Defunct Games reviews Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade, available now on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.
In the competitive world of arcade shoot ’em ups, Darius had no problem standing out. With an immersive widescreen display that required multiple monitors and a non-linear path that allowed for radically different playthroughs, this was a series designed to be noticed. But even if it didn’t have all of that going for it, I have a hunch that this long-running franchise would have found an audience. This is a shoot ’em up series where aliens have created giant mechanical spaceships that look like fish, sharks, squids and everything else you might find under the sea. Forget widescreen displays and choosing your own path, because this concept is golden.
The new compilation Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade brings all of these coin-op hits to the PlayStation 4 and Switch for the first time ever. This package includes multiple versions of the original 1986 arcade game, as well as ports of Darius II, Sagaia and Darius Gaiden, each with different modes and historical information to help put them in context. That’s the good news. Unfortunately, the steep asking price and relatively light selection of titles makes this difficult to recommend to anybody beyond the hardcore fans.
NOTE: Defunct Games received a digital code from the developer/publisher of this game for review purposes. For more information about the Defunct Games review policy visit www.defunctgames.com
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22 comments
Yeah they really should have just sold the two collections together cuz Gaiden is the only one in this collection worth buying for most people.
Seems like the collection got an undeserving low grade due to rather high starting point. 44 bucks is ridiculous that's why I just held out until it was on sale for 17.99 which doesn't seem as painful as almost paying 50 bucks for 4 retro games.
ty your review convinced me of chosing the console collection instead but ouff….here in canada with the taxes, 86$ lol..
Between both compilations, the lack of G-Darius and the rare PC Engine CD Super Darius 2 hurts it abit more….
Xbox one version?
What's interesting about all this is… back in the day we bought heavily stripped-down arcade shooters for 60~75 dollars EACH back when the value of the dollar was MUCH higher. $75 dollars now is worth over $130 dollars in 1995.
So really, $40 now is equal to $22.99 in 1995. NOW, if you could get all these games for $20 in arcade perfect form in 1995, would you be complaining?
Gamers today are so spoiled.
This is for shmup fans and not for regular gamers.
Does the Playstation Classic count? Definitely not the WORST compilation of games I've seen, but still extremely disappointing given the potential.
Arcade all the way for me, none of the console versions come close to Gaiden which for me is up there with the very best shooters. One for shooter fans, most definitely. Given I payed full price for the saturn version I would say this is comparatively well priced. The main problem is seeing these games as a throw experience which is only worth the small price set by the Hamster collections.
Ya know, when I was a youngin, I think I saw a Darius 1 cab at a presently shut down old skating ring, looking back, it was very impressive to have seen it in person, what stinks is that I never got the chance to play it before aforementioned skating ring got shot down
QOTD Most dissappointing collection in my opinion will have to go to Taito Legends 2, while it had better offerings then it's prequel, it royally pissed me off they sucked the life force out of puzzle bobble 2/bust-a-move again and made the characters just a pair of disembodied hands with a steering wheel and a computer running some ai software, granted puchikarat did not suffer the same fate and did not have everything about it removed (besides the pre-fight dialogues from the JP version) but it STILL pisses me off just thinking about what they did to puzzle bobble 2
I will cheat for QOTD and say PS1 mini/classic is big disappointment. Well it's some sort of compilation. If that games were on disc for current gen I would actually liked that compilation. Wow this is 180 comment,lol
45$ for this,come on. Even EA will charge 40$ for new space shooter. With single player and multiplayer. They charge like is cib mint copy on some retro console.
Sega Smash Pack Vol. 1
On one hand, I kinda hate to pick on it since Sega was well ahead of the curve in offering legal emulation of classic games; but what they gave you was noticeably inferior to just using, say Genecyst.
In that situation, you should be selling something that's at least as good as what people can get for free.
… wasn't there a Darius collection a few years ago that was also overpriced?
street fighter 30th anniversary collection, odd selection of online games, seems to be earliest versions (no revisions) of all selectable games. Online isn't good, awful button config ( no x3 buttons like every other console street fighter game in history).
I've played the online arcade and been challenged while I was on the car bonus stage, instead of both of us destroying the car then fighting each other on the next stage it completely skipped the bonus stage and pushed us to fight. After I won (yay for me) I was shoved to the car bonus stage again, this happened another 3 times, so I racked up a dumb amount of points which meant nothing because if you beat the game, you can't save your score in that mode anyway!
The older games in the series are a bit slow. Darius Gaiden on the saturn is still the best.
QOTD, worst game compilation is probably Ninja Gaiden Trilogy on the SNES. Controls were way off, music was somehow worse, and some images in cinema scenes were flat out missing. Also that mega man collection on the gamecube can go to hell. B was jump and A was shoot and you couldn't change it.
Saw these on PSN & Switch e-store, laughed at the ridiculous price, and have no plans to purchase unless I see a steep discount.
What the hell are we doing here? Is this some kind of rare find? Why the hell is this collection priced at $44.99!? The Darius console collection price is also atrocious at $59.99!
People, don't pay for these collections at these prices. Don't allow another crappy trend of overpricing retro game collections to take off.
Marvel Origins. Hands down. Just two games. Thanks to "legalities", of course. Meanwhile, 1up got the whole thing up to mvc2
So, considering I'm not that familiar with this game, probably can't put me in on hardcore fan. 😉 As for the question, tough one to answer, as I normally go for collections I'm familiar with, but maybe ones that could have offered more is CastleVania Collection. Keep in mind, I freaking loved that collection, but maybe could have gone a bit more, as some of the later games might have been nice to have on it. That might have been your toughest question yet to answer.
Great review from my favorite youtuber
Great review. As a 2D Shootemup diehard, Darius Gaiden is the only hall of fame worthy game in the series. As for disappointing compilations, I would have liked a few more titles on the Capcom Belt Action Collection, considering the amount of quality Beatemups they produced.
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