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Darius Cozmic Collection Console Switch Review

Shoot ’em ups, or shmups as the dedicated fans call them, is a genre that has been around since near the beginning of video games. It is a genre that you can call a classic that still manages to be fairly active with releases, thanks to indie developers and the emergence of video game compilations. For me, shmups were something I began experiencing more as I grew older. While I played titles during my school days on platforms like the SNES or Mega Drive, with R-Type, Thunder Force, Gradius and 1943, just to name some, I never truly got into them until much older, enjoying the likes of the big hitters, such as Ikaruga, Deathsmiles and Einhänder. Darius is one series I missed because of this, only encountering it with its more recent release a few years ago on PC with DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours.

The recent release of the collection pack featuring a few of the older console releases from the early 90s, dubbed Darius Cozmic Collection Console – there is also another collection based on Arcade releases – is superb for someone like me. It gave me a chance to check out of the legacy of Darius after enjoying DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours without having to hunt down the cartridges on the second hand market.

Darius Cozmic Collection Console comes with five unique games, adding up to nine when including release variations of some of the titles. Darius II (Mega Drive), Darius Twin (Super Famicom), Darius Force (Super Famicom), Darius Alpha (PC Engine) and Darius Plus (PC Engine) making up the distinct titles. Sagaia (Genesis) and Sagaia (Master System) are added for alternative releases of Darius II, while Darius Twin (Super Nintendo) and Super Nova (Super Nintendo) makes up the list to nine.

Each game has differences in their audio and visual quality, due to the hardware they were initially designed for – some titles even have cooperative featured – but the main concept for each game remains similar, oh, and they are bloody challenging! Darius is about taking a little ship and scrolling sideways towards countless amounts of enemies who want nothing more than to blow you out of the sky, or cave, or whatever environment the game’s theme is. Darius games use a branching path system, similar to something like Outrun, where beating a stage allows the player to pick one of two routes linked to it to progress to eventually the last stage on the path.

The quality improves across the games as their release date moves through the 90s. The Master System title Sagaia is the worst of the games here, simply due to the system it is on compared to the rest of the games and their superior hardware. That version features fewer levels and branching paths than Darius II. The Super Nintendo releases are probably my favourite, combining the best sound and visuals along with the option of different ships that are built into the gameplay rather than an extra feature stuck in the options menu, plus a boss rush mode, just in case you wanted to feel punishment all over again.

This collection might feature a group of rather challenging games, but Darius is certainly not complicated with its easy to understand gameplay and low button usage. What is interesting about this genre is that it does not feel outdated. Shmups, nowadays, can add many additional features or visual flair, but the gameplay at its core is still aim and shoot, and Darius still remains enjoyable to experience to this day, 30+ years after its initial release.

As for its gameplay, as mentioned, each game is set up where the ship scrolls horizontally, with enemies coming from the right side of the screen, and it is your job to eradicate them. The ship can be moved around the screen with either left stick or D-pad, with a shoot button and a bomb button depending on attacking forward or downwards in an arc. Enemies can occasional drop power ups to earn a shield (otherwise it’s one hit kills) twin bullets, vertical lasers and other goodies as the games evolved over time. Get to the end of the stage, kill the boss and then progress to the next stage from the route selector, adding replayability for people who want to experience each stage in this collection.

M2 has done a brilliant job bringing these games to the Switch – the company has pretty much become one of the best developers for bringing excellent emulation of classic games to newer platforms and that remains true with this release. I do wonder what the publishers were thinking with putting on such a high price tag for this collection. You could say that trying to hunt these games on the second hand market would cost much more than the asking price here, but still £44.99 is quite an ask for 8/16 bit games, with some variations of existing titles in the collection too. There is not much extra material to learn about these games, a shame, because it would be nice to learn some history about Darius from the developers or at least some fancy extras to go with it. Taking a look at something like the SNES Mini (21 games) that is £79.99 or the Mega Drive Classic at £69.99 (42 games) the cost per game is cheaper in those hardware based collections. While this does not change the outcome of the quality of the ports and the verdict on them, it is something worth noting compared to other retro collections on the market.

So what do you actually get extra? Not much sadly. With the emulation comes features like save states, always handy on extremely difficult games like these, and also graphical filters to add scan lines, pixel perfect screen presentation or widescreen (the latter does not look good as it stretches everything out). There is also available options in each game to change parameters, such as lives, difficulties, controls, automatic firing and ships. Leaderboards are accessible with the ability to upload or download replays of users gaining their high scores. What I do find quite frustrating is that in Japan there was an exclusive preorder deal that gave the collection an additional game with the Game Boy version of Sagaia, which is sadly not in this collection. I could not find an explanation why – a practice I cannot say I agree with when it comes to a bundle that is about bringing a collection of titles of a series into one package.

That said, and keeping their legendary emulation status intact, M2 has done a solid job bringing this collection together with great emulation across the titles available. It is a real shame that no extras were thrown in to celebrate the history of Darius – a lack of of a gallery is truly shocking. There is also the argument to be made with it missing some games in this collection. Still, what is here is a nice, if expensive, collection of good shmups made for replayability for a niche selection of fans, the curious newcomers or people wanting a trip down memory lane of their childhood video game playing.

7 out of 10