PEW PEW (AT HOME)

In an effort to not retread the same ground as my Darius Cozmic Collection: Arcade review I’m just going to cover what makes this collection different. Let’s start with that price; $60 is a lot for generally inferior versions of the games found in the Arcade collection. Sure, this time there are 9 games (technically 6 with 3 variations), but they are home ports of arcade games in a time when most ports had to compromise design in order to fit onto a cartridge. More money for compromised experiences doesn’t make sense unless the purchase for these games is based purely on nostalgia.

I should note that when I say compromised, I mean in comparison to the arcade games the home ports are based on. The home releases of Darius are very good, but a $60 collection is hard to justify when the Arcade collection is less money for what is ultimately the intended experience.

PLATFORMS: PS4, SWITCH
MSRP: $59.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $19.99

The Master System version of Sagaia is not much fun to play. Very impressive in the visuals and how fast the game runs, but it made me sick to play because the way the programmers emulated the moving backgrounds of the 16-bit Darius II/Sagaia on the 8-bit Master System bothered my eyes. It’s very similar to screen tearing in how it moves. I also don’t know who would choose to play the Master System version when this game includes the Genesis/Mega Drive version of the same game. I counted this as its own release when I was counting original titles because it was not just a straight port of Darius II from the Mega Drive.

Also included is Darius Alpha which is just a boss rush version of Darius Plus (also included). It is its own experience, but even the collection states that it was given away as a promo to people who bought Darius Plus. It definitely should be included but like the Arcade collection, giving Alpha its own space on the main menu feels like a way to make it look as if there’s more here than there really is. If I remove Alpha and the Master System version of Sagaia from being their own releases this collection becomes 4 unique games with 5 variations, and the price suddenly becomes a little harder to swallow.

I also dislike Darius Plus. The game is extremely cramped, with large sprites making itnot fun to play. They also chose not to include Super Darius, which this game is based on. Super Darius is a CD release for the PC Engine, and it was the only attempt at trying to make an accurate port of the arcade game for quite some time. They could have had that as another game on their main screen. It’s not like M2 doesn’t know how to emulate PC Engine CD games, as they did the emulation for the PC Engine Mini (which included Super Darius). It’s odd and it feels incomplete, especially because the collection mentions Super Darius by name but doesn’t include it.

M2 did include some new additions though; Darius II includes a special challenge mode and Darius Force has a boss endurance mode. All the other bells and whistles from the Arcade collection are here as well, like leaderboards and that option to change turbo fire speed that I love so much.

This is not a bad collection; the games are a lot of fun and play well, but like its Arcade counterpart I can’t recommend it at this price, especially when I feel this is the weaker of the two collections. M2 does great work and it’s on display here, but I think these two collections should have been bundled together and sold at full price, not in two separate collections bundled at full price each.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.