Darwin 4081

n/a

Darwin 4081

System(s): Sega Mega Drive

Publisher: Sega Enterprises, Ltd. (JP), Samsung (South Korea)

Developer: Sega

Distributor: Samsung (KR)

Licensor: Data East

Original system(s): Arcade boards

Developer(s) of original games: Data East

Genre: Shooting^[1]^[2]

Number of players: 1

Release	Date	RRP	Code
JP	1990-04-07^[2]	¥6,0006,000	G-4033
KR	1990		GM4029JG

Non-Sega versions
Arcade

Darwin 4081 (ダーウィン４０８１) is a vertical shoot-'em-up for the Sega Mega Drive published by Sega in 1990 exclusively in Japan and South Korea. It is based on a 1987 arcade shoot-'em-up Super Real Darwin by Data East.

Story

The planet Lakya, located millions of light years away from Earth, is the most advanced civilization in the universe. It was built by Evol, a highly intelligent being that lost its body. Evol drifts to the planet Cokyo in search of a new body and begins to take over the life form Shlohe. However, Shlohe resists, and the two beings fight each other for control of the body.

Gameplay

The game is a vertically scrolling shoot-'em-up where the player controls an evolving fighter ship. Some enemies drop Evol capsules when destroyed; when collected, they cause the ship to evolve into a new form with unique characteristics, changing its appearance, size, speed, and weapon. The more advanced evolutions tend to have more powerful weapons but also larger hitboxes. However, the ship devolves into its previous phase if the player fails to pick up another Evol capsule within a certain amount of time. There is an auditory cue before the ship devolves. The ship degenerates to its weakest form if it is hit by enemy fire. There are additional mutations that can only be obtained by collecting special B-Evol capsules when in certain forms.

The ship moves in any direction using the D-Pad. As in Namco's influential Xevious, the ship has separate weapons for firing at air and ground targets. It shoots its anti-weapon at flying enemies by pressing or . It shoots its anti-ground weapon by pressing . A marker appears above the ship to indicate where the anti-ground weapon is targeted. Both weapons are unlimited and can be fired simultaneously, and the buttons can be held for rapid-fire. The anti-air weapon is upgraded when the ship evolves, but the anti-ground weapon is the same in all forms (with the exception of the Pirazal mutations).

The ship initially starts in its second evolutionary form, the Deas. If the ship takes damage while evolved, it reverts to its weakest form, the Pister. If the ship takes damage in the Pister or Deas form, it is destroyed, costing a life. The ship restarts the stage at a predetermined checkpoint if the player has extra lives left. Collecting DNA power-ups starts the ship at a higher evolutionary form, depending on how many power-ups have been collected. Otherwise, it restarts in the Deas form. Extra lives are given for every 50,000 points earned. The game ends if the player runs out of lives, but it can be continued a limited number of times.

There are four difficulty levels (Easy, Normal, Hard, and Super Hard), and the player can choose the number of starting lives (1, 3, 5, or 10).

Evolutions

The ship evolves linearly through these forms by collecting Evol power-ups.

	Pister
	The smallest, weakest, and slowest form. This is the form that the ship takes after being hit in a higher evolutionary form. Shoots a single stream of small, round bullets.
	Deas
	The ship starts in this phase at the beginning of the game and after losing a life. Shoots two parallel streams of bullets.
	Zwipt
	Shoots three streams of bullets in a conical spread.
	Drime
	Shoots long beams from its sides that travel in a helical pattern.
	Syulba
	Shoots wing-shaped projectiles that are wide when close to the nose of the ship, then merge into a thinner bolt.
	Lbock
	Shoots three parallel streams of missiles.
	Dodoc
	Shoots four bullets at a time in a square formation.
	Sweep
	Shoots two lasers at oblique angles, with elliptical blasts moving in a helical pattern in between.
	Shallu
	Shoots a single stream of bullets, which splits into two streams of bullets at opposite slanted angles after hitting an enemy.
	Deam
	Shoots two long, piercing laser beams.
	Zugoga
	Shoots two flame streams.
	Gashallu
	Shoots large, ring-shaped projectiles, which split into two rings at opposite slanted angles after hitting an enemy.

