#taito
#taito
by Amr (@siegarettes)
Darius Cozmic Collection Console is almost more notable for the circumstances of its release than the games included in it. Announced around this time about two years ago, it came out in Japan at the start of the last year, in physical form only, with digital editions unavailable until nearly the end of the year. Additionally the “ Consumer” aka Console collection was initially as a bonus in an incredibly expensive limited edition which skyrocketed in price on the aftermarket. Its eventual digital release cost as much as the already expensive Arcade collection–which is the version that appears here. The original Japanese releases were already rough bargains, but time has made the console collection appear almost archaic, thanks to efforts of other retro collections, and even M2 themselves.
by Amr (@siegarettes)
No longer tied to the esoteric design sense of the original arcade game, Bubble Bobble 4 Friends takes the mechanics of the original and builds towards making them more transparent to new players. Bubble Bobble’s simple premise of trapping and popping enemies in bubbles is immediately clear, but the small subtleties around air flow, chaining bubble pops and using them as platforms were almost secretive thanks in the original game. Bubble Bobble 4 gives focus to these mechanics, making them more accessible and using them to build its cooperative systems.
by Omar (@siegarettes)
Dariusburst CS always presented itself as a celebration. A final hurrah to a storied, bizarre series of arcade titles. So it seems appropriate that they’ve followed that up with a series of new playable ships based on other Taito arcade games. What I didn’t expect was the games that they’d choose to bring in.
@siegarettes talks about how Rayforce (aka Gunlock aka Layer Section) builds a story that reinforces the use of its lock on mechanic.
by Omar (@siegarettes)
Dariusburst Chronicle Saviors is a game so wrapped up in the history of the series, that it’s impossible to start comprehending what it even is before taking in some of that history. The finale to the long running Darius shoot-em-up series, Chronicle Saviors is the fourth revision of the PSP entry Dariusburst. Dariusburst returns with it’s series trademarks of giant robot fish and an absolutely MASSIVE soundtrack by Taito house band ZUNTATA. Although coming off the dramatic changes introduced in Darius Gaiden and G-Darius, I was underwhelmed. Particularly missed were the opportunities to turn mid level bosses to your side, or capture enemies to use as weapons.
With that in mind, Chronicle Saviors operates as a dramatic remix of the original Dariusburst. Or rather, if the first revision was a remix, this one is a multi-disc set of remixes that has you reevaluating the original Dariusburst and puts it in line with the history of the series.
By Omar (@siegarettes)
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The PSX was undoubtedly a milestone for games. While the Saturn dominated the sprite based scene, and Nintendo set the format for 3D adventure games with Super Mario 64, the Playstation undoubtedly led the charge for 3D videogames. In addition, Sony’s debut console had a huge variety of games in every genre. While I didn’t experience it firsthand, a lot of the titles from that era would go on to become some of my favorites. Here are my top five: