Darius

Darius
Darius is a horizontal side-scrolling arcade shoot-em-up developed and released by Taito in 1986. The game is widely known for its branching paths, colossal 3-screen arcade cabinets and boss designs based off of aquatic life (such as the iconic Great Thing, which is based on the Sperm Whale). Chronologically, the game takes place between G-Darius and Darius Gaiden, and is the second game in the series (although it was the first to be released).

Gameplay Overview
In the game, the player pilots the Silver Hawk fighter craft, which can fire either its primary Shot or its secondary Bomb. The Shot changes between Missile, Laser and Wave depending on tier and fires a forward projectile to do damage. The Bomb drops a number of small explosives in front of the Silver Hawk depending on upgrade tier. Additionally, the craft has an Arm unit that acts as a shield protecting the Silver Hawk from most forms of damage.
 * Red  orbs upgrade the Shot. After being upgraded 6 times, the Shot increases a tier, changing what kind of attack it is. It starts with Tier 1 (Missile), a standard small round pellet-like shot. Tier 2 (Laser) exhibits a longer piercing shot, and Tier 3 (Wave) is a wide and highly-damaging projectile capable of damaging several enemies at once.
 * Green  orbs upgrade the Bomb. Like with the Shot, the Bomb increases a tier every 6 upgrades. Tier 1 fires a single bomb down in front of the player. Tier 2 fires two bombs in front of the player, one down and one up, and Tier 3 fires 4 bombs: 2 down (behind and in front), and 2 up (behind and in front again).
 * Blue  orbs upgrade the Arm. The Arm is separated into its upgrades and strength, with strength simply being how many shots the Arm can take before it runs out, and upgrades being how many upgrades it has received. Tier 1 is regular green Arm, Tier 2 is silver Super Arm, and Tier 3 is golden Hyper Arm. Blue orbs grant 1 Arm strength with regular arm, and 2 with Super or Hyper arm. Additionally, Hyper arm will protect the Silver Hawk against normally lethal terrain collision; when bumping into obstacles, instead of exploding, the Silver Hawk will instead bounce back at two times the regular movement speed.

Scoring
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Stages
Establishing a trend that would persist throughout the rest of the series, Darius allows you to choose the stages you wish to fight through. After defeating the boss in each zone, the boss tunnel splits into a fork and the player must fly into one of the forked paths to choose the next zone. However, most of the zones are the same, and every stage has the same boss for all of its respective zones (except for Stage 7, where the boss is different for most of the zones).

Additionally, there is no Zone Z' or Zone V' (unlike in Darius II and Gaiden). Instead, going all the way to the top sends the player to Zone Z, and going all the way to the bottom sends the player to Zone V. There is no difference between getting there by going all in one direction, and getting there the normal way.

Below is a list of stages and their respective zones.

Stage 1
King Fossil is the boss for every Stage 1 zone.
 * Zone A: Takes place in a green cave, an iconic first stage.

Stage 2
Electric Fan is the boss for every Stage 2 zone.
 * Zone B: Takes place in a large factory.
 * Zone C: Takes place in a mountain range.

Stage 3
Dual Shears is the boss for every Stage 3 zone.
 * Zone D: Takes place in a mountain range.
 * Zone E: Takes place undersea near a reef.
 * Zone F: Takes place near a rocky moon-like surface.

Stage 4
Fatty Glutton is the boss for every Stage 4 zone.
 * Zone G: Takes place near a rocky moon-like surface.
 * Zone H: Takes place in a beige cave.
 * Zone I: Takes place in a large factory.
 * Zone J: Takes place undersea near a base.

Stage 5
Keen Bayonet is the boss for every Stage 5 zone.
 * Zone K: Takes place undersea near a reef.
 * Zone L: Takes place in a large factory.
 * Zone M: Takes place near a smooth moon-like surface.
 * Zone N: Takes place in an orange cave.
 * Zone O: Takes place in a volcanic region.

Stage 6
Iron Hammer is the boss for every Stage 6 zone.
 * Zone P: Takes place in a pink cave.
 * Zone Q: Takes place in a mountain range.
 * Zone R: Takes place undersea near a base.
 * Zone S: Takes place near some undersea ruins.
 * Zone T: Takes place near an uncanny moon-like surface.
 * Zone U: Takes place in a large factory.

Stage 7

 * Going above Zone V teleports you to Zone Z.
 * Zone V: Takes place near an uncanny moon-like surface. Strong Shell is the final boss.
 * Zone W: Takes place in an arctic cavern. Green Coronatus is the final boss.
 * Zone X: Takes place in an arctic mountain range. Octopus is the final boss.
 * Zone Y: Takes place in a large factory. Cuttle Fish is the final boss.
 * Zone Z: Takes place near some undersea ruins. Great Thing is the final boss.
 * Going below Zone Z teleports you to Zone V.

Story
Darius is canonically the second game in the Darius series, taking place many hundreds of years after G-Darius. In it, humanity has peacefully settled on Darius and established their presence as the dominant civilization. However, an alien race known as the Belsar have invaded Darius, and threaten to wipe out humanity. In response, the pilots Proco and Tiat must fight through the enemy-controlled zones and clear a path from which the survivors of the invasion can escape Darius and find sanctuary elsewhere.

Below is a list of endings. Note that unlike Darius Gaiden, the duplicates of Zone Z and V are literally identical to Zone Z and V, and contain the same ending.
 * Zone V: Every single enemy has been destroyed and the war is over. Congratulations!
 * Zone W: Proco lands in a green field on an unnamed planet (presumably either Darius, Olga or Vadis) and gets out of his craft to look at the sunset.
 * Zone X: Proco and Tiat dock with a large craft (likely a human transport here to evacuate Proco and Tiat) and are beamed up onto its bridge.
 * Zone Y: Identical to Zone V's ending, except it has a massive arcade cabinet shown on the left of the screen.
 * Zone Z: The lights in a city on Darius' surface turn back on, and before the credits roll, Proco and Tiat can be seen flying above the skyline.