It's fitting that the game at the base of my obsession with shootemups is a game about giant space fish, like some sort of primordial metaphor. While I cannot say it's my favorite shootemup or the best, my fondness for it hasn't so much as budged in the years since its release. The Darius games in general are beautiful ways to play shootemups, and I feel like there's still a path for a game like Darius to make a big impact now that we're going to start making shootemups again.