this game is so f'ing hard, but I'm so glad I finally own it. Japanese packaging was always amazing for GBA games. For instance the Famicom Mini collection came in little plastic see-through cases that then had little tiny cartridge-sized boxes that were modeled after Famicom game boxes. So sick. Or the Bit Generation series came in even smaller boxes. I think they were like 3"x3" boxes. So cute. Anyway, a lot of them came in these shaped boxes, which sort of resembled Fami boxes. This just looks so sick. Look at that cover!
The Darius games are great. I probably prefer them over R-Type, Gradius, Parodius, etc horizontal shmup games from the same era. There's something so perfect about them. Maybe it's the robotic sea creatures? I don't know. Just seems so ... as it should be. Most people don't realize that there even were Darius releases on GB systems, and for good reason as both (that I can think of) were Japan-only. Darius R for GBA is pretty much a port of the original arcade game. It's really really hard (at least to me -- though I'm a lot better at vertical shmups that horizontals) and it's a great R(evision) looking and sounding amazing on the GBA.
the other Darius release on a GB system was Sagaia if yr wondering which was surprisingly released on the original GB. I'm still looking for a copy of this one.