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Warning - Not for the Faint of Heart!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: September 04, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Warning - Not for the Faint of Heart!

I have a real love/hate relationship with this game. Most of the time I love it, but sometimes I will hate it out of frustration. This game is amazingly, incredibly, insanely difficult. It's so difficult that most of the levels don't even seem possible to get through without dying at least once. But then here's the ingenious part: the game includes a slow-motion demo of each level being played through perfectly. Any time you feel frustrated, you can watch that for moral support and strategic inspiration. And here's another brilliant addition: you can play through each level yourself in slow-motion. This gives you a little more time to think and perfect your strategy, so when you go back and play through a level at full speed you will be much more effective.

The only thing more amazing than how difficult this game is is the fact that you will actually find yourself getting better and better at it. You will actually get to the point where you can beat these insanely hard levels consistently with zero mistakes. For that reason, this game gives you a sense of accomplishment like nothing else.

This game is awesome, but I only recommend it for the most hard-core gamers.

I'm sorry folks

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: January 29, 2004
Author: Amazon User

Maybe it's just not my bag of chips. I just belive there are more to video games nowadays than just shooting foward. Yes I did own this game...until I traded it in. I just couldn't get into it. I oh so wanted to, but I just couldn't. SO don't hate me for giving it a bad review...I'm already doing that myself.

in gamespot's lovely words

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 2 / 5
Date: April 26, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Though I'm still waiting for mine to arrive by mail, but I'll help by quoting Tyler Winegarner/Associate Producer, GameSpot Live :

"Try to recall, if you will, one of your most treasured childhood memories. The more distant you grow from that day, the more precious and wonderful that memory becomes in your mind. Those who have been dedicated fans of scrolling shooters may find an experience in Ikaruga similar to that of savoring a past memory. It wraps up the experiences had in so many other shooters before it but presents itself in such an elegant, such a pure and joyful manner that it truly becomes greater than the sum of its parts."

Ikaruga is a very good game, and an exceptionally good shooter.

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: May 19, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Shooters (of the spaceship-piloting, screen scrolling variety) aren't really known for their innovation. Some have implemented new ways of acquiring weapons, or allowed different ways to use them, but the original gameplay mechanics stayed intact. That is, you have to try your best to avoid getting hit by projectiles (and the occasional ship or structure) while blasting everything in your path, collecting power-ups and whatnot along the way. Ikaruga changes this formula by introducing a simple but innovative concept: polarity.

All enemies in the game are either white or black in color, some of which can alternate. These two colors represent the two states of polarity. Being a certain polarity allows the enemies to shoot projectiles of the same polarity. Black ships shoot red/black projectiles, and white ships shoot white/blue projectiles. You can also change the polarity of your own ship at any time. The magic here is that you can only be destroyed by projectiles of the polarity opposite to your ship (though any contact with ships or structures is fatal). Projectiles that match your current polarity will be harmlessly absorbed by your ship and even help to fill your special weapon bar. On the offensive side of things, shooting an enemy of opposite polarity will deal twice the amount of damage as it would if you were the same polarity as they are. The bottom line is that polarity makes for a whole new dimension of gameplay.

As far as other concepts go, Ikaruga is pretty bare-bones, though that's hardly a bad thing, as the polarity concept makes gameplay complex enough. There are no power-ups or bonuses to be collected from enemies, no upgrades to purchase for your ship, nor is there even a choice as to which special weapon you start out with. In fact, there is only one special attack in the game--a barrage of lasers that home in onto any enemies on the screen--which as touched on earlier, is only charged up by absorbing projectiles of the same polarity as your ship. Your primary weapon--a rapid, endless stream of straight-shooting bullets--will be your offensive mainstay most of the time, but polarity gives more of a tactical edge to this.

Another element of polarity (which can be changed based on the difficulty) is the emission of same colored projectiles from an enemy when they destroyed by a matching polarity. That is, if you destroy a black enemy with black shots, it will explode and send black bullets flying from the wreckage. This makes for a real challenge when playing with a partner. The two-player mode, which would otherwise make the game undeniably easier, actually requires more skill and teamwork due to this gameplay mechanic. If you aren't careful, you could trigger an enemy to explode same color bullets which would be lethal to a partner who is currently in a polarity opposite of those bullets. This often requires you and your partner to either stay the same color as each other as much as possible, or to only kill enemies of the opposite color, or simply to hone your evasive skills for when something like this occurs. Playing with another person can be good fun, and despite the ability for both of you to have the same colored ship, the differences in design of these ships are enough to prevent confusion at least 90% of the time.

