Darwin 4078

Flyer

**Darwin 4078** (ダーウィン4078) is a shoot 'em up video game developed by Data East and released in 1986 for arcades. It was ported the next year to the MSX2 home computer by Hudson Soft, and was released digitally by Hamster in 2021 for the Sony PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch as part of their *Arcade Archives* line.

## Story

Somewhere in space, a huge spaceship was conducting a series of experiments. However, something went wrong with the experiment, and the inside of the spaceship turned into a fractal. As a result, all the machines there continued to replicate endlessly and evolve to form a huge machine ecosystem.

And a fighter that continues to evolve in that ecosystem begins to struggle to survive in this mechanical ecosystem.

## Gameplay

*Darwin 4078* is a vertically-scrolling shoot 'em up which plays similarly to Namco's *Xevious*, with the player ship having a frontal shot and a bomb shot to hit ground targets. The game is 16 stages long, looping back to the beginning once they're all completed.

The game's main mechanic is its evolution system. Some specific enemies drop EVOL capsules when defeated which, when collected, causes the ship to mutate into a new form. Each of the various forms has its own characteristics, with varying sizes, speed and firepower. However, evolved forms degenerate with time, causing the ship to regress to a previous form if the player fails to collect more EVOL capsules. Additionally, if the player gets hit the ship will instantly devolve to the weakest form. Outside of the regular evolution, the ship can also change into different forms through mutations, which require the player to fulfill certain conditions at specific points of the evolutionary line.

### Regular Forms

* **Pister:** The weakest form available, it only fires small bullets forward. It is the smallest form but also the slowest.
* **Beas:** The base form of the ship, it fires bullets forward.
* **Basum:** Fires bullets forward and to the sides.
* **Sharru:** Fires strong bullets forward which split in two when hitting an enemy.
* **Miseave:** Fires three bullets at once.
* **Twipet:** Fires three accelerating bullets.
* **Dodok:** Fires a large piercing bullet forward.
* **Zugaw:** Fires two missiles forward which move along with the ship.
* **Kues:** Fires two strong lasers forward.
* **Shasuem:** Fires two flame bursts forward.
* **Zugoga:** Fires eight missiles forward which move along with the ship.
* **Gyasharru:** The strongest regular evolution, it fires a large halo forward which splits in two when hitting an enemy.

### Mutant Forms

* **Laysper:** Fires semi-invisible bullets forward and to the sides. To obtain it the player must devolve from Sharru to Basum, then pick a EVOL capsule. It is an evolutionary dead-end, eventually degenerating back to the Basum form.
* **Suppurate:** Fires bullets in 180 degrees in front of the ship. To obtain it the player must merge with the volcanic plume of a ground object. It is another evolutionary dead-end.
* **Measa:** Fires small bullets and short-range flames. To obtain it the player must devolve from Kues to Zugaw, then pick a EVOL capsule.
* **Malto:** Fires round bullets randomly in a cone in front of the ship.
* **Seas:** Fires two powerful lasers forward.
* **Deame:** Fires powerful glowing wings forward. It never evolves further when collecting EVOL capsules.
* **Black Deame:** The strongest form in the game, it is completely invulnerable and fires smaller versions of itself which causes massive damage. However, this form is unstable and quickly devolves all the way back into Pister if the player doesn't collect more EVOL capsules. The player obtains this form by simply devolving from the Deame form.