When the SNES first launched there were a glut of sports games and shooters. With the console’s increased power over its predecessor there were many arcade ports of popular shooters. For the most part these turned out alright outside of the embarrassing slowdown. One often forgotten title in this window is Darius Twin. As a sequel in the series it was developed specifically for the SNES. You wouldn’t know it at first glance as its presentation is so staid. However it also meant it lacked the performance problems of its competition. But outside of that one fact as a game it is fairly tame.
Although Darius Twin was developed exclusively for the SNES it isn’t a completely original title. Most of its content comes from both Darius I & II. I suppose giving it a new title instead of calling it a remix is better marketing. There is a decent amount of new content however that points to what could have been if this were a wholly original title. As is it is decent, especially compared to terrible SNES shooters like D-Force and Blazeon. But I would still recommend Gradius III or Super R-Type over this, slowdown and all.
As a console exclusive Darius Twin is fairly unimpressive. Unlike nearly every SNES launch window title it features no Mode 7 or even little in the way of special effects. But the game is all the better for it specifically for that reason. Despite its minimalist appearance Darius Twin has absolutely no slowdown at all, no matter how many sprites are thrown around. Considering the state of the system’s early titles that is a god damn miracle. The game tosses around a lot of sprites of varying sizes and renders the signature Darius fish creatures in glorious fashion. But at the end of the day you are not playing this for its visuals.
Darius has always moved at its own pace compared to other shooters. This is a slower paced shooter that moves at a meandering pace. There isn’t anything wrong with that but usually games of this ilk compensate in other ways. Bigger enemies, loud explosions, flashy weapons, something to drum up some excitement. Darius Twin doesn’t have that and suffers due to its pacing. For every few waves of enemies there are long stretches of nothing. That isn’t to say it isn’t challenging. It is incredible how often stray bullets manage to escape your notice and frankly embarrassing to die in this manner. Even the addition of two-player coop doesn’t manage to heighten the action.
The branching path system, next to the odd obsession with fish, is what makes Darius unique. It returns in Darius Twin but in a half assed manner. Rather than twenty-eight separate levels as usual there are only twelve. This cuts down on the replay value significantly. In addition the branching levels are almost always palette swaps of each other, robbing your choice of any gravitas. The path you take to the final level alters the difficulty but cheapens this feature immensely. It can’t help but be disappointing.
The Darius series is noted for being especially difficult. I still have not finished Darius Gaiden despite owning it for nearly twenty years. Darius Twin is one of the easier titles in the series. That being said easier simply means you won’t die as often. Most enemies take a number of hits before going down and there are plenty of them. Depending on your path you’ll find stages that consist of larger sized enemies that attack in groups and take a while to kill which also raises the stakes. But by the middle of the game you should be sufficiently powered up to breeze through the rest.
Now that I’ve mentioned power-ups that is my main gripe with Darius Twin. The weapon system is severely lacking. There are three primary power-ups. One grants a shield, another powers up your primary laser, and the last upgrades your missiles to a four-way shot. These power-ups stack, and after a set point aren’t lost after death. The problem is neither weapon is particularly strong. Even worse, it isn’t until the middle of the game that you can upgrade them to be anything approaching powerful. On top of the slow pace the lack of any thrilling weaponry really kills any excitement in the game.
In Closing
Darius Twin is a decent game but far from one of the best on the SNES. It has all the elements of Darius but in a lesser form, ranking it pretty low in the series. While Darius Twin isn’t bad there are still better SNES shooters I would recommend first.