This game is difficult. One hit of damage equals death. Surviving requires a lot of skill, not only in evasion, but also in the intelligent use of polarity switching and special weapon usage. Thankfully, the controls are just about perfect. The hitbox for your ship is also effectively small, allowing you to narrowly scrape by along the side of a projectile or structure without taking damage. Of course, this doesn't appear to be the same for the enemies, as it's rather simple to target them.

A high score cannot be obtained by blasting everything on screen alone. Big points are rewarded to players who create "chain combos". The premise is that for every group of three similar-colored enemies you destroy, you add one chain onto your combo, with each successive chain granting exponentially more points. When three enemies are destroyed that are not all of the same polarity, the combo resets to zero. This adds a bit of a puzzle element to the game, as each level is designed to allow you to rake up an enormous combo by doing this.

Speaking of the levels, which come to five in total, it should be known that they play identically each time you go through them. This means that the same enemies always appear in the same location. However, this is nothing new for a shooter of this type. It can actually be fun to learn the patterns of the enemies and attempt to achieve higher combo counts, thus getting better at the game each time you play. The levels are also decent in length, contain totally unique and varied opposition, and increase steadily in difficulty. They also each come complete with their own huge boss that uses a completely original attacking pattern and requires a unique strategy (often utilizing polarity) to defeat it.

This leads into the game's graphics. The graphics are nothing technically impressive, as the number of objects that appear on screen at once are nothing compared to what the system is capable of rendering. However, that's not to say that the game looks bad. Actually, the game looks quite good. Your ship, the enemies, and all background structures use plenty of polygons, complete with sharp textures. Projectile sprites are high-resolution and look excellent, as mesmerizing patterns of multiple colors fill the screen. Enemies, and especially bosses, are nicely modeled, and feature unique, alien-like designs. The explosions are well done, and the boss explosions are huge and exceptional looking. Even the backdrops, though subdued in design, create the atmosphere nicely. Of course, with all of this extra system power to spare, it shouldn't come as a surprise that the frame rate is silky smooth.

The music is well-fitting for a shooter, and despite most of the tracks sounding similar, it makes for a good synthy soundtrack with some solid and unique melodies. I would recommend taking a listen, as it may grow on you. The sound effects are crisp as well, and suit the action-laden gameplay.

The story for this game is only found in the instruction manual, so it's obvious that it doesn't play an important part in the game, though it is actually pretty interesting, and sets a nice background for the game. There are a fair amount of options, gameplay modes, and unlockables available. Options include variations on difficulty and display orientations. Gameplay modes include Internet ranking, practice, and more. One gameplay mode allows you to watch a replay of an expert player going through a game section of your choice, which afterwards you practice using the same techniques in this section yourself. Yet, through all this, pure shooting action is what makes up the Ikaruga experience.

Ikaruga is a very good game, and an exceptionally good shooter. If you enjoy shooter games that mix skill, strategy, challenge, and innovation on a concentrated level, look no further than Ikaruga.

Amazing game, though beware: it's short.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: June 05, 2007
Author: Amazon User

I first played this game using a friend's copy. I normally am not a fan of shoot 'em ups, but this game struck a chord with me. It was beautiful, fun, and difficult without being too difficult.

As I said, the game is a shoot 'em up. This is a genre that's in the old style of games where you are a plane/spaceship where the terrain scrolls vertically/horizontally and you shoot everything in sight (note that this game was built to be vertically scrolling, but you can set it to side-scrolling that either changes the control scheme to match it or keeps it the same, which is amazingly intuitive for people who have cool enough T.V. setups to utilize that, such as a projector).

The big draw to this game is the yin/yang motif centralized around the bullet shield mechanics. What bullet shield is is a always-on shield that absorbs bullets of one color; black or white. You can switch the shield on the fly with the press of the A button. The color you are is the color you absorb. If an opposite color hits you, you die. Your fire, which is basically a constant laser beam, changes depending on what color shield you have on. Black for black, white for white. Enemies can always be hurt by any type of fire you throw out, but if you shot them with the opposite color you do DOUBLE the damage (if your unsure of whether it's doing so, the sound your weapon makes when striking an enemy differs depending on how much damage its doing). Another weapon you have fires a bunch of powerful homing lasers. When bullets that are your shield's color hit you, it fills up part of a gauge to the right. When this gauge is full (and even before it is), you can press are to fire a whole bunch of homing lasers. The amount of individual lasers fired depends on how many squares you fill in that gauge.

