Released in 1995

Available in

Genre: Shooting

This was the last 32X game to be released in Europe, and was exclusively released there. Darxide has you piloting a small space fighter, fighting against an alien invasion force who've happened to displace a large asteroid belt. Not only do you have to shoot down enemy ships, you must also destroy the numerous asteroids as much as possible by breaking them down into smaller and smaller pieces.

This game is notorious for being too difficult. Whilst shooting things down is easy, you've got to apparently hit a certain amount of enemies/asteroids (the number isn't stated anywhere), possibly within a time limit (there isn't a timer either). Failing to do this results in getting a "mission failed" message when the first cutscene starts. So even if it looks like you've played well and scored several thousand points, it can still result in the mission being failed! This has resulted in most players never getting past the first level -a statement backed up by the Youtube videos about this game.

Not only is it too hard, it also has other issues. Whilst the graphics are impressive to look at, featuring textured polygons and lighting effects, the framerate is inconsistent and constantly nose-dives if certain objects get on screen, especially planets. The sequences showing your fighter taking off and landing chug badly, often playing in a couple of frames per second. Your fighter is also a little twitchy to control, making it difficult to aim accurately (the lack of a crosshair doesn't help either).

Darxide's claim to fame is how rare it is. It certainly isn't a good game and the 32X has two other space shooters that are much better than it.

Your space fighter is armed with four laser cannons, which are used by holding down the B button. The lasers fire rapidly and can tear apart asteroids and basic enemies within a couple of seconds. Holding down A will make your ship fly faster, whilst C will slow it down.

Enemy ships vary in size and some are faster than others. The bigger cruisers don't pose much of a threat, but the UFOs will take shots at you and move around quickly. You have limited shields, which will decrease any time you take a hit or collide with another ship or asteroid.

Destroying certain objects will reveal power ups, such as items that will fill up your shield bar. Shoot down as many ships and asteroids as you can to be able to progress to the next level.

-Frontier Developments -now known as just Frontier -are still around today. Their site has a page about this version of the game, and states it was originally going to be called "Dark Side" but this had to be changed due to licensing issues.

-Frontier released an upgraded version of Darxide for mobiles in 2003, called Darxide EMP.

-This game is one of the rarest European 32X games, along with Primal Rage and T-MEK. It seems very few copies were made, plus it was also only released in Europe, making it highly sought after by collectors.

-The ending for this game sucks.