A potent sequel and a port
Darius used to be a series with only few, handful of good games. Darius Gaiden was the first good one in the series, and the series only has gotten better with each installment since then, but Dariusburst CS takes a small step backwards.
This is essentially a souped up version of PSP's Dariusburst and Dariusburst AC from the arcades. It reuses stages and graphics without adding too much. It's actual meat is the Chronicles mode, which offers a way to play through the Darius canon while emulating the systems from each game, thou G Darius and Darius Gaiden's systems suffer the most from being implemented under Burst's system instead of standing their own legs. It takes some time to wage through all the Arcade modes and Chronicle's missions, but it's all good.
Darius' gimmick has always been double width screens, and the latest arcade game employed this to bring back what defined Darius' look in the first place. It is tiny in the Vita's screen, wasting quite a lot of space, but seeing this is a direct arcade port, that's understandable. Unless you have a poor eyesight and don't wear glasses, the Arcade mode will seem like an impossible task. Overall, it's a perfect port and plays well, and the only thing the player really needs to is to watch better on the screen. Everything is still validly visible, just smaller.
Language barrier is minimal. Degica has released an English language digital release, so if you're afraid of slight amount of Japanese, go for that.
This edition is a repeat of PSP's Dariusburst limited edition and comes with an Arrange Soundtrack that doesn't carry any Darius music, but includes music from classic games like Space Harrier and Metal Black. The book it comes with is an updated edition of Darius Odyssey. The package itself is large and makes a great showpiece.
Because of the recycled content from Dariusburst, the game does not deserve full five stars. Nevertheless, between the two this edition is superior. From its contents, it's one of the best shooting games out there and deserves a place in your library.