowdown, millions of sprites on screen at once and a lot of explosions. Animation is quite good, especially with the mini-boss characters and boss characters (that mechanical fish is AWESOME!). Consider Darius Gaiden as being R-type on steroids.

Music: 9/10

The music is exceptional in Darius Gaiden, and seems to have a surreal edge to it. Clearly the advantages of redbook audio by virtue of a CD are evident here.

Sound: 8/10

Standard shooter fare, with the laser and explosion sounds that we all have come to know and love.

Gameplay: 8/10

Once again, there is nothing revolutionary here but what is here represents a good example of solid shooter gameplay. The premise is to avoid the thousands of bullets and ships (not to mention the ceiling and floors on some levels) and then kill the boss at the end of the level. Interestingly enough, there is a way to make the boss convert over to your cause, rather than destroying it! This is a new feature that should be incorporated in some of the newer state-of-the-art shooters since it adds immensely to the gameplay (PD 3, perhaps?). Another nice feature is the ability to have some control over what level you play next. After defeating a boss character, you then have the opportunity to select which "branch" you want to warp to next. Depending on which level you choose, certain levels will be unselectable as you proceed further into the game.

Overall: 7/10

This game is well worth the $30 that Acclaim is asking, but probably only die-hard shooter fans will buy it in the US (and who can blame them with astounding games like NiGHTS out there!)