PEW PEW

So, I did a bunch of work analyzing all the versions of Darius because I wanted to be informative. I still will share my opinion on that, but I have to say that this game is overpriced. $45 is a lot of money for a collection of 7 arcade games. I know that each Arcade Archive from Hamster and each SEGA Ages release from M2 go for around $10 themselves but the benefit is that they can be purchased piece meal as to not gouge your wallet at one time. Technically this release isn’t even 7 games, it’s 3.

PLATFORMS: PS4, SWITCH
MSRP: $44.99
PRICE I’D PAY: $29.99

For those unaware, Darius is a horizontal space shooter that sticks out with its robotic aquatic life bosses and its multiple paths. At the end of every level after facing the giant robot boss, the game presents an option for two paths, which allows for a nearly different playthrough each time. On a quick look, I counted over 50 unique playthroughs on the first Darius alone. I love the Darius games because of this. Not only are they great shooters they are something that can feel fresh continuously.

A lot of this collection is composed of multiple versions of the same game listed as their own versions. Darius (Old Version), Darius (New Version) and Darius (Extra Version) are all Darius with tweaks to the game. It would be no different than saying v1.0 of Mortal Kombat is a different game than v1.1: there are definitely notable differences, but you wouldn’t necessarily list them as completely unique games. While the Darius Cozmic Collection does explain the differences on the main game selection screen these options could have been relegated to the in-game menu that allows changes that the dip switches on the original arcade machine would have. However, if M2 had done that, the game list wouldn’t look nearly as impressive.

The other games included are Darius II (Dual Screen Version) and its shortened US releases Sagaia (Version 1) and Sagaia (Version 2) as well as Darius Gaiden. Overall, the games are great, even the cut down Sagaia releases. I loved playing all the games except for the original Darius, which is far more difficult and harder to see due to its extremely wide screen size (three monitors in the arcade). M2 added a bunch of options like a training mode, leaderboards, and a very specific option to change the speed in which the turbo fire presses the button, which I would like to see more of. Co-op is here as well but is only local, so I don’t have anyone to play with, and for once I actually think the border graphics around the game are much nicer than a standard black border. The collection is very polished.

However, I cannot recommend this collection at this price. M2 definitely brought their museum quality curation to this collection with how many versions of Darius have been included in this including the extremely rare, maybe not released Sagaia (Version 2) but compared to M2’s other releases this is no more than their Castlevania Collection or their SEGA Ages releases. It’s hard to justify this price other than the fact that all home releases of Darius seem to be a bit pricey. This is made worse by the fact that this collection only has the arcade games: there’s another separate purchase for the console releases and when they are both purchased, they come close to $100. Do not get me wrong, this is a very good collection, but it is very hard to justify a purchase at full price for what is essentially 3 unique games and 4 variations.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.