Good news for shoot-’em-up fans! Darius Cozmic Collection is finally getting a Western release on June 16, bringing Taito’s classic side-scrolling shmups to Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4.
The Darius series is known for its branching level structure, multiple endings, and creative enemy designs. The first couple of games are also noted for their use of two or three arcade screens to create an unusually long playing field, though later games reverted to a more standard single-screen setup.
Darius Cozmic Collection focuses on the 2D era of the Darius series, from the 1987 original to 1994’s Darius Gaiden. The games have ported by M2, who have a long and impressive history with porting arcade games to consoles. They also did the Castlevania and Contra Anniversary Collections, Sega AGES range for Nintendo Switch, Battle Garegga Rev.2016, and the retro minigames in Yakuza 0 and Yakuza 6.
The compilation is split into two different collections, Darius Cozmic Collection Console, focusing on console games, and Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade, focusing on arcade games.
Here’s what’s included in each collection:
Darius Cozmic Collection Console (54.99€ / 44.99 GBP / $59.99 USD)
- Darius II (Mega Drive, JP version)
- SAGAIA (Genesis, US version)
- SAGAIA (Master System, EU version)
- Darius Twin (Super Famicom, JP version)
- Darius Twin (Super NES, US version)
- Darius Force (Super Famicom, JP version)
- Super Nova (Super NES, US version)
- Darius Alpha (PC Engine, JP version)
- Darius Plus (PC Engine, JP version)
Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade (39.99€ / 34.99 GBP / $44.99 USD)
- Darius (Arcade, original version)
- Darius (Arcade, new version)
- Darius (Arcade, extra version)
- Darius II (Arcade, Dual Screen version)
- SAGAIA (Arcade, ver.1)
- SAGAIA (Arcade, ver.2)
- Darius Gaiden (Arcade)
Darius Cozmic Collection originally came out in Japan in February 2019 for Nintendo Switch, followed by a PlayStation 4 release in March this year. For a while it was looking like we might not see a global release, but Taito and ININ Games came through for shmup fans around the world.