DARIUS Extra Version (Sega Genesis, 2021) · 1CC (Tiat) · Classic Hardware Playthrough

This is a single‑credit playthrough of Darius Extra Version for the Sega Genesis, played as Tiat (blue ship), which the game classifies as its easy difficulty. Why? Mostly because losing a life doesn’t reset your power level back to the base of your current tier, which can otherwise be completely disastrous in later stages. That said, I managed to get all the way to the final zone on a single life, which gives hope for a proper Proco (red ship) 1CC run in the future. The game itself plays great on the Genesis, and a lot of that has to do with the fact that it was ported by M2, who have a well‑known pedigree for bringing classic shooters to modern hardware with exceptional accuracy. Rather than wrapping the arcade ROM and shipping it out the door for a quick buck, M2 reformatted the artwork to natively fit a 4:3 aspect ratio, which meant they also had to recreate enemy timing, weapon progression, boss and rank behavior, and even slowdown characteristics so the game would feel like a proper first‑party 16‑bit title. As of this writing, the game is somehow still available for sale at Strictly Limited games, nearly 5 years after it came out. If you're a fan of the series and have a Genesis or Mega Drive, this one is an easy recommendation.