DarXide Game Review for Sega's 32X

There are three space shooters for 32X, all of which are very good games. The first is Star Wars Arcade, in which the player assumes the role of Luke Skywalker and destroys Tie Fighters, Star Destroyers, and the Death Star (twice). The second is Shadow Squadron, known outside of America as Stellar Assault, which is a true space flight sim that gives the player complete control. And then there's DarXide, by U.K. based game developer Frontier Developments. It combines the arcade action of Star Wars Arcade with the space sim elements of Shadow Squadron.

The game itself also has a story. Most 32X collectors probably already know it. But those who found a ROM and are running it on an emulator may not. DarXide was a planned launch title for the Sega Neptune console, which was a Genesis with the 32X built in. It would’ve been marketed at first time Genesis buyers. The console was cancelled when the Saturn was launched. Frontier Developments, with virtually no support from Sega, got the game to the market. It’s estimated that less than 5,000 were sold, and of those few are known to exist.The game generally trades for over $1,000 USD.

I decided to write this review based on the complete and utter lack of accurate reviews that exist on the internet. DarXide suffers from what I am going to coin as “E.T. Syndrome.” Virtually no one, not you, not anyone you know, certainly not me, has ever played this game, especially not when it came out. I have only played an emulator, and the same goes for every other reviewer.

The problem is that we don’t have the instruction booklet for DarXide, (if anyone does have a scan, please let me know), and therefore don’t even really know how to play the game. This is why E.T. on the Atari 2600 is so hated. The hate didn’t begin back in 1982. No, it began in the internet age, once emulators and ROMs were prevalent. Without the instruction booklet, E.T. is unplayable. I hate to defend the game, but that’s why its legendary awfulness became such powerful lore. To a lesser extent, DarXide suffers from the same problem.

I watched one video review on YouTube where the commentator stated that he was “amazed this game is possible on a Genesis,” but “the graphics aren’t as good as  Star Fox.” Obviously he didn’t know it’s a 32X game. He also couldn’t tell that the graphics are about 400 percent better than old Star Fox on the SNES, even with the fancy FX chip.

Back to the review...

The game has a plot. It's to do with "Star Fleet" (that's you), alien bad guys, Asteroids, miners, and moons. None of that matters as the story doesn't come up ever in the game.

Here's what you need to know. You must to destroy all asteroids and alien fighters before you reach each moon. See, the moons have no defenses, so if you reach the moon before completing the objective, then the mission fails.

Fortunately, there's an icon on the HUD that shows how close the next moon is. The game even issues a warning. Unfortunately the game is very difficult, and the warning comes at approximately the five to ten second mark. Each asteroid breaks into fragments, which in turn break into fragments. There is zero room for error.

There are powerups to get new weapons, restore shields, and energy. However, the big guns don’t even come until the later missions, so don’t worry about anything but the objective.

The little Star Fleet ship looks a bit like an X-Wing fighter, with four wings each equipped with their own laser cannon. The control is actually really good. That’s right. It has good controls. This is a point of contention in most reviews, and I think it stems from the E.T. Syndrome of not knowing how to play.

The ship controls much like you would expect a spaceship to. Players need only to tap the direction in which they want to fly, and then the ship will move that direction. Attempting to hold down the D-pad will result in way overshooting the desired target. Just tap, tap, tap the direction, and hold B to shoot.

Also, the game uses the A and C buttons to control the speed of the vehicle. Another common complaint is that the game is too fast. This is where common sense comes in. Slow down when you want to turn sharply and blast a lot of nearby objects. Speed up to quickly reach far away objectives.

I also don’t have a copy of the manual. I was able to figure out shoot and stuff all by myself, but I know that miners can be rescued somehow, and I couldn’t figure it out. I also never came across any weapons upgrades, so I don’t know how to use them. If anyone knows any function for X, Y, and Z, let me know. I wasn’t able to discern any. Perhaps they are used for the upgraded weapons, like bombs. (Edit: They are. See update at the bottom of article.)

DarXide gets compared a lot to Atari’s Asteroids, and I think that’s fair. The key difference is that the missions are timed and the asteroids themselves don’t cause much damage. Oh, and it’s in 3D.

The graphics for DarXide are amazing. The shading, light sourcing, and texture mapping are beyond anything on 32X. They’re also on par with or greater than similar games on 3DO, PSX, and Saturn, and completely blows away anything that ever appear on Jaguar. Just look at the screens and tell me they don’t look like something from an early PlayStation game.

In the end what we have here is a fun, fast paced arcade shooter in space. It has very cool quasi-realistic controls, amazing graphics, and an interesting history. DarXide is the best looking 32X game, even if it isn’t the best one. It’s also one of the rarest and most expensive. (Yes, there is one game that is rarer and sells for more.) It would also be a lot better if it were just a little easier. You will probably never see this game in real life, but get the ROM and try it out on your favorite emulator. Just keep in mind how the controls work. Oh, and for the love of all things Sega, use a controller. Playing this with a keyboard is all but impossible.

The game was ported to Pocket PC and Nokia Series 60 phones in 2002 under the name DarXide EMP. Unlike the modern 32X reviews, the game received overwhelmingly positive rating.

Update: Since I wrote this article Segabits has published a user guide for DarXide. I encourage anyone who is struggling with DarXide to check it out. The article includes portions of the scanned manual. Knowing exactly how to play the game makes it much more easy and fun!