To many people, Darius is something of an acquired taste. The same goes for this game, as it could never be mistaken for anything other than Darius. Graphically astounding, this horizontal shooter has some awesome effects and amazing enemies, yet with the usual Thunderforce 2-style tiny ship and very Darius-looking enemies and bosses. I don't think it would be overstating things all that much to describe Darius Gaiden as the horizontal equivalent to Radiant Silvergun, as it probably uses just about every graphic trick in the Saturn's book! Sure, the game came out in the UK, and the game doesn't have the instant in-yer-face graphical slam of Radiant, but the more you look at it, the more you realise just how beautiful it is. It's also 2-player, and the music is quite unlike anything ever heard in a shooter - hard to describe, it's a little bit classic, coupled with some Japanese style electronic music, and there's even some haunting half singing! Quite amazing, but not to everyone's taste I suspect. If you're a Darius fan, or you're open minded enough to accept something a little out of the ordinary, you'll be blown away by Darius Gaiden. Acquired taste or not, it's probably one of the best shooters avaliable on Saturn, and I absolutely love it. I wish the old Taito who made masterpeces like this and Layer Section would return...GAME IS NEW & SEALED BUT SPINE IS SLIGHTLY FADED.
WE ARE ALSO INCLUDING A LIMITED EDITION OFFICIAL TAITO "KING FOSSIL" DARIUS GAIDEN T-SHIRT WHICH WAS RELEASED IN JUNE 2009.
More or less a perfect conversion of the classic 3 screen Taito arcade game. Of course you don't have 3 screens, but to compensate for this the game does employ a unique "zoom" feature which can be adjusted mid-game (L and R buttons) to give the same effect as the arcade (Widescreen) or something closer to it's PC Engine brother (Fullscreen with massive sprites), either way the graphics are quite old now and are obviously nowhere near as good as say, the beautiful Darius Gaiden, but it's still a great conversion of a great Darius game, and fans couldn't ask for more.
Game based on the artwork of H. R. Giger
Daytona USA is possibly t7he greatest driving game of all time, and is the most popular deluxe arcade cabinet in history. The Model 2 arcade still looks great all these years after it was first introduced, and features some of the most appealing, enjoyable and balanced gameplay ever, which catered for beginners and non gamers (Sonic Speedway oval) who have fun racing and fighting with all the other cars, right upto the most car crazy expert, who only lives to beat his own personal best time. Contrary to what many people say, the play mechanics are extremely advanced and realistic, although they are possibly slightly altered to make the game a balance of fun and realism. Now onto the home conversion. When first released, the game was slated by many for it's graphical problems, of which there are many. The frame rate is only around 20fps, and whats worse is that the draw distance is generally very close to the foreground and suffers from a huge amount of clipping. The game is displayed in a fairly low resolution. It's a testiment then, to how good a game Daytona actually is, that this home conversion still manages to be a truly fantastic game!. The gameplay is almost an exact copy of the arcade, only slightly inferior due to all the graphical imperfections. As long as you don't mind the dated, imperfect graphics, this game will provide more fun than almost any other racing title out there. Now you decide?