G-Darius HD | PS4 Review

*REVISED*

ININ Games continues their porting of the Darius series with an arcade port of G-Darius. The fourth entry in TAITO's Darius shmup series which hails from 1997. It comes complete with what appears to be a direct from arcade rip of the original game. Still inclusive of the "Only Playable In Japan" warning ahead of the starting intro. Something you often times see with MAME-like emulation. Aside from that the game gets a visual upscaling in it's HD version with a more polygon focused 3D Silverhawk ship, and more vibrant visuals. That, and an original lesser quality version for comparison or preference sake. When it comes to versions both versions of the game, which are included in this package deal, hold up graphically. At least somewhat. Comparable to one another in most aspects. Outside of the game's art borders, screen size options, filters, and gameplay cheats there's not much else that's changed though. The saddest thing of all is that the game, particularly in the original version, suffers from heavy framerate issues that further points to possible console translation issues. 

As with the usual Darius entry G-Darius begins with the emergence of monstrous mechanical marine life that has taken to obliterating all lifeforms in the universe including that of the Silverhawk's fleet. The game opens up with a planet exploding triggering the various mechanized marine aliens to take notice, and go on an all out rampage. The game notes briefly in that lightly animated introduction that the Silverhawk tech was stolen from said alien conquerors. Thus you as the pilot or you and a co-op companion head out into the abyss to face the fight of your lifetime in your Silverhawk ships.

Though the story is as simple as they come it's the gameplay, and mechanics that helps G-Darius to be the better experience that it is. Still including the base shot, missile, and arms power-up upgrades in the form of collectible color coded orbs the game takes that orb system a few steps further adding in various other orbs that change both scoring opportunities, and approach. New to the orb system is a purple orb that acts much like a pokeball. Gotta Catch 'Em All (sorry, couldn't help myself)!!! As you fly in side-scrolling fashion from left to right, and the other way around you can use these collected purple orbs that are dropped generously from enemy craft to essentially capture and utilize lesser enemies as well as mini-bosses as an extension to your arsenal. Each enemy type offering different assisting projectiles. In tandem with this capture mechanic you can also deliver a charged beam shot so long as you have a captured enemy craft. This allows for extra damage to bosses via a straight blast or in a sort of laser versus laser scenario. You can also use captured craft as screen clearing bombs by pressing and holding the same button designated for capture. That being the "X" button on the PS4 controller.

When it comes to shots fired you do, surprisingly, have a couple of options. You fire rapid bursts of shots with the TRIANGLE button or hold SQUARE, and shoot a consistent stream. As you collect the red, green, and blue orbs your shot type will change alongside your missiles. All of which fires simultaneously with the same button. Other orbs such as the gold, and silver also help with gameplay efforts in their own unique way. The gold orb which is often hidden in the environments clears the full screen of enemy craft. Whereas the silver orbs act as bonus points, and are also hidden within the environments. 

The stages, as a returning or veteran fan would expect, come in the form of path choices marked as the letters of the Greek Alphabet. That and intermittent on stage path choices that require you to fly high or low when prompted. Basically, you have an upper path which is often the easier path and the lower path which is more difficult. All outside of the base difficulty setting that can be tweaked in the game's options menu. Stages, in general, are your standard shmup affair with a side to side side-scrolling orientation. Complete with themed environments, and environment specific enemy craft. Each stage starts off with waves of lesser enemies occasionally introducing a mini-boss in the mix. All of which can be killed or captured. At the end there's a boss that transforms as it takes damage. The longer you take to beat it the more bullet hell litters the screen. Making it important to end bosses as quickly as possible. This is where the beam weapon comes in handy. After defeating any given boss, save the final one, you will be presented with a path choice. That choice is up to you.

Options in the G-Darius option menu are fairly generous. Allowing the player to set the stock of ships, the number of capture orbs you can hold, and whether or not you can continue after a game over. It should be noted that G-Darius handles scoring a lot like other shmups. If you choose to continue after your last ship is destroyed your score will be reset to zero. If you're looking to complete the game's stages though, and get all the trophies, continuing is still a good option. When, and if you choose to continue the game will generously spawn you a tri-orb which includes one of the three base power-up upgrades to help you better face the escalating situation. Continues are maxed out at 9. After that it's truly GAME OVER regardless of player choice. 

Additional options included a handful of art borders themed according to G-Darius as well as filters for scanlines or smoothing. You can even choose fullscreen, or pixel perfect screen ratios which will greatly alter the size of the visual playing field. Along with all that you get several increasingly difficult difficulty settings, and the usual audio tweaks. If memory serves me well there's also some HUD display options pertaining to things like the Beam shot, and other indicators that aren't shown without toggling them on or off in the game's menu. For those looking to save progress, and picking back up where they left off you can do that to with a game save, and game load option in the main menu.

The Verdict ...

While I greatly enjoyed the mechanics, boss fights, and gameplay in G-Darius I found the dated, and dull appearance of the original version along with the annoying framerate dips in both versions to be problematic. This new HD version, in all honesty, feels like the publisher had the onboard developer take a MAME-like emulation, upscale it with a nicely rendered polish, and add the extra options. The visuals in the original port definitely had a less than vibrant look while the soundtrack in both versions sounded dated like it was from an aged soundboard. And with all that negativity I still enjoyed the gameplay. This entry, out of all the ININ Games Darius re-releases, was the most fun and doable. The HD version, in particular, was decent enough while the older version offered that trip back down memory lane. It wasn't as frustratingly hard as a lot of the other Darius games. After revisiting the game one last time for reflection, and to capture gameplay for Youtube I can safely say this is good enough for your money. Not as bad as I initially thought. Had the OG port stuck in my mind, and how visually dull in color and slowed down it was at times.