Darius Cozmic Collection

Video Games
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Taito and M2 are releasing this at the end of the month, and it will, surprisingly, be game-card only. Surprising to see Nintendo approve that - I thought every game had to be uploaded to the eShop as a mandatory condition!

It’s in good hands - developed by M2 - and covers an earlier chunk of Darius history. There are two SKUs and they both contain a different number of games:

Regular gamecard-in-case release contains arcade titles:

  • Darius
  • Darius II
  • Arcade Sagaia
  • Darius Gaiden

Special Edition release adds the following home games in addition to some bonus goodies

  • SFC Darius Twin
  • SFC Darius Force
  • Master System Sagaia
  • Mega Drive Darius II
  • PC Engine Darius Alpha

…but it’s also significantly more expensive.

The only Darius title I’ve played is DariusBurst Chronicle Saviours so I’m intrigued - but which package is worth picking up? Anyone else considering this one?

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Gaiden’s my favourite one. I think mostly hardcore Darius fans will want the special edition.

It’s strange and neat seeing SMS Sagaia getting a re-release at all.

3

I’m picking up the standard edition. That special edition price is too rich for my blood, especially considering I own several of these games in their original format.

4

Physical only ported collection of old-school arcade games on an instant classic Nintendo console?

I can see this becoming very expensive not given any other releases.

5

This release really rubs me up the wrong way, from the high cost to the special edition exclusive games. It’s profoundly distasteful to me.

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Is this releasing in NA?

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Japan-only for now. Square Enix normally handles Taito stuff overseas since the acquisition I think, and I wonder if the publishing offices in Europe and North America would want to bother with this. I hope they do though. Feels like ages since the last big boxed Taito release outside of Japan - was there anything notable after Space Invaders Extreme 2?

8

Not a fan of physical only stuff. Surprised Nintendo approved this.

9

What? We should only be buying physical releases. The whole digital distribution thing sucks balls. You can’t sell the game on and as we’ve now seen time and time again many games have gone forever because the download service has ended.

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People should have the choice between a physical or a digital copy; saying we should only be buying physical is very dogmatic. I have a bunch of physical Switch games but I understand that given the portable nature of the machine, digital copies might be preferable to a lot of people.

11

I just hope it gets some kind of US release.

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I do a mix. I just hate when this happens since it’s creating artificial scarcity when the eshop exists.

One of the favorite aspects of digital is the not worrying about low print runs.

Obviously this fine place will have folks that prefer physical stuff and that’s fine. But at the end of the day I just want to play the games.

13

I’m all digital on Switch.

14

Tempted to order this as the release is nearing. Is it worth the entry price for the arcade games alone? I worry I won’t get obsessively into chasing high scores or 1CC’ing it.

15

Absolutely. The console titles included in the special edition pale in comparison and are not worth the price imho.

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Thanks, looking forward to it given I’ve only played DariusBurst CS

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Have the special edition pre-ordered. It’s spendy and don’t care for how SE is handling the release but it’s a physical cart, these are great games, the extras are nice and it’s M2 so it’s an automatic win. Too bad there’s no digital option at all though, am also surprised Nintendo allowed that.

18

Absurd.

But seriously, of course that’s what it’s all about. I appreciate digital for nearly always giving a cost effective option on games with limited print runs.

19

A new trailer is out - shows off some gameplay, including how M2 has utilised the wide borders, emulation options and leaderboards:

Looks great. Plenty of options, nicely presented.

20

Finally got round to buying this last month.

I’m not particularly good at any of the classic arcade Darius games, but I have to applaud M2’s attention to detail once again. The HD rumble in Darius II in particular impressed me a lot, since it’s in sync with the music and SFX, making it feel like you’re inside the cabinet, loud volume shaking the surroundings and all.

Game’s also been confirmed for a global release by Taito including a new PS4 version.