Darius
Darius is a 1987 horizontally scrolling shooter video game developed and published by Taito for arcades. Players control a starship named the Silver Hawk in its mission to destroy the Belser empire before they wipe out the planet Darius. Its gameplay involves traversing through a series of scrolling levels while destroying enemies and collecting power-up icons. It is notable for its unique three-screen panoramic display.
Summary from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA, read 5 September 2026.
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- Released
- 1987
- Developer
- Taito
- Platforms
- 2 systems
- Critics
- Not scored
- Steam Deck
- Unknown
- Download
- Not stated
The record
| First released | 1 January 1987 |
|---|---|
| Developer | Taito |
| Publisher | Taito |
| Platforms | Game Boy, Steam Deck |
| Genres | First-Person Shooter |
Source. Catalogue facts from Wikidata Q374820, seeded 30 August 2026.
How long is Darius? How long to beat it
Total play time for Darius is about 2.7 hours to do everything, and around 0.9 hours to reach the end of the main story. These are player-submitted times from HowLongToBeat, not our own, shown with the number of players behind each.
| How you play | Hours | Players logged |
|---|---|---|
| Just the main story: straight through the critical path | 0.9h | 13 |
| Main + the extras: story plus the side content most people do | 1.6h | 1 |
| Completionist: everything: 100% the game | 2.7h | 3 |
Source: HowLongToBeat community submissions, read 2026-10-19.
Where Darius sits on the grid
The grid places every game in the catalogue on measured axes rather than on an opinion. This is where Darius lands on each map it has the data for, with the share of the catalogue it beats on each axis.
- Year
- 39ahead of 2% of the catalogue
- Reach
- 19ahead of 66% of the catalogue
Percentiles are against the games that carry a reading on that axis, not the whole catalogue: counting a game with no figure as a zero would flatter everything that has one. How the grid works.
What readers say about Darius
Reviews written by people who have played it. These are separate from the GamingPickz Score and are never averaged into it: that score comes from thousands of Steam reviews with a sample-size correction, and a handful of unverified ratings would distort it rather than improve it.
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Where Darius appears
The ranked lists and finder pages Darius qualifies for, from its own genre and platform to what it takes to run.
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Common questions about Darius
What platforms is Darius on?
Darius is available on Game Boy, Steam Deck. It first released in 1987.
Who made Darius?
Darius was developed by Taito and published by Taito.
How long does it take to beat Darius?
about 0.9 hours for the main story, 1.6 hours with the main extras, 2.7 hours to complete everything, from HowLongToBeat's player-submitted times. These are community medians, so your own run may be shorter or longer.