Alert! Darius Cozmic Collection For Switch Is On The Horizon

Expected to release on 28th February 2019 for the Nintendo Switch is Darius Cozmic Collection. Announced by Taito in in July 2018, this eagerly awaited shmup compilation will be available in both Standard and Special Editions.

PRE ORDER DARIUS COZMIC COLLECTION NOW!

Darius is one of Taito’s most iconic IP’s and is similar to the R-Type or Gradius franchises. One of the series’ most memorable features that set it apart is its bosses. Bosses tend to be huge, robotic versions of marine life; for instance, King Fossil and Dual Shears from the original Darius are a giant fish (coelacanth) and a giant lobster, respectively.

Darius is your typical shmup foray, shoot enemies, collect power-ups (in this case, missiles, bombs, and armor) and beat the bosses. What makes it interesting is what happens when you defeat the bosses.

You get a choice of two paths to take and that depends on which half of the screen you position yourself after beating the boss. As a result, Darius actually has 28 stages, but you can only go through seven at a time, making it a huge incentive to try the game again and offering variety on each play through. This and its marine-themed enemies became a tradition of the Darius series.

Time to fire up the Silver Hawk once more as The Standard Edition brings back four of the classic side-scrolling shoot ‘em up games from the original arcade series:

• Darius (Arcade)
• Darius II (Arade)
• Sagaia (Arcade) Darius II Overseas Version
• Darius Gaiden (Arcade)

And if that’s not enough to keep you busy the Special Edition offers nine games in total and bonus material with the physical release. Four of the classic side-scrolling shoot ‘em ups from the original classic arcade series and five from popular classic console versions, including the Super Famicom, Sega Master System, Megadrive, and the PC Engine.

All titles included with the Special Edition:

• Darius (Arcade)
• Darius II (Arade)
• Sagaia (Arcade) Darius II Overseas Version
• Darius Gaiden (Arcade)
• Darius Twin (Super Famicom)
• Darius Force (Super Famicom)
• Sagaia (Sega Master System)
• Darius II (Mega Drive)
• Darius Alpha (PC Engine)

Included bonus content with the physical special edition includes:

• Darius Arrange CD, (Taito’s sound team ZUNTATA and numerous renowned game music artists).
• Darius official data collection (Unpublished materials and new interviews )
• Miniature acrylic marquee ( 3 miniatures of the title panel “Marquee” at the top of the case)

Storyline

The series stars Proco and Tiat, and their Silver Hawks (player controlled ships in each game). Taking place after all the resources on Earth have been depleted. Darius is a newly inhabited planet, housing a thriving societal and technological community. After the Belser Army attacks the planet, it is thrust into chaos. It’s up to Proco and Tiat to take out the Belser Army, which is the premise of each game in the series.

History

Darius is a shoot ’em up arcade game, set in a fictional future.  Released by Taito in February 1987, although its title screen indicates a 1986 copyright. Uniquely among shoot ’em ups, the game’s screen is three times wider than conventional size, and the arcade cabinet uses an arrangement of three screens to accommodate it.

Gameplay

The player controls an ornate fighter spacecraft, named the Silver Hawk, and must navigate through scrolling terrain while battling a variety of fighter craft, ground vehicles, turrets, and other obstacles throughout the game’s stages (referred to as zones in the game). The ship’s arsenal consists of forward-firing missiles, aerial bombs and a protective force field, all of which can be upgraded by power-ups (in the form of large, coloured orbs) that are dropped by specially-coloured enemies throughout the game’s zones.

When the player reaches the end of a zone, a boss appears, which must be defeated to proceed. Once the boss of a zone is destroyed, the player is given a choice of which zone to play next via a branching path. While there are 28 zones in total, only seven can be played in a single run

Music

The game’s soundtrack was composed by Hisayoshi Ogura, the founding member of Taito’s in-house music division Zuntata.

The first stage’s theme, called “Captain Neo”, is a reworked version of a song from an earlier arcade game by Taito, Metal Soldier Isaac II

Ogura composed the music with the concept of, “a large existence,” that being the large bosses in the game and the expansiveness of the universe. The game’s main theme, titled “Chaos”, is notable for being one of the earliest examples of the avant-garde in video game music Ogura recalled.

“…For its time it was extremely avant-garde music. I assigned this piece the role of Darius’s main theme. I’ll have them hear something no one’s ever heard in a game before! With these kinds of thoughts in mind, I composed a piece with the expressive scale of the beginning of the universe. — Hisayoshi Ogura, on composing the game’s main theme” Chaos.

 

 PRE ORDER DARIUS COZMIC COLLECTION NOW!