Uploaded May 2023 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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G-Darius is a shoot 'em up from Taito, originally released in arcades in 1997. In 2021, Taito and M2 released this excellent HD remaster, which includes several different versions of the game. G-Darius is the fourth mainline game in the Darius series, but it's a prequel to the original Darius, which canonically makes it the starting point of the Darius Cinematic Universe.

The key mechanics in G-Darius are its capture system, and Alpha Beams. You can throw capture balls at any enemy in the game and use them for additional firepower. You can even capture the midbosses (known as captains), which not only have a lot of health, but they can also do special moves with fighting game inputs. Every enemy behaves differently when captured, so be careful about who you grab.

Beyond that, there are the Alpha Beams. After you've captured an enemy, you can convert them into a super powerful beam attack by holding the shot button. Bosses have their own version of this called the Beta Beam, and if your beams collide, you initiate a beam duel. If you mash shot fast enough, you'll absorb the boss' Beta Beam and power up your Alpha Beam, which of course does even more damage and gives you a higher score multiplier. It's pretty satisfying.

I've been playing this for the last few weeks and I finally put together a high scoring run that I'm pretty satisfied with. I probably lost half a million points from various mistakes, but most of this was pretty clean. Just some quick notes: I die intentionally on the last boss to refill my capture ball stock, which lets you continue the fight and score a lot higher. I also kept all of the default gadgets on. None of them are particularly useful to me now, but if you're trying to learn the game, being able to see how much HP you want everything to have at certain points will be helpful when you're working out your strategies.

G-Darius is a great game, probably the best one I've played this year, so of course I'd recommend it to anyone who likes shmups. You can buy it on PC, PS4, and Switch. I'm playing the PC version here. It goes on sale pretty often too, so keep an eye out for that. And hell, get the Darius Cozmic Collection while you're at it!

0:00 Prologue
2:08 Zone Alpha
6:26 Zone Gamma
12:38 Zone Zeta
19:32 Zone Kappa
26:36 Zone Omicron
29:55 Great Thing
38:16 Epilogue
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Beat 'em Ups (e.g. Final Fight): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvMhpG1GR9sk8OYiWQMZZTgl
2D Action (e.g. Metal Slug): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLfI6IYca_kvNFjpnJ59Th6N0IU1PSpD3d
STG/Shmups (e.g. Dodonpachi): youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFE6B3779BE759F71