Over the past few months I have been on a shmup binge, playing various games in the genre. Ranging from the Psikyo shooters (Psikyo Shooting Stars Alpha/Psikyo Shooting Stars Bravo) and bullet hell of MushihimeSama to playing various versions of Space Invaders in the Space Invaders Invincible Collection and the reboot of a previously Japan only game in Cotton Reboot!. One series of shmups that I’ve been spending the most time with whenever I need a quick fix is the Darius series, most notably the Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade, which was released last year. This year Darius is back again this time in the form of G-Darius HD for the Nintendo Switch. Now this game has two versions of the game packed in: the original 1997 arcade version, G-Darius and the HD update, G-Gradius HD. Both are essentially the same game, just with different graphics.
G-Darius HD is a remaster port of the original arcade game that was released in 1997. Gameplay is super simple:shoot enemies, dodge bullets, grab power ups. As simple as it sounds, G-Darius added a new feature that makes the game feel more tactical. In most shmups you’re able to gain an ally often referred to as a satellite or option depending on the game. With G-Darius that same feature is in the game but with a twist: and that is the ability to capture enemies and use them as allies. Depending on what kind of enemy ships you have captured will result in a different type of attacks, such as having diagonal shots, ally ships hovering around or even being temporary shields. And not only can you capture enemy ships and turn them, but you can also capture the stage’s miniboss and turn it into an ally. If you do capture a miniboss you are able to perform a special command ( for example down, down-right, right + shot aka the hadouken motion) which has the miniboss ally First Captain fire off their signature shot. If you do get tired of any of the allies you have or see a different one one you want to use, you can do one of two things: you can release it as a bomb and clear away enemies around you or you can hold down the shot button to charge up your Alpha Beam, a powerful laser that one shots most enemies. This gives the game a more tactical feeling as you can capture different ships for different situations. This is pretty fun being able to experiment on seeing which ship to capture will be helpful in getting through the level.
Now as mentioned before this game collection comes with two versions of G-Darius: the original arcade version and G-Darius HD. Gameplay wise they are both the same, as for graphically they look a bit different. The original game’s graphics, while showing their age, still look great. This was the first time the series has used 3D graphics for everything, giving the various level environments more movement, life (ie things going on in the background) and increased sense of speed since everything is moving. As for G-Darius HD, everything again essentially the same just with smoother HD textures which also look great and for some reason (me it’s just me) it feels even faster than the original arcade version.
There are a few minor nitpicks I do have with the collection. First there are less gadgets in the game. Gadgets are widgets that give bits of information that are displayed on the screen such as the boss HP gauge, next zone info, instruction panels etc. Most of this info is hidden on the back in and out of sight from the player, but after playing the Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade last year, I really liked having these bits being visible on screen.
G-Darius HD (and the original arcade version) is super fun entry to the series. It has everything that you would want in a shmup: various power ups, speed, an awesome soundtrack, good looking graphics and even innovation with the capture ball system. Other than my minor complaint of not having enough gadgets, this is a very solid collection to add to the shmup collection. And speaking of collections, if you prefer having a physical copy of the game, a physical version of G-Darius HD will be available at major retailers towards the end of October.
