Darius Cozmic Collection: Arcade

This is a solid collection with two of the best shooters of the era, but it is pricey. [Issue#178, p.82]

Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade is fun, rewarding and a massive nostalgia trip. The soundtrack is amazing as are your game options when playing this group of great shoot 'em ups. I would have perhaps liked other titles instead of copies of the same game but hey, you can't have everything.

Darius Cozmic Collection is a piece of history for shmup fans. The collection includes a full catalog of the series that allows you to experience some titles that weren’t easily accessible before this release. While I wish there was more history featured in the collection, it was a blast playing these games again, or for the first time.

I cannot recommend this collection at this price. M2 definitely brought their museum quality curation to this collection with how many versions of Darius have been included in this including the extremely rare, maybe not released Sagaia (Version 2) but compared to M2’s other releases this is no more than their Castlevania Collection or their SEGA Ages releases. It’s hard to justify this price other than the fact that all home releases of Darius seem to be a bit pricey. This is made worse by the fact that this collection only has the arcade games: there’s another separate purchase for the console releases and when they are both purchased, they come close to $100. Do not get me wrong, this is a very good collection, but it is very hard to justify a purchase at full price for what is essentially 3 unique games and 4 variations.

Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade is a rock solid collection of Taito classic shooters in one package that can be listed more premium than casual fans may be willing to pay.

Overall, if you are a fan of retro gaming, especially if you were a fan of Darius then this may well be just the right fix you have been looking for. In terms of buying the collection… that may be a bit trickier as you can choose either Arcade or Console… not both… well you can choose both but you will be buying two separate collections rather than one. So I would suggest if you had a preference or if you have experience I should say with one over the other… go with what you know. Or if you are feeling like throwing money around then by all means get both. A worth while trip down memory lane!

This collection of classic arcade shoot 'em ups really just boils down to three unique games and while each one is well-presented here and offers some great old-school action, the asking price for this compilation seems a bit much, especially when it isn't the complete collection that it pretends to be.

There's an absurd amount of classic Shmup love here, even if these collections are a little too light on extras.

Darius Cozmic Collection does offer a lot of enjoyment for fans of shmups, regardless of which version is played. It can be criticized for being a cash grab attempt for splitting the arcade and console titles into two separate collections when combining them into one would still be comparable to many other retro collections. But those complaints aside, each collection does a good job at preserving an authentic classic Darius experience as there is something inherently fun about teaming up with a buddy to blast some robot fish. The Darius games aren’t readily available on too many other formats so it’s nice to finally be able to enjoy them on modern consoles. During the review process both collections were enjoyable, but if you were to only get one, the recommendation would go to the Arcade version unless you have specific nostalgic feelings for a console title like Darius Twin.