G-Darius Review

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(More customer reviews)With many PlayStation-owning shooter fans singing the praises of Einhander and R-Type Delta, this one has sort of been lost in the shuffle.That's a shame, because G Darius has lots to offer both hardcore and casual fans of the genre.
I fear that, since almost all of your foes in this game are robot aquatic creatures (sharks, crabs, sea horses, etc.), some people may dismiss it as "silly".In fact there is nothing silly or stupid about it.It's a fast-paced side-scroller with intensity to spare, and it boasts some of the most hectic bullet-dodging mayhem you'll ever encounter.
Your spacecraft has two weapons which are fired simultaneously:the standard, straightforward gun (horizontal) and grenades (vertical), both of which can be upgraded by snatching orbs from defeated enemies.What makes the game unique is the capture ball, a weapon you can launch at your foes to turn them into your sidekicks.They'll follow you loyally and attack whenever you fire, like the "options" in the Gradius series.There are quite a few different enemies you can do this to, and all of them have unique offensive capabilities.Some fire a very basic shot;some fire a "spread" shot;some hurl themselves at the opposition, causing damage by brazenly crashing into them at high speeds.
Speaking of speed, G Darius rips along at a pretty brisk pace,although the stages themselves are of satisfactory length.Minor slowdown sometimes occurs when you're doing battle with a boss and it launches about 100 bullets in your direction at once.In those rare cases, the slowdown is actually a blessing in disguise, because it affects everything on the screen, not just you.
Yes indeed, the screen can get mighty cluttered at times, but never to a hopelessly overwhelming degree.Unlike some shooters where staying alive is a strictly academic process of trial and error and moving into the right spot at the right time (cough, R-TYPES, cough), G Darius never "punishes" the player for an unwise maneuver by condemning him/her to an instant death.If your reflexes are sharp enough and you never release the rapid fire button, there is always at least a fashion model-slim chance that you'll be able to blast your way out of an extremely sticky situation and emerge victorious by the skin of your teeth.Your shields can be powered up much like your weapons can, a fact that brings new meaning to the term "life-saver".
Mind you, you can do more than dodge and peck away at the opposition to elude destruction at the hands (well, fins anyway) of a big, bullying barracuda or a cluster of kamikaze catfish.Foes bound to your service by the capture ball can be detonated if you want to take out any surrounding adversaries (or if you just plain get sick of having the stupid beasts follow you around).Even better, you can use them to power up your Alpha Beam, a weapon that will easily cut a swathe of carnage through standard enemies and lay some serious pain on the bosses as well.Don't start thinking you're omnipotent, though;each boss has a similar weapon (imaginitively titled the Beta Beam) and when yours meets theirs head-on, a struggle for supremacy ensues, with both beams growing in size and power until A) the duration of the beam expires, B) the battle concludes, or C) the entire screen gets filled by a glorious outpouring of blazing destruction originating from one side or the other.
The graphics here may not be terribly impressive but they get the job done.The designs of the enemies sometimes leave a bit to be desired (there's only so much you can do to make robotic fish look exciting, y'know?).The backgrounds are the game's strongest visual point, with some cool animation telling miniature stories while you're fighting for your life.There's one stage where a planet in the distance is doomed to be destroyed every time you play.Poor planet.My favorite stage has the ruins of a human city floating around;check out your ship's reflection in the mirrored windows of a skyscraper torn from its foundation, silently drifting through space.
The soundtrack has some forgettable fare with a 16-bit feel, but a few tracks are really striking.There's one (in the stage I just described) that can only be described as sounding "spacy" which is devoid of percussion and is so laid-back, it makes the on-screen chaos seem like some bizarre new age therapy.The final battle music is suitably catchy and adrenalized...you can also hear it when you first load the game, before pressing start, but obviously it won't have the same impact.And the "game over" tune is...dare I say it...beautiful!It almost makes it pleasant to end the game prematurely.
At the end of each stage, you'll have to choose between two adjacent stages to move on to.There are fifteen stages in all, and you'll have to beat five of them to win the game.Plus, each stage splits into an upper route and a lower route at the half-way point, and the boss will use different attacks against you depending on which route you take.Therefore, you'll have to play through the game quite a few times before you can truthfully say that you've seen it all.This, plus nine difficulty settings and the ability to adjust your reserve lives, credits, and capture balls makes for very high replay value for shooter fans of all skill levels.
If you still enjoy 2-D shooters, either passionately or casually, I cannot recommend this game enough, as long as you're prepared to PLAY it rather than just look at it.Whatever it lacks in graphic intensity, it more than makes up for with the IMPORTANT kind of intensity, and that's in the gameplay department.I've had this game for several years and I can't imagine it growing tiresome anytime soon.

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Product Description:
Jump into a ship and defend the planet from mechanical fish in G DARIUS. Blast through 15 branching levels of action and excitement as you capture enemy ships, and use their special skills to help you work your way through every level. If the action becomes too intense, have a friend help you out with the cooperative Two-Player mode. Only you can save the world from becoming a fishbowl in G DARIUS.

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