Appears as a boss in:

Darius Gaiden (1994)


Relatives: Alloy Lantern?


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.



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