Review by G-Darius HD. Game for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 28/09/2021 The version for PlayStation 4 is scheduled in the 2021.
Next Gen yes, Next Gen no, all ready to have their say, for or against the latest generation games but, as soon as titles like G-Darius HD, many let themselves be carried away by the rushing flood of the river of nostalgia. Retrogaming, as we know, has now become an extremely varied way of playing video games. There are purists of strictly original hardware and software, geeks from various emulators and those who enjoy the titles of the past on the most modern consoles, playing them in the original or remastered version, perhaps also embellished with some delicious additions, such as the digital artbooks contained in the various collections dedicated to Castlevania, it's ours G-Darius HD it should fully fall into this last category. It should, and it does, but in a somewhat crude and unfinished way. But let's proceed in order.
Start from the beginning
First of all, let's start with some historical mention, because we are talking about a title that is part of one of the most prominent series of the immortal genre of scrolling shoot 'em ups. In the now archaic 1987, Taito Corporation decided to wage war on the giants of shoot-and-run, a genre capable in those years of engulfing our weekly pocket money in the blink of an eye, routing many young (and not so young) gamers to the art of creative blasphemy, a skill that he went to integrate what he learned by playing Ghost ‘n’ Goblins, and which years later would be taken to unthinkable levels with the advent of the soulslike. But that's another story.
To carve out a position in this competitive slice of the market, Taito I set up a game, Darius, which adhered in all respects to the standards of the genre, but which made us fight against opposing hordes made up of… robotic fish. And then, let's be clear, it's not that they were the strangest opponents ever seen in a shoot 'em up of the time, but they were designed, colored and animated in a way that really made your jaw drop. As you can easily imagine, the series Darius it worked wonderfully, giving birth to several sequels and also landing on the home console market.
Ten years later, the series based on mechanized intergalactic fish fauna also arrives on the first, glorious, PlayStation as well as in the room, with G-Darius, huge title, very colorful and, above all, strictly in 3D, as it used to be at the time. Or rather, the structure of the game was the same as always, mind you, but this time, animated backgrounds, spaceships and enemies were all in that primitive 3D that so much characterized the fifth generation of consoles. At the controls of one of the futuristic spacecraft Silver hawk, we would have had to deal with yet another wave of robotic sea creatures, including the immense (and wonderful) end-of-level bosses, so huge that they sometimes ended up being an integral part of the levels themselves!
Gotta catch ’em all!!
Our armament consisted of an upgradeable shot, bombs, shields and the capture ball, one of the classic features of the series, thanks to which we could take control of enemies and mini bosses (but only after having bludgeoned them well) which will become, in fact, pods with different fire or defense modes. This makes the games more studied than you might think, since capturing the right enemy at the right time greatly increases our chances of survival, especially against the aforementioned huge bosses. In addition to the pod function, captured enemies can be sympathetically detonated by way of smart bomb or, and here comes the beauty, used to give energy to a huge beam with devastating power, very useful against bosses because, in addition to acting as a shield to the countless bullets, if contrasted with the equally gigantic one fired by bosses, it gave itself start a chain reaction with devastating effects!
To all this we add an excellently balanced gameplay and a level progression system to Out Run to understand, which ensured the title a certain replayability, and success served. G-Darius HD, developed by ININ Games, proposes all this again on PlayStation 4, PC e Nintendo Switch, both in the original room version and in the HD version, with much more pleasant graphics (the 3D of the late 90s ages really badly) while keeping intact all the feeling of the era. Furthermore, from the menus we will be able to set a lot of visual and non-visual details at will, in order to make the game experience as satisfying as possible.
The fish stinks from the head
In the face of so many advantages, G-Darius HD however, it also has some defects, even quite serious ones. The first is that of the price: 29,99 € for a port that, on balance, contains only two versions of a 1997 game it is really a price a bit too pretentious, also in the light that, and here the second flaw, there is no bonus content. No artbooks, no additional features, nothing. Not good really, but the worst is, unfortunately, yet to come. The version we tested, that PlayStation 4, in fact, it also suffers from very conspicuous slowdowns when there are a high number of objects on the screen, a situation that is far from rare in such a game. Honestly, such annoying frame rate drops from a '97 game up PlayStation 4 they are not acceptable, also in light of the not exactly budget price of the G-Darius HD.
So what about this nostalgia title? Our advice is to take it, maybe when you find it a bit obvious, only if you are fond of old school scrolling shoot 'em ups. The basic idea is very valid, but the lack of additional content and the poor performance on Sony consoles, combined with the excessive price, take points away from the judgment given to G-Darius HD, which otherwise could have been a real pearl for nostalgics !
► G-Darius HD is a Shooter-Adventure-Arcade game for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch, the video game was released on 28/09/2021 The version for PlayStation 4 is scheduled in the 2021.
