Taito Legends 2: Day Nine.

The year is 1992 and Taito releases Arabian Magic into the arcades. The game is a sidescrolling brawler that has an Arabian Nights theme. You can choose between four different characters that each have their own moves. The game has decent graphics and horrible sound. The game has you beating the crap out of anything and everything that gets in your way. You can collect healing items and extra magic attacks that take the form of a genie from the lamp. You have to repeatedly press the attack button during the magic attacks to cause the genies to strike out at the enemies. Each level has its own boss to be fought. The game tries to break up the monotony of the genre by adding some slight platform elements.

Moving forward a year to 1993 we find Dungeon Magic. This game is rather cool. It's an isometric perspective hack and slash with a Dungeons & Dragons theme. You can collect experience as a drop from creatures. The more you collect the more you'll level up one of the selectable characters you've chosen to play with. They're the standard archetypes of the theme. You have the elfin archer, the warrior, the wizard, and the knight. They each have their own attacks and magic. You hack and slash and shoot your way through throngs of the standard theme enemies such as the lizardman and kolbold. There are chests that contain treasures and traps alike. A rather cool aspect to the game is that you can choose which exit to take from each room. The map draws in as you go. There are rooms you'll never see without multiple playthroughs. The replay value for this one is quite high. The graphics are great. The game is colorful and well drawn. The sprites are large and have solid animation. This one is a very fun game.

Moving ahead another year to 1994 we have Darius Gaiden. To put it simply, Darius Gaiden is as good as shooters get. It's an undeniably awesome game. The game is a horizontally scrolling shooter. The game features a graphic design that crosses technology with fish. The boss battles are all giant technological monstrosities in the form of some undersea animal. A few other aspects set it apart. You're able to select your course after completing each stage. You start on stage A and have a choice between going to stage B or stage C. It fans out in the same exact way as you would select the courses in Out Run. That provides enormous replay value as each stage has its own exclusive boss. So you'd have to play through all the courses to see all the bosses. And they're well worth seeing. The graphics and art design are nothing short of amazing. They still impress today. The music ranks among Team Zuntata's best. Especially the vocal track found throughout numerous stages.