Where do I begin...I've seen this game a lot in YouTube and I personally wanted to play this myself. Of course I've tried a lot and failed to get an emulator working to play this game. Then I came to this site, registered, and checked it out and...I am NOT disappointed at all. In fact, I loved playing this game. Now let's get this first review on the road!





Graphics: 10


This is a surprisingly gorgeous looking game on the arcade and although I personally don't care for graphics and I just want the?game play,?but then I saw how nice the environments are and how the bosses are designed, I was pretty dumbfounded. One of the stand out points to me were the environments in every level and the long fight against Titanic Lance in Zone M. Damn that thing was huge and I had a good time fighting it. And I don't usually say that for huge bosses.





Sound: 8


Sounds is usually some of the best in a handful of arcades. And the music in the game is pretty fantastic. Of course one of the themes that stick out to me is the first level theme "Visionnerz", the intro theme (and the boss theme for a lot of the fights) "Burst Out", and the?final level theme "Self". Those themes to me are the flagship songs of the game because that's the one I usually remember out of all the themes.





Depth: 9


I love playing this game. 7 levels per trail and only 28 levels total, who knows the possibilities of what you can do! Like if I wanted to end the game at Zone Y I'd go through the appropriate levels needed to be able to get to that particular zone. And so on and so forth.





Story: -


Seriously, who plays any shoot em up and expect there to be a story or something??Unless?a gaming company actually puts some effort into putting a story in a shoot em up.





Addictiveness: 9


I am a fan of the Darius series and I love playing through each route and finding out which way it ends. And if I like this particular route, I tend to come back and improve my own skills in playing the game's route.





Difficulty: 9


Oh boy this is the big one. This game is tough. I mean really tough. As in if you can endure going through 7 challenging levels (28 total) of a swarm of enemies while trying to power your own weapons up AND keeping yourself alive as well as dealing with a giant fish-like battle ship as a boss then you sir are very well at gaming. It's personally amazing that I'm able to even get though one route.





Overall: 9


Darius Gaiden is a very fun game in the arcade and it deserves the praise that it gets by reviewers and fans alike. It stands out as a good shooter in the eyes of gaming fans and arcade fans alike. It's addicting, it's fun, it's challenging, and you will come back for more and I highly?recommend?it for play. As of right now, the arcade has been ported to the Sega Saturn in Japan and the United States and ported to the?PlayStation?in Japan only (that sucks). But for all you PlayStation 2, PC, and Xbox fans, the game is with a group of 43 games in a?compilation?disk called Taito Legends 2. If you still have a PlayStation 2 or an Xbox, then you should pick it up.

edit: I may have forgotten about the extra version. That version of the arcade enhances your wave weapon and puts it in permanent rapid fire mode which is nice on a fairly difficult game. As well as the opportunity as player 2, to play through all 28 levels in the game, enhancing it's depth. Or not depending on how you already feel about the game.

First post first day first review... And dang.... Already a better review then all of my review together! Amazing review man! I'll sure try this game out tomorrow

TheJmsGamer : Glad to get someone into the game.