Mutations

The ship can mutate into these forms by collecting B-Evol power-ups when in a certain form.

	Pi-Spider
	The ship mutates into this form by collecting a B-Evol capsule when in the Zwift form. Shoots white spheres that stick to the screen instead of moving along with the terrain. Enemies are destroyed as they fly into the spheres. After a moment, the spheres fall away. It is an evolutionary dead end and cannot evolve into anything else. The ship cannot equip an armor upgrade in this form. It degenerates back to the Pister form when its lifespan expires.
	Pirazal-1
	The ship mutates into this form by collecting a B-Evol capsule when in the Syulba form. Upgrades the anti-ground weapon to shoot two streams of bombs in a spread. The four Pirazal evolutions are unique in that they upgrade the anti-ground weapon instead of the anti-air weapon. They all retain the anti-air weapon of the Syulba form. The ship cannot equip an armor upgrade in these forms. If it devolves in this form, it reverts to the Syulba form.
	Pirazal-2
	The ship can evolve into this form from the Pirazal-1 form. Upgrades the anti-ground weapon to shoot three streams of bombs in a spread.
	Pirazal-3
	The ship can evolve into this form from the Pirazal-2 form. Upgrades the anti-ground weapon to shoot four streams of bombs in a spread.
	Pirazal-4
	The ship can evolve into this form from the Pirazal-3 form. Upgrades the anti-ground weapon to shoot four streams of bombs, which move in a wavy pattern across the full length of the screen. This is the only version of the anti-ground weapon with increased range.
	Pirazis-1
	The ship mutates into this form by collecting a B-Evol capsule when in the Sweep form. Shoots two flame bursts straight ahead. If it devolves in this form, it reverts to the Sweep form.
	Pirazis-2
	The ship can evolve into this form from the Pirazis-1 form. Shoots four flame bursts straight ahead.
	Pirazis-3
	The ship can evolve into this form from the Pirazis-2 form. Shoots four flame bursts in a wide conical spread.
	Pirazis-4
	The ship can evolve into this form from the Pirazis-3 form. Shoots four flame bursts in a wide conical spread forwards and two flame bursts at opposite slanted angles backwards.
	Pi-Snake
	The ship mutates into this form by collecting a B-Evol capsule when in the Pirazal-4 or Pirazis-4 form. Shoots projectiles forwards from its mouth and backwards from its tail. Its tail follows in the opposite of the direction last moved, so the tail weapon can be directed in any of the four cardinal directions. The ship cannot equip an armor upgrade in this form. It degenerates back to the Pister form when its lifespan expires.
	Measa
	The ship mutates into this form by collecting a B-Evol capsule after devolving from the Deam form into the Shallu form. Shoots fiery, squarish blasts (which do not travel the full length of the screen). If it devolves in this form, it reverts to the Shallu form.
	Malto
	The ship can evolve into this form from the Measa form. Shoots red orbs in an erratic pattern covering a large conical spread.
	Seas
	The ship can evolve into this form from the Malto form. Shoots two long, piercing laser beams.
	Art-Deam
	The ship can evolve into this form from the Seas form. Shoots wide blasts of lightning that penetrate through targets.
	Black Deam
	The ultimate evolution. The ship mutates into this form if it takes damage while in the Art-Deam form. Shoots duplicates of itself covering a large conical spread. It is invulnerable to any damage, but it degenerates back to the Pister form when its lifespan expires.

Items

Items are dropped by certain enemies when they are destroyed. The DNA power-up is dropped by ground enemies, while the others are dropped by flying enemies.

	Evol
	Evolves the ship to the next form in the evolutionary tree.
	B-Evol
	Mutates the ship into an alternate evolution if one is available for the ship's current form when this item is collected. Otherwise, evolves the ship to the next form in the evolutionary tree.
	Speed
	Increases the movement speed of the ship, up to 3 levels.
	Armor
	Equips the ship with a frontal shield that guards it against a single hit to the nose.
	DNA
	Collect DNA power-ups to start the ship at a higher evolutionary form after losing a life, up to 9 levels. The ship starts in the Deas form if no DNA power-ups have been collected or the Zugoga form if the maximum of nine DNA power-ups have been collected.