Touchgen: Despite their lack of physical controls, the iDevices has been witness to somewhat of a resurgence in the genre, with many a good shooter thriving on the busy AppStore. I’m not exactly sure why this is, but it’s possible that the pick-up-and-play nature of a shoot’em up, mixed with their tendance for in-your-face presentation, makes them perfect for that mundane train journey to work, or while waiting in line at the local post office.
Hardcore Droid - Darius-burst-sp-android-action -thumbFor as much as the shoot-‘em-up genre remains stubbornly old-school to the casual observer, it’s changed a lot since its ’80s and ’90s zenith. Where once we had a diverse array of side scrollers, vertical scrollers, precise methodical games, or crazy bullet-fests, now it’s largely settled on varying circles of “bullet hell” with clouds of pink and blue bullets and tiny ships. Dariusburst: Second Prologue proves to be a refreshing throwback to the classic side-scrollers that ruled the 8-bit and 16-bit eras, games like Lightening Force, Gradius, and of course the Darius games, with slow-scrolling levels, fast bullets, and epic boss battles.
Carl Williams writes, "Dariusburst was previously available on Playstation Portable (exclusive to Japan) and now, thanks to Taito, it is available on Android and iPhone. For those of you reading this that have never played a Darius game, aka Sagaia, you are in for a treat if you like a challenge. If not well, um, play something else. Darius has never really been at the forefront of side scrolling shooters but it certainly has kept a certain level of quality with each release- quite a feat. Now, Android and iPhone gamers will be able to enjoy Taito’s newest entry in the Darius brand."
The Quality Index champions the best space-based shooters available on iPad.
