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スーパーダライアス
Nec Avenue 1990
Licensed by Taito Corp.
Release : 1990-03-16 (¥6800)
CDRom² HACD 0003
Shooter / Horizontal
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Darius Plus is a horizontal shooter and is the conversion of the arcade game
Darius originally released by Taito in 1986. The Belser forces are
approaching planet Darius and swarms of crustaceous machines are about to invade.
The elite pilot Proco Jr., on-board the Silver Hawk starfighter, is sent against
the attacking forces in an attempt to bring the war to an end. The ship is equipped with two
attack weapons - a forward facing laser and ground bombs. A third feature is a powerful force
field shield that the player can activate to protect a small perimeter around the ship. As
aforementioned, although the game only features two weapons and one shield option, they can
be incrementally upgraded by collecting orbs left behind by colored enemy ships - Red orbs
upgrade the main weapon (from Missiles to Lasers and Waves),
Green orbs upgrade the bombs (from Simple to Twin and Multi) and
Blue Orbs upgrade the shield (Arm, Super and Hyper). Additionally,
other orbs are available for the picking - some destroy all enemies on screen whereas others
award the player with Extra Lives or Points. But the upgrade system in Darius
is unlike any others - although each collected orb gradually enhances a weapon, eight much be
stored to finally upgrade it to the next level (and losing a life
takes the ship back to the lowest level). Finally, Darius features an unique branching
level progression in which the player can choose an alternate path to take at the end of each stage.
Although only seven levels can be accessed in one single play, the whole game boasts a total of
twenty six different stages. Unlike the original arcade game, Darius Plus is
single player only.
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This PC Engine Hucard version has a couple of interesting differences with the original
arcade game. Obviously, the screen is not as wide as the original display (the PC Engine could
only run on a 4:3 standard-definition TV screen after all), so developers had to crop the image and compress
the action into a much smaller space - but it actually works pretty well. Additionally, the conversion has lost
the two-player option and is single-player only. However, Super Darius is somehow easier and it resurrects
the player on the spot rather thank taking him back to the beginning of the stage (unlike the original arcade game).
Although all recorded in CD quality, the music tracks are straight recordings from the arcade game. Finally the game
is called 'Super Darius', and the reason behind this prefix is that it features more bosses than the original
arcade game. Darius had a total of eleven different bosses whereas Super Darius features twenty six
bosses, one for each zone (see the Omake section). Although most of the extra bosses are borrowed from the arcade game
Darius II (released in 1989),
Super Darius features two exclusive bosses - Burst Out (Zone C) and Buddy Blazer (Zone T). The
twelve other bosses are
Big Rajarnn (Zone D),
Little Stripes (Zone E),
My Home Daddy (Zone G),
Red Crab (Zone H),
Guard Savage (Zone I),
Steel Spine (Zone J),
Hard Mollusk (Zone K),
Alloy Lantern (Zone L),
Tough Spring (Zone M),
Hyper Sting (Zone N),
Driosawm (Zones P),
Mystic Power (Zones Q) and
Fire Star (Zone R).
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Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :
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MISSION COMPLETED
YOU DESTROYED ALL ENEMIES
AND WAR IS OVER
YOU ARE THE BRAVEST PILOT
SEE YOU AGAIN NEXT GAME
Executive Producer
Makoto Sakio
Producer
Toshio Tabeta
Directer
Kohji Matsuda
Programmer
Masashi Shimizu
Masatoshi Kanemitsu
Hideki Hacker Mesuda
Max Inde
Hi-Speed Mathpack
Junichi Ten Takao
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Graphics Composer
Toshio Hyper Tabeta
Kohji Gu-Gu- Matsuda
Yasunori Bear Takahara
Recording Supervisor
Yukihiro Free Too
Kimitoshi Hashizume
Sound Effect
Shigeharu Isoda
Kenichiroh Isoda
Map Convert
Takashi Ozama
Waruiko Ishibashi
Special Thanks To
Naoto Yamamoto
Tsuyoshi Matumoto
Yutaka Kubouchi
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Shigenobu Nanbu
Noriaki Ohtsuka
Noriuki Watanabe
Kaoru Murohoshi
Fumiko Cuty Suzuki
Metal Yamashita
T. Hayashi
Chieko Charmy Ochiai
Chisato Yanagi
And
Fumio Kurosawa
Excelent Turbo C Compiler
and as.exe
1990 NEC AVENUE
LICENSED BY TAITO CORP.
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G
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Japanese Guidebook
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Japanese LP Soundtrack
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Japanese Soundtrack
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Japanese LD Video
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
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Super Darius is almost identical to Darius Plus - same level structure, same
graphics and same gameplay, and I invite you to read the Darius Plus
review to see what I think about the game in general. So what is so special about this version ? Well,
first and foremost, players are dealing here with twenty six unique bosses, and Super Darius
was probably the first Darius game to feature a different boss for each zone. Then the
soundtrack is directly recorded from the original arcade game... well, I personally see that as
a missed opportunity, I wish NEC had rearanged the tunes rather than going for a straight
rendition of the arcade game tracks. All in all, if you are a fan of Darius, then this
CDRom version is definitively the version of choice for the PC Engine system - but
be aware that Darius is notorious for having a brutal difficulty level, and this
version suffers the same fate.
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