RayForce, known as Layer Section to some of us, Gunlock to others, and Galactic Attack to yet more, is an arcade title released in 1994. What made it special was a two-layered approach, requiring one to keep track of the ground and the air.
I suppose you’re here to read about the music, though. Hit the jump to check it out.
(more…)
Taito’s Darius series (of which Sagaia is a part) has always been regarded by the wider gaming public as somehow lagging behind the other big-name horizontal shooting series. As a steadfast supporter of the games, I’ve long thought of this as a disheartening and near-criminal injustice, but to be perfectly honest, the popular view is all too understandable. The first two Darius titles relied on their innovative triple-screen displays and their GIGANTIC SPACE FISH to impress arcade-goers in the late 80s, and upon revisiting them today, most players find them to be rather staid and sedate affairs with unadventurous whack-a-mole level design. It took 1994’s Darius Gaiden and 1997’s G-Darius to really prove the worth of the series to most shoot-em-up aficionados, but they certainly didn’t lay to rest the ghosts of its reputation. The truly disheartening thing about the relative unpopularity of the original games, though, is that it’s meant that scant few people have been exposed to the wonders of their music.
It seems Taito understand this well enough, as they’ve been busy releasing a slew of the Darius soundtrack and remix CDs on the iTunes service, with the soundtrack to the Game Boy version of Sagaia being among the most recent. But is this release likely to win the series any new fans?
Click the jump to find out! (more…)
Darius II, released to an unsuspecting world in 1989, followed the footsteps of original Darius – a strange, atmospheric arcade shooter with an equally unique soundtrack. While the OST was originally released in the late 80s, and is therefore very much out of print, it was recently added to Taito’s expanding iTunes catalog for digital distribution, making it cheaply and readily available once again.
Though the series has been mostly dormant since 1997’s G-Darius, it recently came back to life with the release of the brilliant Darius Burst. Taking a look back at the series and its accomplishments, it’s easy to see that the three-screen-wide Darius II was a landmark worth revisiting.
Hit the jump for an in-depth look at this strange and historically significant soundtrack. (more…)
The PSP shooter Darius Burst is approaching fast in Japan, just in the time for the holidays! The Darius series merges the depths of black space with the expanse of the blue ocean, turning familiar creatures of the sea into deadly mechanoids along the way. We contacted the composers who have been working on the sound design for this upcoming game, and Taito’s friendly staff agreed to lend a hand in translating our interview questions. It turns out to be hard work to balance the series’ unorthodox musical roots with providing a new and accessible experience at the same time.
Read our extensive interview to find out how the ZUNTATA sound team met these challenges during the making of the upcoming Darius Burst! (more…)
| « Next Entries |
|---|
