When comparing Knightmare (AKA Majou Densetsu) vs Darius, the Slant community recommends Knightmare (AKA Majou Densetsu) for most people. In the question“What are the best and the most revolutionary games of all time?” Knightmare (AKA Majou Densetsu) is ranked 51st while Darius is ranked 104th. The most important reason people chose Knightmare (AKA Majou Densetsu) is:
Just like in Gradius, all tunes used in this game were composed by Miki Higashino. She was a teenager at the time and was working for Konami part-time, everyday, after school.
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Tunes from Miki Higashino
Just like in Gradius, all tunes used in this game were composed by Miki Higashino. She was a teenager at the time and was working for Konami part-time, everyday, after school.
Pro Amazing graphics for the 80's
1986 was the same year that the original Legend of Zelda and Super Mario Bros: The Lost levels came out. The textures in Knightmare look substantially better than the relatively blocky textures in the Zelda and Mario games of its time.
Pro One of the first games to have a 'bird's eye view' angle
Considered technically challenging back in 1986, Knightmare offered a top-down (bird's eye) view. This made a lot of sense, especially for vertically scrolling games such as this one.
Pro widescreen with cinescopes
Darius was the very first arcade machine using 3 cinescopes in a mirror system. This positioned the center screen normally, but the two extra screens were actually projected onto a display making the illusion of a single 3X wide display.
Pro Multiple endings
Because of it's non-linear design, you could choose your own path which could result in different endings. This is a much more immersive game experience, as you feel more invested in the game as your decisions actually matter.