Eclipse Eye

Appears as a boss in:

G-Darius (1997)


Relatives: Nil.


Taito must've had shoot'em up fans salivating when they saw the attract modes to G-Darius in the arcades. Stage Alpha, for warmers, is no slouch, but several of the enemies sported too many obvious straight lines, as if they were cut-out-and-fold-together thingies. Halfway through, you get to split stages. B gets you to an underwater and hence very Dariussy level with loads of classical Darius enemies from above and below. But coming back to A. This is airborne and seems to have fewer powerups than B, but not bad. The sun is pretty visible throughout the stage. And then the eclipse begins. No, it's not the usual eclipse thingy. Eclipse Eye is blocking it out ! What follows is a short but often brilliant intro sequence for Eclipse Eye with the Silver Hawk being reflected in its eye. And the fine fellow snarls while turning to face you.


It's no secret that our world is in darkness tonight/They say the sun is sometimes eclipsed by a fish...

Tips: Only a fish, remember? And the bigger they are, the harder they fall. Eclipse Eye is easy enough in the tradition of Darius bosses. He has lots of lovely bits to blow off, and the more you blow off before he eventually dies, the bigger your score gets. First of all, he opens his mouth and fires several missiles at you. Stand close enough and you can destroy all the missiles before they even leave it. Then come several three-bullet arcs which sort of chase you. A bit of up-and-down weaving should avoid all grief. He then turns so that his body faces you and fires two waves of perfectly destructible bullets. Again, standing at the right spot can blow them all up, but concentrate on knocking the plate armour between the two bullet waves off for points. When that's done, try and hit the eye as much as possible. However, at this point, Eclipse Eye snarls again and unleashes the Area-Different Attack (TM).
But the sun is eclipsed by the moooon...and Eclipse Eye by moi.

This Eye brings up two rocket launcher pods and fires some ugly-as-hell missiles at you. They are first out of your plane and then zoom in. He then snarls again, swings in and out of the plane of attack and sort of charges you. The first time I saw this, it totally freaked me out! But that was with B's attack; more on that shortly. After the charges, three more missiles; capture one for the Beam exchange. In B, Eye has these wicked (but ugly) spinning blades which he throws out at you. These are scarier to look at and a bit tougher than the missiles of A. Stay as low down as possible, and then move right. He then throws the blade again and fires Orange Shield Thingies (copyright of Mr. Z. Keene ) which you should capture. At this point for both areas, Eclipse Eye starts to charge up his Beta Beam. You can still hit him with the rapid-fire shot if you are up to it. You can knock out his other eye here if you're careful. The signal to charge up your Alpha Beam is when he raises his head. Then we indulge in some kamehamehaing and, by using the rapid-fire button, you should be able to counter the Beta Beam successfully and it's bye-bye Eclipse Eye. Hmmm, catchy. Maybe Sameluck or Lutia should paint that on their Hawk's nose.

Rating:

Colour Scheme:	89% (zone A) 71% (zone B)
Design:	84%
Attacks:	76%
Name:	81%

Real-Life Inspiration:A gibberfish, apparently a a more primitive version of the perch.





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