After enough playing of Darius Gaiden, one can
notice the route the Silver Hawks have taken. It's basically Vadis (tiers
1&2)-outer space (3-5)-Darius (6&7), with a trippy-looking warp zone
taking up tier 4. The trippiest of them is Zone J. It suffers from totally
annoying music, almost beating out the 'close your eyes/close your head' bit in
the first two tiers.Anwyway, a very common enemy here are biggish fish larvae
(or fry?), taking several shots. One of them takes offence as being cannon
fodder (indeed, they just ram you, without weapons) and Becomes Prickly
Angler.
Cue: mumbo-jumbo à la Francis Dolarhyde about
Becoming.
Tips: Riiight. Things aren't too hairy yet.
Just some straight lasers from his dorsal fin and head. Then he smartens up and
fires a ring of swirly purple homing lasers at you. Not too bad as far as homing
lasers go. He will throw in a five-bullet arc as well, this sometimes coinciding
with the purple homing lasers. Still not too much to worry about, as you should
have some kind of shield on too. The mean things start to happend now. Prickly
Angler starts to let out these rings of blue lasers which expand and
contract (now fit a Fourier analysis to that In
Zone I, these come out with much greater frequency.
Gregor Samsa must be jealous.
After enough stick, Prickly Pear 'evolves' again, temper and
everything. In addition to the old attacks, there's a good chance he will
welcome you with a sparkling of his crest, followed by a deathly beam. The
sparkling should warn you; try the 'moveinheoppositedirectionatthelastminute'
dodge, or try and weather it by moving in his direction but above (or below) the
beam. The first one fires up, the second down. Then come the BIG bullet streams, the three lasers (one fat, two thin),
and the nasty kind of purple homing lasers. To warm you up, he will fire the
blue laser rings again. Things will get verry hairy at this point, but stick it
out with or without smart bombs to make it to the fifth tier. And if you're at
level I, DO NOT GO TO ZONE M!
Rating:
Colour Scheme:
82%
Design:
87%
Attacks:
81%
Name:
76%
Real-Life Inspiration: An
anglerfish? The name would suggest it.
In
Zone I, these come out with much greater frequency.
