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ダライアスツイン
©Taito Corp. 1991.
Release: 1991-03-29 (¥8500)
Cartridge SHVC-DT
Shooter/Horizontal
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Released in America as
DARIUS TWIN
( SNS-DT-USA )
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Released in Europe as
DARIUS TWIN
( SNSP-DT-XXX )
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Darius Twin is a side scrolling shooter by Taito, and the first episode in
the company's flagship Darius series to be released for the Super Famicom
system. This installment is however exclusive to Nintendo's 16 bit console
(as was 'Darius Force'), and was not
ported from an arcade game. Darius Twin takes place thousands of years after the
original battle of Darius. But this long period of peace and stability is about to
come to an end - the evil Belser empire and its army of fish-looking and monstrous
battleships have suddenly reappeared from their hiding place. Once again, the planet
Darius faces a certain irredeemable doom and two elite pilots (descendants of
Proco and Tiat), on board their Silver hawk space fighters, are
summoned to save the day. In the Darius tradition, each ship comes equipped
with a two-weapon system (front laser and side bombs) and a shield. Each weapon can be
separately upgraded by collecting colored orbs left behind by small formations of power
cubes, the same cubes that hassled the player in the first Darius games
if they lingered around a boss for too long. Power ups include Red pods
(upgrade the main weapon), green pods (upgrade the side weapon), blue pods
(upgrade the shield) as well as Yellow pods (wipes out all enemies on screen)
and Orange pods (extra life). A last power item is a red octagonal pod that
switches the main weapon from laser-blasts to powerful piercing lasers, and vice versa.
Additionally, and just like any other title in the Darius series, although one
play consists of seven stages, the game features a grand total of twelve levels
(called 'Rounds') and branching routes give the player the ability to pick a
path between two choices. However, Darius Twin differs greatly from previous
installments in the series and the branching paths are extremely limited - six zones
don't branch out at all, and there is only one final level (Zone L). Finally,
and as the game's title aptly implies, a two simultaneous player mode is available.
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Teaser text from the American version:
Two player simultaneous action...Across a galaxy
For countless millenia, the space tyrant
Belser and his cosmic marauders have terrorized
this once peaceful galaxy. Now, no
sector remains safe from these stellar mercenaries
and their evil empire. The Galactic
Federation has finally called on two of its
ace pilots and their sleek Silver Hawk waships
to do battle with Belser's malicious
metal menaces and reclaim the beloved
planet Darius. Climb into the pilot's seat for
a solo mission against Belser's forces; or
engage the enemies with a fellow
Federation pilot in a two-player simultaneous team
attack. The future of the galaxy rests on the
success of this perilous quest.
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Game Staff (Copied from the end credits) :
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We have finally regained
Darius, Our Former Mother
Planet.
After This Battle, the
Galaxy's allied forces
established bases on Orga
and Darius, the two mother
planet,they now reign in
power over the galaxy to
restore peace and order.
Executive Producer
Takao Ueno
T. Kou
Producer
Tomohiro Nishikado
Shouji Takahashi
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Programmers
Yasutaka Minami
Mituo Ogura
Junichiro Noguchi
Character Designers
Keisuke Miyanaga
T. Kawaishi
Shin Saitoh
Y. Wakita
Sound Editor
Wiz. Master (Zuntata)
Pochi (Zuntata)
Sound Software
Nao. Neko
Game Checker
Kiyoshi Bandou
Y. Nakamura
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Technical Adviser
Yuji Koga
Haruo Suzuki
Special Thanks To
Akira Fujita
Yasutaka Ougou
Takayuki Shinma
Daigoro
Game Design And Directed By
Kouji Yamazaki
©TAITO Corporation 1991
All Rights Reserved
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Click on picture to enlarge |
S
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Different endings:
Although Darius Twin only features one final level, the game still offers
different endings. They seem to be awarded to the player based upon his remaining
lives after beating the last zone - well, other factors (such as variations in the
path the player takes, or failing to defeat the last boss) seem to trigger some of these
endings and, to this day, I'm not completely sure how to reproduce some of the
necessary (and arguably confusing) conditions...
Ending #1 (default)
"We have finally regained
Darius, our former mother
planet.
Our craft, the Silver hawk,
has now fulfilled its
mission and will rest for
awhile... Until it is
summoned again to the far
reaches of our galaxy."
Ending #2
"Congratulations on your
success in clearing all
the levels in this game.
We trust you can do even
better with more practice.
Now pull yourself together
and go for the real ending."
Ending #3
"We have finally regained
Darius, our former mother
planet.
We were, however, informed
the enemy fleet was
approaching our mother
planet Orga, and we had to
return to it"
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Ending #4
"We have finally regained
Darius, our former mother
planet.
After this battle, the
galaxy's allied forces
established bases on Orga
and Darius, the two mother
planets, they now reign in
power over the galaxy to
restore peace and order."
Ending #5
"We have finally regained
Darius, our former mother
planet.
We also succeeded in
getting important
information of the planet
which houses the enemy
head quarter from the
computer memory installed
in the big battleship of
enemy fleet which was
occupying our planet.
Now we allied forces are
on our way to the enemy
planet in order to defeat
them and regain peace and
order in the galaxy."
Extra lives
On the title screen, hold the Left-shoulder and Right-shoulder buttons
on the second controller. Then hold Select on the first controller and press
Start. This will allow you to start the game with 49 lives !
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
O
V
s
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Darius Twin was the first Darius incarnation for the Super Famicom
system and was released early in the console's lifepan, which may explain my feeling of
disappointment... My biggest peeve with the game are the agonizingly long and monotonous
stages. Enemy formations often fly around your ship without much conviction, and this
has always been my biggest issue with Taito's popular series - it feels like stages
are just thrown in to kill time between astonishing boss battles. But hey, I've always
been a huge fan of Darius (a kind of love/hate story), so I'll give this episode
a chance. Darius Twin has a couple of highs. Firstly, the two-simultaneous player
mode is a neat addition and works really well. Then you are allowed to
continue where you died and still keep your weapons. Well, you soon realize that with
this overly generous gift comes a tragedy... the first half of the game is a breeze to
play, but then the difficulty level abruptly kicks in, and you realize that you will
need more that the dwindling handful of lives you're granted with in order to complete
the game. That is, other Darius games strip you from your weapons when you
die - while this has always infuriated me, the difficulty within each level felt
more balanced because of it. In this opus, collecting power-ups is absolutely mandatory,
or your ship will be too weak to last very long in later levels (and the last stage is
absolute hell). All in all, Darius Twin is a decent shooter, but it feels
incredibly generic in comparison to the richness of the original games, and it lacks
the unique and genuine atmosphere that made the series so iconic.
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