I was really looking forward to digging into this game, as I just can't seem to get enough of the Darius series!
Super Nova, also known as Darius Force overseas, is a Super Nintendo exclusive game that has no arcade counterpart. I enjoyed this game more than Darius Twin, and I'd go so far to say it also might make my top 3 Darius games overall - It's that good.
What makes it better than Twin, in my opinion, is the deaths feel less "cheap" - meaning, if you lose your life, it's really your fault almost all the time. In Darius Twin, there are a bunch of things to memorize, but really you wouldn't be able to react to them if you didn't know they were coming. Super Nova has a few of those cheap moments, but they aren't as common.
The weapons system is much deeper and expanded on over Darius Twin, as well. There are 3 different weapon load-outs (called "types" in game) to choose from that play pretty differently. Also, if you press and hold both shot and missile, you get weakened versions of both types of weapons. If you shoot just regular shots, your power level for those shots is at max, at least until you press the missile (or peripheral weapon) button. Conversely in Twin, you end up just holding down both buttons all game.
I decided to take the middle path, which is a balanced path for both difficulty and scoring. I might try ending on the upper route sometime soon, as my scoring potential would be much higher for that path.
Played with default settings on an RGB modded SNES model 2 using an Everdrive cart. No tool assistance, cheats, or hacks are used in any of my runs.
16