Super Darius II

Super Darius II

released on Dec 24, 1993

Super Darius II

released on Dec 24, 1993

A port of Darius II

Super Darius II takes place sometime after the first Darius game. The colonized planet Darius is recuperating from its invasion from the alien Belser Army thanks to that game's heroes Proco and Tiat. Darius' inhabitants have since situated themselves on the planet Olga while Darius' societies, architecture and attacked areas were being repaired. The space flight Headquarters established on Olga picks up an SOS signal coming from Earth, where the first colonists originated before colonizing Darius. The signal included the description of alien ships similar to those of the Belser Army. Suspecting that these might be their remaining Earthling ancestors, the people of Darius sends both Proco Jr. and Tiat Young to help them. The Super CD-ROM version features an entirely new set of bosses, major changes to levels, and a fully arranged soundtrack including new songs. The game is set in the inner half of the solar system, and has the same branching level structure as Darius. The red/green/blue powerups from the first game return, and have the same function: respectively, upgrades to the "missile" main weapon and "bomb" subweapon, and a shield to absorb some damage. Two new power-ups were added: a yellow powerup that adds a new "laser" main weapon that functions somewhat similarly to the bombs, and a rainbow powerup that grants one upgrade to all the players weapons. Actually acquiring these powerups and the upgrade path is completely different from Darius: a formation of a specific enemy must be completely destroyed (and a given formation may not have a powerup), and every single powerup now grants some kind of upgrade. Further, the various weapons upgrade differently, though the shield upgrade the same as before. Another new feature in Darius II is the appearance of minibosses known as "captains"; large enemies that appear somewhere in the level before the main boss. In Darius II, these are all smaller versions of bosses from the first game, with similar abilities.


Also in series

Dariusburst
Dariusburst
G-Darius
G-Darius
Darius Gaiden
Darius Gaiden
Super Nova
Super Nova
Darius Twin
Darius Twin

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A HORRENDOUS-feeling port of Darius II that was outsourced to another porting team. It's slow, the sound effects suck, the remixes are okay but unfitting, nothing about movement or shooting feels gratifying, and the screen crunch is dire. The one thing that saves this port is just how weird and over-ambitious it is. They turned most of Darius 1 and 2's main bosses into mini-bosses (total of 26), and made a bunch of new bosses in their place. The new fights feel COMPLETELY out of place and don't match up with the artstyle or composition of the Darius series, and have this geometric glass style that reminds me of unlicensed genesis games. You're also not punished as hard for dying - you lose only 1 level of powerups instead of a complete restart, - but that doesn't make the game easier cause powerups have been made so scarce, so a single death might as well still be a run killer. I can't imagine how much effort it took to make all these additional changes to II, yet all executed were so poorly.

Not at all recommended unless you already like Darius and wanna play something that just flat-out makes you feel uncomfortable and confused. What a beautiful mess.