Previous Next

Taito's three-screens-of-excitement coin-op was never a bit hit in the arcades, partly because not many arcade owners could afford such a gigantic cabinet, but mainly because it just wasn't anything special in sideways-scrolling shoot-'em-up terms.

Luckily for The Edge, the Amiga blaster market is rather less competitive than the coin-op blaster market, so anything with pretty graphics, noisy sound effects and a modicum of gameplay is bound to do well. And that's about where Darius Plus fits into the universal scheme of things.

Basically it's one of those mega space shoot-'em-ups, with mega weapons making for mega kill factor. Your mission of no-mercy starts in sector one of 28. The sectors fan out and as you complete one you get a choice of two to tackle next, so completing the game by every possible route should stretch the game's lifespan a bit.

With each new level, you get a new set of scenery graphics to scroll over, but the alien hordes stay more or less the same in their appearance and attack patterns. Taking them out makes very heavy demands on the old fire button finger, but you can kit your ship out with a powerful array of extra weapons.

By flying into spiky tokens you can build up four weapon systems - the ship's main guns, a droid which flies in front or behind, and two "outrider" cannons which can be powered up into mighty laser beams, a bit like the ones in Xenon II. A fully beweaponed ship is quite a spectacular sight and it can torch more aliens than I've had hot dinners this week, though it's by no means invincible.

The graphics throughout the game are nothing short of superb (especially those sub-aquatic boss aliens, which really are out of this world). Big, metallic spaceships and colourful backdrops pack out the screen. But (and this is a very big but) while the sprites are large, the playing area is comparatively minute, which means dodging bullets and beasties and keeping off the scenery is bloomin' difficult, not to mention being just a wee bit aggravating.

Darius Plus isn't a bad game, by any standards though. In fact, it's pretty addictive stuff, but, myself, I continued playing more to see the graphics than to relish the destructive delights of the gameplay. And that's not quite the way it should be, I think.

Better to look at than to play, but Darius Plus has enough action for experienced blasters to get their teeth into.