Players control a starship named the Silver Hawk in its mission to destroy the Belser empire before they wipe out the planet Darius.

The soundtrack was created by Taito's "house band" Zuntata, the majority being composed through a combination of FM synthesis and sampling.

The ship's arsenal consists of forward-firing missiles, aerial bombs and a protective force field, all of which can be upgraded by power-ups (in the form of large, colored orbs) that are dropped by specially-colored enemies throughout the game's zones.

[2][3][4][5] After years of pollution and the depletion of natural resources on Earth, humans decided to search beyond the Solar System for habitable planets to live on.

The Darius inhabitants' only line of defense were the Silver Hawk series: single-piloted fighter craft designed for long space travel with the ability to wield different weapons at the same time.

[6] Darius was designed by Junji Yarita, with assistance by planner Akira Fujita and programmer Toru Sugawara.

[7] The arcade cabinet, designed by Natsuki Hirosawa, uses three individual monitors made to appear seamless via mirror effects.

[9] Ogura wanted the music to convey a sense of a deep, expanded universe, and to make it stand out among other shoot'em up games at the time.

[10] The song "Captain Neo", used in the game's first zone, was originally used as the main theme for Taito's earlier arcade game Metal Soldier Isaac II, used as a placeholder track during its presentation at tradeshows — Ogura liked the track for its sense of "overwhelming power", and decided to keep it in the final version.

[9] The arcade game made its debut at London's Amusement Trades Exhibition International (ATEI) show in January 1987.

[16] In April 1987, Game Machine listed Darius as being the most popular upright arcade unit in Japan at the time.