Darius (1986)
Darius Plus (1990)
Darius Alpha (1990)
Super Darius (1991)
Sagaia (Game Boy) (1991)
Darius Gaiden (1993)
Darius R (2002)
Appears as a sub-boss in:
Sagaia (Arcade,SMS,Sega MegaDrive)(1989,1992)
Cameos:
Is the final boss of the NES version of Rainbow Islands, a Bubble Bobble-related game which first appeared in arcades in 1987 and then was ported to various consoles and PCs. He also is part of the 'Yamato' boss in Space Invader 95: Attack of the Lunar Loonies, where he explodes into his skeleton
Relatives: Emperor Fossil, Queen Fossil, Fire Fossil
If the Darius series needed a mascot, my pick would have to be King Fossil. He has resurfaced in every Darius game except Darius Force and G-Darius (but we meet some close relatives of him there, ha ha). He set the standard for the way all Darius bosses would make an entrance. No rushing into the screen, all guns blazing. The screen would go blank, and, with klaxons blaring, the now-legendary message would appear:
WARNING!
A HUGE BATTLE SHIP
KING FOSSIL - A
IS APPROACHING FAST.
And King Fossil slowly fades into appearance, changing from dark grey to a loud blue. Let the carnage begin.
From top to bottom:King Fossil down the ages: from the original Darius, from Darius Plus and Alpha, from the GameBoy Sagaia and finally from Darius R.
Tips: Strategy-wise, King Fossil is pretty much the same, except in Darius Gaiden. He merely floats up and down the screen and darts out occasionaly at you and then opens his mouth to fire waves of three(for the GameBoy), four (for the GBA and PC-Engines) or five (in the Arcade) bullets in an arc. When this is happening, his open mouth-his only real weak spot- is open to attack, if you can get the right angle with the bullets. The safest way is to float more or less near his head and dorsal fin when he darts back and bomb the hell out of his mouth with it opens. If you are twitchy enough, line up with this mouth and shoot it when it opens, weaving up and down to avoid the bullets. His dorsal fin and one of his ventral fins can also be blown up but just for score, I guess. His bullets are easier to dodge in the arcade as the field of play is larger but you can squeeze in fewer attacks. In the PC-Engine, Supergrafx, GB and GBA versions, you can go for a quicker but riskier frontal assault. I personally prefer bombing him from above in Darius R, and Sagaia, but not in the others.
In Darius Gaiden, King Fossil got himself a more 'fishy' paint job; he also smartened up but dumbed down a wee bit. For starters, there's the same arc-of-bullets-from-open-mouth attack BUT he keeps his mouth open a little longer after he's finished the bullet attack, letting you sock it to him a bit more. He also throws about little anchors to keep you on your feet, so the mouth-bombing is riskier if not out of the question. As this goes on, he strips his scales and fires them at you as you damage him more and more (with autofire, he will probably succumb here). They are best avoided by starting in a
point and slowly tapping away When all of them are gone, he unleashes little bombs which explode into bullet circles and torpedoes. Ouch. No mouth-bombing here, either. Pay more attention to the torpedoes, as they can often steer you into the bullets. In fact one should stay almost put unless you really have to move. When he succumbs, his head blasts off:
Real-Life Inspiration: The coealacanth.
The coelacanth (Latimeria spp.) is a fish once believed to be extinct but rediscovered in 1938 by J.L.B.Smith in the Comoros Islands. Like the chambered nautilus (N. pompilius aka Mystic Power), it can be considered a living fossil; for some reason, this fact was hammered home in several children's encyclopaedias. Today's coelacanths are the survivors of a family that once numbered 125, its skin is used for sandpaper but its flesh is too oily to be edible.
(Source:Dinofish.com and the Larousse Encyclopaedia of Animal Life)
