Ludography
Darius Twin cover

1991 · Taito · Shoot 'em up · Shooter

Darius Twin

Nintendo exclusive

Darius Twin is a shoot 'em up video game released for the Super NES in 1991. It was the first new installment in the Darius series to not be originally designed for the arcades, and also the first to have a normal 4:3 screen-ratio. Interestingly, while it's a unique game in the Darius series, it appears to reuse sprites and background designs from Darius and Darius II. Also, while the names of the bosses are new, they really are reworkings of previous bosses for the most part.

Released
29 March 1991
Platforms
SNESWii
Genres
Shoot 'em upShooter
Developers
Taito
Publishers
Taito
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Third person
Themes
Science fiction
Country
Japan
Age ratings
CERO AESRB E

About

Darius Twin is a 1991 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Taito for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It is part of the Darius series. It was re-released for the Wii Virtual Console in Japan on April 13, 2010 and in North America on December 13, 2010.

›Story

Once, many millennia ago, the young, tranquil world of Darius was invaded by a race of star-hopping barbarians under the command of galactic tyrant, Belser. The peace-loving Dariusites were ill-prepared for such an invasion and most fell quickly. However, before the entire planet succumbed to Belser's domination, a brave young couple, Proco and Tiat, led a resistance effort and managed to escape with many of their fellow Dariusites to sectors of space that were still free.

As the centuries passed, the descendants of this resistance movement multiplied and prospered, and populated many worlds. On Orga, a world of uncommon resources, they established the command center for the Galactic Federation, a governing body that united all the peaceful worlds of the galaxy. After a thousand years, the forces of Belser again decided to expand their empire and headed spaceward to conquer the people who escaped them centuries earlier. Branching ever outward, Belser seized control of even more planets in the solar system.

Inspired by the legends of Proco and Tiat, two of the Federation's best pilots now ready their spacecraft for the long galactic battle that awaits them. These vessels, advanced technological miracles called Silver Hawks, are able to transform energy into powerful weapons and armament. It is your mission to pilot a Silver Hawk, defeat Belser's forces on each of the planets along your selected route, and reach Darius and destroy the formidable Alloylantern, a mechanical fortress from which all of Belser's technological strength springs. Belser's original world remains unknown, but the most noted scientists believe that it was largely oceanic because all of Belser's technology seems patterned after aquatic lifeforms.

Keywords

  • aliens
  • cyberpunk
  • shoot 'em up
  • robots
  • shmup
  • futuristic
  • space
  • side-scrolling
  • war
  • boss fight
  • explosion
  • digital distribution

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Though similar to the arcade Darius entries, Darius Twin has slightly different gameplay features, most notably in the player's power-ups. Players collect weapon and shield power-ups from square shaped enemies that approach from the front and behind, but once players die after collecting a certain number of power-ups, the power-ups collected stayed with the ship post-destruction. Players 1 and 2 are allowed their own separate number of lives. There are no continues.

The game contains five color-coded classes of power-up. The pink item powers up the main weapon, green powers up the side weapons, blue regenerates and/or improves the force shield, orange gives one extra Silver Hawk, and yellow destroys all enemies on-screen. At two points in the game, the player can find a red power-up with a special purpose. It switches the main weapon shot style between that seen in Darius and Darius II.

Reception

According to Famitsu, Darius Twin sold 27,104 copies during its lifetime in Japan. The Japanese publication Micom BASIC Magazine ranked the game fifth in popularity in its June 1991 issue, and it received a 22.7/30 score in a readers' poll conducted by Super Famicom Magazine. It also received a mixed reception, holding a rating of 58.60% based on five reviews according to review aggregator GameRankings.

In 2018, Complex named Darius Twin 56th on its "The Best Super Nintendo Games of All Time". They called the game as one of the best 2D scrolling shooters on the SNES and noted the gameplay being difficult.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
SNES29 March 1991Japan · North America 1 November 1991 · Europe 22 April 1993
Wii13 April 2010Japan · North America 13 December 2010

Editions and related releases

Included in
Darius Cozmic Collection: Special EditionDarius Cozmic Collection: Console Edition

Games like this

Collections4 collections

Platform libraries

Publishers

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.