Relatives: Red Crab, Bald Crab, My Home Daddy, and Yamato.
I don't know, but zone X in Darius Gaiden has a feel of it being 'the' last stage. To start with, it's the central stage of the last tier, and it's, well...zone 'X'! As it begins, this big spherical space station sweeps into view and quite forces you in. And so, on to a bitchin' hard stage (as all are after the fifth tier) with Great Octopus as a piddling(!) miniboss. Eventually, you reach the end of the stage where you are at this heavily-wired and connected core. The heart of the space station? The heart of Belser itself?Then suddenly, this ugly beast grips the floor beneath you and JUMPS out to meet you. Mummy!
She socks it you from the start.
Tips:. Her Imperial Highness starts things off nastily. From a very visible rotating cannon somewhere in her centre, she sprays spiralling grey blobs which blow up. Not too quickly. While doing this, she ambles across the screen, in a smooth ballet of technology mimicking Life while the blobs get thicker. You have to part-maneuver and part-cut through them; I would suggest a vague zigzag motion but with the fire button jammed. A shield helps, but it's likely it'll be downgraded a bit when you're through. Repeat. She then, if I remember correctly, does this funky arm-waving (probably Belser semaphore for 'my horse has green hair') and then fires off a continous line of lasers with seeker beams for your pleasure too. And if that wasn't enough, she then jumps clear off the screen and always lands right on top of you. My smartbombs were spent on this attack. If you are a less nervy player than me, stay low when the lasers and homing lasers start out, and then dash out to the other side of the screen (left to right and vice versa). This is one of the moments where you wish the Silver Hawk had a Rayxanber-style rapid escape booster.
Her attacks are 'hysterical' enough, believe me.
Ookay. More funky hand movements (I can almost hear someone shouting 'MOVE YOUR BODY!')and the most unsettling attack I've seen in a long time. Hysterical Empress disgorges or births (choose the word you prefer) this bunch of little crabs (awwww....) in shells who then proceed to take the mickey out of you. Etymological jokes about this attack are welcome. The little crabs are quite destructible, but at the same time the laser attack hits you. Eventually, she then starts to produce this huge ball of the same grey blobs as before, and BANG- releases them in a wide spiral. Oh, and the two eye-stalks produce the seeker lasers. By this time they should be blowing up-good for you. This attack cycle more or less repeats itself, though sometimes the little crabs come out during the big-ball-of-blobs attack.Eventually:
