From: Zach Keene Subject: Zach's Shooter Reviews: Darius Twin [SNES] Date: 1999/08/25 Message-ID: <37C382F3.179C845B@bellsouth.net> Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Accept-Language: en,de Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii X-Trace: news1.atl 935560067 209.214.52.87 (Wed, 25 Aug 1999 01:47:47 EDT) Organization: Could not open file "Organization" Abort, Retry, Fail? MIME-Version: 1.0 NNTP-Posting-Date: Wed, 25 Aug 1999 01:47:47 EDT Newsgroups: alt.games.video.shooters Or How To Rip On A Shooter Without Sounding Like NextGen. (Most of ya have probably heard me say all this before, several times. So I'll try to do a completely new review later this week.) ---[begin review]--- I'm really not sure what possessed me to pick up this game back in March of '92. It probably cost a relative fortune of $50 back then. If I recall correctly, I was mainly interested in a feature Darius Twin had that Gradius 3 lacked... a two-player simultaneous mode. So, now that a copy of DT costs probably costs so little it doesn't matter much whether it sucks or not, here's my take. STORY: A long time ago in a galaxy far far away, the Peaceful Inhabitants[TM] of the planet of Darius were attacked by the forces of the eeevviilll Belser. Of course, this gave some folks named Proco and Tiat (not to mention millions of arcade-goers and TG-16 owners) something to do, namely lead a resistance movement and evacuate their fellow Dariusites to a free sector of space. Centuries later, the descendants of these refugees are attacked yet again by the forces of Belser. So now, two nameless pilots are called upon to fly a couple of apparently centuries old Silver Hawks to stop this. Apparently, the most noted scientists believe Belser's homeworld was largely aquatic. Wonder what gave them that idea? :) PLAYERS: Two people can be simultaneously tranquilised by this game. GAMEPLAY: A fairly degenerated version of Darius 2's gameplay, really. Your ship has three major systems: Lasers, Sidearm Shots, and Shields. Your lasers are powered up by collecting Red Power Cubes, Sidearms by Green Cubes, and Shields by Blue Cubes. You have two different kinds of lasers; you start out using the Photon Power Disc, which when powered up is a large shot but pretty weak. (It's vaguely similar to Darius 2's main weapon, really.) Collecting a Switching Cube will give you the Segmented Laser Wave Beam, which eventually powers up into a wave cannon that is better in every way than the Photon Power Disc. Sidearms aren't worth mentioning; they go from the standard Darius bombs into Sagaiaesque lasers into fireballs. Shields are standard Darius fare; every five blue Cubes upgrades your defensive ability. Also, just like other Darius titles, you have branching paths so you can choose your route through this game. Unlike other Darius titles, your choice of paths is fairly limited. There are only 12 zones spread over 7 levels with 24 possible paths. (Compare to Darius 2 or Gaiden's 28 zones over 7 levels with 64 possible paths.) DEATH PENATLY: You lose a life. No loss of firepower at all CHALLENGE: For the most part, nowhere to be found. You're only given two difficutly levels, but once you get past the second tier you'll probably not notice the difference. This game apparently tried to correct the balance problems of Darius 2, but swung too far in the other direction. The power-ups come pretty often; by the third level your Sidearms will be fully powered, by the end of the fourth tier you'll have a fairly decent wave weapon. Also, the enemy placement is lacking at times; there are several noticable dead spots throughout the game. Enemies don't fire at you much; then again, you can pretty much eliminate everything before it has a chance to make it onscreen. The bosses are pretty lethargic, as they stick to pretty simple patterns and can't take too much damage. All this is thrown out the window once you get to the last stage, though. The final level reaches Gaiden-like difficulty levels, achieved by placing two or three of the game's mini-bosses on-screen at once. These buggers then leave you with little room to move, while firing large and powerful shots your way. Ugh. But, if you can get past this, you'll be greeted by two more ridiculously easy bosses. Zzzzzz... GRAPHICS: Ripped more or less from Darius 2. I guess they're quite good for the time and system involved. Not much more to say, really. Background recycling is pretty much a common feature among the Darius series (with only Gaiden barely escaping its evil clutches), but it's very noticable here. I'd guess there's actually only 8 different backgrounds among the game's 12 zones. MUSIC: I truly suspect this game's soundtrack is composed of outtakes from Darius 2's recording session. That said, it's really not particularly bad, but it's not going to make you rush out and pay the outrageous import prices for the CD. (If you do happen to like the music though, there is a music test option.) CONTROL: No complaints here. Having separate buttons for the lasers and Sidearms is annoying though, but that's pretty much standard Darius. OVERALL: 5/10. A rather so-so experience overall. If you somehow get stuck with a copy of this, try to go two-player, as this will even out the powerups somewhat and make this game slightly more enjoyable. Otherwise, there are much better SNES shooters available, so get this only _very_ cheap or if you're some sort of Darius freak like me. :) Zach Keene ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Author of many FAQs: MK2, FF1, Einhander, CSOTN, AGVS, G3, and G.Darius ftp://members.aol.com/fnlfanatic/arcanelore/ Shooter fans: Visit the new alt.games.video.shooters today! ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "The freedom we lost cannot be re-conquered cheaply, but however high, it's a price worth paying." - Robert Miles -----------------------------------------------------------------------