The bullet shield comes into play heavily in this game. This game has what I like to call either a "bullet nightmare" or "bullet choreography." Either way, without the bullet shield, you'd probably die more than if you didn't have it (make no mistake, you WILL die a lot in this game even with it). These two in combination make the game VERY intense, forcing you to think on the fly and put your mad maneuvering skills to their fullest. In fact, one boss... well, I won't spoil it for you.

There's only one real annoyance I have with Ikaruga (for which I was about to dock a point). It's short, short, short! This game only has five stages. Granted, the stages are a tad longer than is normal for a shoot 'em up, but still hardly sufficient for those who want more game in their game.

Regardless of that drawback, I saw fit to buy this game at $40 (used) even knowing how short it was. It's certainly worth playing once, if you can manage such an insurmountable feat, but if you're like me it may also make a great part of your collection. It's truly an amazing game to behold.

addicting, Stunning, and for the crazy sharp reflexed

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: September 01, 2006
Author: Amazon User

this game is CRAZY! using the polarity system you need to destroy everythinhg thats not tied down, and keep your head while you play.

its incredilby hard though, i havnt gotten past the 4th boss

its not as frustrating as super ghouls and ghosts though.

the backgrounds are waaaay detailed and this game is entirely under credited

Spectacular, as expected

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: October 24, 2007
Author: Amazon User

If you've ever played radiant silvergun or the dreamcast version of Ikaruga, chances are you already own this game. If not and you meet one of the above conditions, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?!!
For those of you who haven't played ikaruga, it's a top-down futuristic flying shooter, similar to raiden/etc. There are basically three buttons in the game, but it is extremely fun. However, it's also extremely HARD. If you haven't played this type of game before, or aren't very good at games in general, you probably shouldn't touch ikaruga. While it is true that you get much better with practice, you'll be pulling your hair out early. To see what I'm talking about (in terms of difficulty), just search for ikaruga on youtube.
For those of you who are like me and love an intense challenge, go ahead and pick up a copy of this game. And for anybody trying to get lots of hours out of one game, well, this is no FF7, but you'll pull a lot of time out of it for sure. The game is not that long but it takes a while to get your skills up to par and beat it. Once you've beaten the game, it's time to go back and do it again without dying ONCE. Once you've done that, it's time to run through without dying AND try to maintain a max chain. At that point, congratulations...but you probably still haven't beat the high scores of the ikaruga masters. I'm not saying I ever will, because I won't. But the better you get at this game, the more often you get to hear your friends say, "dude...I will NEVER play against you in a video game."

Incredibly hard and clever shmup

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: April 09, 2008
Author: Amazon User

This is an absolute must for any shmup fan. The twist here is that there is two colors of enemies; white and black. You can switch the color of your own ship to alternate between these two colors, which lets you absorb the bullets of the color you are in order to build up your special attack. It is an extremely hard game. I've read that there is only 5 levels but so far I could not even make it through the third. There is a lot of challenge and sometimes there is so much bullets in the screen that your eyes hallucinate and your brain almost switch off. Only for the most hardcores.

Brutal Masterpiece

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 1
Date: August 02, 2008
Author: Amazon User

Ikaruga is short, fast, and brutal. It's not for everybody, but if you're a fan of shooters, there's nothing better. The enjoyment of this game comes from working at it, trying over and over, and increasing your skills gradually. You're in pretty good shape if you can even reach the end of this game, even though it's possible to play through it in a single sitting. As your skills with Ikaruga develop, you're sure to get more and more addicted. The gameplay is ingenious; the pacing, perfect. Even the graphics are beautifully done, and the music is grand and quite fitting. Ultimately, Ikaruga is a game that many people may find difficult to appreciate for it's brutal difficulty, but nonetheless, it is a true masterpiece of a game, and will forever be known as a legendary shooter from a legendary developer.

GREAT GAME!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 1 / 2
Date: July 29, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've never been a big fan of top-down shooters, but Ikaruga is out of this world. This game is fun and addictive. And boy, is it challenging. The graphics are great and the two-player mode is fun.

While this game is great, it may not be for you. If you do not like a challenge and if you give up too easily, this game will eat you alive.

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