Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX+ | PS4 Review

Mechanized maritime monstrosities. A bullet hell ballet against the Belsar. That, and four fight and flight filled mission centric modes with branching paths. That's what you get with ININ Games' HD port of this competitive arcade cabinet shmup known as, "Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX+". Alone or with three other friends you'll engage in space combat of the extreme kind dancing around bullets, and shooting baddies as you each pilot a Silver-Hawk Murakumo. A ship decked out with upgradable shots, missiles, and the series' newest gimmick, the burst beam. It's a high scoring competition where score matters, and making your name known on the global leaderboards is the end goal. 

Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX+ is a polished port with a somewhat confusing menu navigation system. It is home to four different modes. Each mode featuring two ways to play, and varying difficulties for that extra challenge. The modes include Original, Original EX, Chronicles EX, and Event. In Original, and Original EX the setup remains the fairly much the same. You, and up to three other local players start off with a base Silver-Hawk in either Default or Infinite Lives sub-modes. The Default setup allowing for score uploads, but limited lives, and the Infinite Lives variant offering up non-stop play without leaderboard opportunities. Each base mode also has branching paths to choose from, from the start with increasingly difficult difficulty settings. The Original mode goes from Easy to Hard whereas Original EX goes up three different extreme difficulties. After choosing a path you'll launch into a starter screen that shows the possible bosses you'll encounter. There's a boss at the end of each stage, and those bosses do have variants according to path, and difficulty setting. Each of them uniquely named, and introduced with a warning screen and siren upon approach.

The goal of each of the Original modes is to ultimately blast your way through, and survive three wave and boss filled stages. This includes waves of enemies, and tons of screen cluttering bullet hell. Allowing you to collect red, green, and blue power-ups to upgrade your shot type, missile type, and burst beam respectively upon the downing of enemy craft. Each upgradeable weapon/sub-weapon has four collection shots that must be filled by collecting the desired color four times before an applied upgrade in type, and damage output. The burst beam, on the other hand, is a limited use mechanic that relies on a meter shown below the Silver-Hawk which refills as you shoot enemy Belsar. You can hold down, and aim the burst beam until the gained meter is spent. The more full the meter the longer the burst beam will last. The burst beam is good for big damage against boss parts or harder to destroy lesser Belsar that populate the stages. It should also be noted that your Silver-Hawk can face right or left if you press R1. A way to get to what's in front of you or behind you.

Beyond the two Original modes lies Chronicles EX. A mode which hosts multiple solar systems with honeycombed areas of interest that serve as challenges with modifiers. Each area or zone has a rule set, and a starting ship state or ship type. That, and modifiers for upgrades or the number of players allowed. The playthrough remains similar to Original mode's but is different in that it is an objective based mode. You can earn your place on the leaderboards with a nickname, and your console ID on display for others to see. You will be notified after a playthrough if you have reached a new high score, and will be prompted to enter your initials or nickname for record's sake.

Lastly Event mode is as it sounds. It is a mirror of the old competitive setup of the original arcade cabinets. Similar to Chronicles EX there are rule sets, and modifiers, but the playthrough remains fairly much the same. In a stage to stage fashion with end bosses at the end of each of those stages.

The Presentation ...

Dariusburst Another Chronicle EX+ is displayed in a very thin widescreen presentation with large black panels at the top, and bottom of the screen. Narrowing the playing field as if it were being played on the original arcade cabinet screens. On that display you'll find sub-weapon upgrade slots, a high score value, and a ghost score value. Think of the ghost score as your best score that you'll be chasing in following playthroughs. Also onscreen are the waves of enemies, environmental hazards, bullet hell, your ship, and the enemies or bosses. All of which is layered, and 3D in nature. Making the onscreen action pop alongside the special effects that happen from the fired weapons, and explosions of light. Also included in this widescreen display is a complimentary Japanese soundtrack. The kind that's synonymous with the Dariusburst franchise. A mixture of symphonic, orchestral, and vocal tracks that compliment each stage quite nicely. Like the icing on a cake.

The Verdict ...

As challenging, and fun as I found this port of 'Dariusbrust Another Chronicle EX+' to be there were some things that were so off putting it kind of killed my hype for the game. At least a little. One big problem I found with the port is how complicated, and unexplained the menu navigation was. While I figured it out it looked, and navigated rather crudely. Kind of like a MAME mod port, and not so much like an updated console port. There was definitely a lack of polish to it in that regard. Something else players might find off putting is the sometimes unfair situations you'll find while doing a playthrough. There are simply some combat instances where dodging will not work. With the enemies firing a variety of different shots including large beams, and homing lasers it makes it tough to navigate the onscreen bullet ballet. This is mostly due to the lack of speed power-ups or speed options, in general. Those are my two biggest gripes with this port. Other than that it's a beautiful sight to behold greatly amplified by one of gaming's most beautiful soundtracks. Despite my complaints I will say that if you can afford it this isn't a bad buy. I think for shmup fans it would be a good deal considering the leaderboards are there to chase.