DariusBurst: Another Chronicle

The Darius series has a long-running lineage that Taito has been revisiting of late, with last year’s pair of Cozmic Collections releases lovingly bringing the shoot ‘em up classics to modern audiences.

- Simon Brown

DariusBurst: Another Chronicle EX+ focuses on doing the same for the most recent entry in the series. DariusBurst: Another Chronicle EX+ has a lineage of its own and is an enhanced port of 2011’s DariusBurst: Another Chronicle EX which was itself a dual-screen arcade release based upon the previous years Another Chronicle. That title stemmed from the original DariusBurst released on the PlayStation Portable in 2009. Still with me? Good, as that’s not quite the end of the game's history but we’ll get back to that.

Another Chronicle EX+ takes us back to the Darius universe where the population of planet Darius is still under attack by the fish-themed Belsar Army. Like other games in the series you’ll progress through a variety of horizontally scrolling stages that let you choose your path as you go. This version of the game is fundamentally the arcade version of Another Chronicle EX and includes all the modes from that release including Event Mode which has never been featured in other home releases.

Event Mode features unique challenges which were time-limited in the arcade with all 13 included here along with a further eight completely original ones specifically for EX+. This is wonderful to finally see, both to actually get to play these but also from a preservation point of view. Ultimately though it’s a relatively small chunk of a much larger whole.