Darius Twin [Model SHVC-DT]

ダライアスツイン © 1991 Taito Corp.
(Darius Twin)

Darius Twin is a side scrolling shooter, 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.