October 2020 Shmup Club - Darius Twin

[zoydo]

Got the clear on the ACDFIKL route today. But still not a new PB.

https://youtu.be/xhdNJ0ccMGk

[MetalFRO]

Awesome work, zoydo! I suspect before the end of the month, we'll see a new PB, as well as you completing all the routes

[MetalFRO]

Good job so far everyone!

I just realized this game was published by Mattel according to MetalFRO's picture there. Huh??? Are there different versions of the box? I don't see other boxes like that.

That was just the cleanest box art I could find. Mattel handled publishing for the game in Australia, though Taito self-published it in North America, and presumably, in Japan.

[MetalFRO]

New PB, and I got farther this evening!

[MetalFRO]

I managed to up my score a bit, and hit the boss rush! There's some definite boss cheesing you can do in a few places, including the boss rush, so be aware that some of the bosses can be beaten quite easily with smart positioning.

* Zone A boss, you just need to avoid that initial straight bullet of the 3 spread, then stay centered with the boss and keep firing, and repeat when it shoots the 2nd spread of 3.
* Zone B, concentrate on the Fossil Queen (pink fish), and when she stops firing, move around her bullets up to the top of the screen, and you should be able to get the Fossil King (green fish) with your diagonal lasers.
* Zone C, stay low, and as soon as the boss fires its pincer at you, move up, and fire at its eye. When it retracts the claw, move forward and down, to avoid the bullet spread, and use your diagonal weapon to do damage. Rinse and repeat.
* Zone E, the "lobster" boss, you can literally stay at the top of the screen, and your your diagonal weapon to shoot its head. You just need to avoid the claws it throws at you, which you should be able to destroy after 2 or 3 volleys, then just stay up top near the center and keep blasting until it goes down.
* Zone G, the turtle boss, you can stay at the top, and just move back and forth to avoid running into the smaller turtles, and use your diagonal weapon to shoot at its head, while also fending off the small turtles that way. And while you're cheesing that boss, you'll milk some additional score out of that boss, as you're taking out the small turtles.

[Corkman]

Here's my personal best. I'm doing the upper route. No clear yet. Got completely obliterated by the mini boss rush a couple of times. Need to practice that.

@MetalFro, I got you by only 5900 points, ha!  I bet you will pass that on your next runs so I'll have to keep at it!

[MetalFRO]

Haha, that's hilarious! I'm hoping to jump back in this evening for a stream, so I'm hopeful I can find a groove and get the top path 1CC

[zoydo]

Started to get a bit into scoring yesterday.

As MEtalFro already mentioned you can milk some of the bosses. The Turtle - Boss seems to be the most efficient.
I tried milking the coronatus boss too, but it's not worth the effort i think.

You can also milk the Super Alloy Lantern Boss in L-Zone during it's final phase, when he shoots the little piranhas at you.

[img width=500 height=375]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/50468503798_e8efd52293.jpg[/img]

[MetalFRO]

Great score, zoydo! I haven't managed to clear it yet, due to that dumb crab mini-boss, and that final zone just gives me a bit of trouble. I'm very close, though.

[zoydo]

@MetalFro: thank you. Keep pushing! The crab miniboss seems to be the worst  enemy in the game...i die at least one time at one of them, either in stage 4 or in the final zone.

btw. I did some experimenting with the final zone today. I wanted to know if it pays off to shoot the minibosses (or at least some of them) instead of hiding in the upper right corner.
But the more enemies you shoot, the more appear. I stacked up two crabs and a shark at once today, which is kind of nightmarish (the shark miniboss doesn't even appear when you use the safe spot). To me it just seems impossible to get a proper way to this zone without using the safe spot. If i tried to find a route or strategy some enemy crashed into me, coming out of nowhere. It just seems totally random (even though i know nothing in shmups is random) and it's nearly impossible to find a rhythm. Anyhow the score you get by shooting the enemies doesn't seem to be worth the effort.

[FauxMacho]

My apologies that I haven't posted, but I've been playing.
I've enjoyed steady improvement, and I've reached the last stage boss rush, but I fear it will be a wall for me for a while.
2,767,800 is my best for now.

I played a lot of the original arcade Darius last year, and I like the iterative improvements that this console sequel (?) has: mostly that there's no power down punishment for death, but the bosses are a bit more fun too.

[MetalFRO]

Great score, FauxMacho! That boss rush is quite a pain, for sure. Remember, you can sit at the very top or very bottom of the screen to avoid the angelfish wave attacks, and then move around when necessary, to avoid other enemies. I haven't quite managed to get the clear yet, either, but I'm confident I can pull it out before the end of the month!

[Corkman]

That last level boss rush is brutal!

But, I finally cleared it and the whole game!  

ABDEGJL upper route. The boss rush is much harder than the last boss.

Interestingly, my score isn't as good as my previous score. How many points do you get with that weapon downgrade in Zone J?

Going to try the lower routes now.

[MetalFRO]

Very nice! I'm not sure about the weapon change power-up, and how many points it offers, I haven't watched the score. I might have to check last night's run, and see if that shows. But that's probably not a big enough gain to make a huge difference. I've found that milking points from destructible boss projectiles helps, as is making sure you're taking out every last popcorn enemy. The more aggressive you are, it seems like there are extra enemy waves that you can have the game spawn, which gives you even more opportunity to score points. So it seems like every stage has between 1 & 3 additional enemy waves you can potentially spawn, if you take stuff out quickly. That's been my observation, at least. As you know, that stupid crab miniboss is still the thorn in my side, but I'm close!

[douglie007]

I promise I plan on playing some this month, but my sd2snes died.  So I have to go through my snes games, they are not in order and I haven't had time to search the pile.