The Game Boy Advance was a very unique breeding ground for ports, as developers were willing to release some interesting classic games to the portable, regardless of whether the device or said teams were capable of pulling it off successfully. Doom, Sonic 1, Street Fighter Alpha 3, Contra 3, and many others were shoved onto the handheld's screen with varying levels of quality. Even Taito's first Darius game was converted to Nintendo's gadget and renamed Darius R; I shouldn't have been surprised by this revelation... but I was, because such a concept actually frightened me.
In order to understand why a port of Darius to the Game Boy Advance may sound like a ghastly idea, one needs to understand the original arcade version. Released in the mid-1980s, this horizontal shoot-em-up created a template its successors mimicked without fail, such as a branching path system, abstract enemy designs, goofy boss creations that mimic sea creatures, and catchy music. However, it also did something unique for an arcade release. Encased in a thick cabinet, the game presented itself in a widescreen format, allowing players to fight on a vast field. Though, in actuality, there's three monitors positioned together, giving the illusion of a huge screen, and even then, some mirror manipulation was required for the three monitors to display properly.
Darius R handled this element by... um... it essentially chopped off the two side monitors and trimmed the remaining monitor to a controllable pan-and-scan screen.
Credit: Ride On/Pacific Century Cyber Works
Credit: Ride On/Pacific Century Cyber WorksSounds bad, doesn't it? But does that translate into a poorly-designed game? Well, the other immediate, noticeable change is the reduction of the enemy's speed, which was likely made to compensate for such a small screen ratio. The urgency of fighting and dodging fast-moving enemies across a wide spectrum, whether it'd be two formations suddenly springing to action from opposite ends, or just a cluster of spacecrafts, rows of turret fire, and haphazard formations attacking in unison, is absent. Now they just... casually appear, and do so without cluttering the screen too much. Here's the thing about this complaint: enemy speed can return to normal if set on the hard difficulty setting. Great! Except it's too overbearing for the small screen. Before you know it, your limited lives are wasted and you're right back at the title screen; Darius R prohibits the ability to continue.
Moreover, the diminished screen makes it difficult to see projectiles coming from the ground and ceiling, since it usually happens as your spacecraft hovers over those spots. And even after you've memorized some locations in future sessions, the game often tries distracting with an unrelated enemy formation getting in your face. It's a far cry from the original, widescreen format, where you can tell what you're encountering, perform constant dodges across the entire screen when bullets start flying, and live to tell about it if you're capable. Not surprisingly, the aspect ratio also changes how boss battles are fought. Before, you had a lot of space to navigate; helpful for the aggressive, rapid manner in which bosses tossed projectiles. But in Darius R, many more times than not, you need to hover beside these bosses to avoid damage. It feels less like a viable tactic and more like an exploit.
Adding to the ridiculousness, certain branching paths seem lazily put together. For example, Zone B takes place on a moon-like surface, rocky structures galore, and if you decide to choose Zone D afterwards... it's the same stage, same music, and same enemies! All they did was add one new enemy type for Zone D. Same goes for Zones C and E, as both share the same yellow tunnel location with extremely similar enemies and patterns. Speaking of the yellow tunnel designs: the devs ruined them in this port. In the arcade game, you actually had to fly up, down, and around huge wall structures while avoiding a hail of firepower and weird, giant orbs that could easily crush your ship. In the GBA version, the walls aren't huge and don't require much effort to fly by, and shockingly, the orbs are absent. Instead, they're replaced with more plodding enemy formations.
Credit: Ride On/Pacific Century Cyber Works
Credit: Ride On/Pacific Century Cyber WorksThe quality of the remixed soundtrack is such a shame, as well. I wasn't expecting a masterpiece from the GBA sound chip, but still: hearing modern-day, muddled melody renditions of Zuntata's classics is... is certainly an experience. As if they're amateur fan arrangements made by someone who doesn't know how to use a Casio keyboard. Weirdly, the game also has a few Darius II, Gaiden, and G-Darius reworks thrown in. If you ever wanted to hear what Olga Breeze sounds like being played by broken musical instruments, or VISSONNERZ sung by a moaning cat, then here you go.
Darius R is not a completely unplayable product, sure, but it's such a huge disservice to the vision of the coin-op. I mean, the port's biggest improvement, the ability to respawn on the spot after losing a life, is vastly overshadowed by all the problems. And they're intentional flaws, just to make the game function on the handheld. Which begs the question: why attempt a port in the first place? Why not make an original Darius title similar to what Taito did with Darius Twin and Super Nova for the Super Nintendo? This way, the game could work well within the limitations of the console, not to mention possibly create something unique and entertaining due to these handicaps. But I guess the devs thought this to be a worthwhile endeavor, instead.
Such a bizarre blunder...
