User Reviews (1 - 11 of 41)

Show these reviews first:

Highest Rated
Lowest Rated Newest
Oldest Most Helpful
Least Helpful

Where's the story?

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 0 / 58
Date: May 30, 2005
Author: Amazon User

There's no story behind this game. The back of the package displays a greatly written intro to a story, but as you begin to play, you realize that this is just a simple point and click shooting game. For those of you who enjoy pointing and clicking without reason, go ahead and buy it. But for the rest of you, esspecially those who enjoy a good story, stray away from this title.

not what I expected

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 0 / 4
Date: August 23, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Well, i'm a massive fan of arcade shooters. I spend all my tokens or quarters or whatever on them when I go to arcades. So when i heard about this game, i had to get it. I got home and popped it in my Gamecube, and this is what I got. No story line, five levels, no power ups, slow moving, rather pointless game. Now don't get me wrong, I totally know why the people here have givin it such high ratings, and thats because this game deserves it. The challenge is absolutly amazing, controlls are great, and the whole polarity thing is awesome. But, rent this before you buy, because this game is not for everyone, don't expect your typical arcade shooter, this is for some very challenge purists, not for someone looking for laid back fun. So anyway, I ended up hating this game, and sold it about a month later for Resident evil zero, which you can see my review for on that page. It will be titled Nifty Keen, because there is really not to much distinction between reviews exept for the title when you write a review on the 12 year old gamer thing. Blah, bye bye now.

Play this game and take two aspirins and have fun.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 7
Date: April 16, 2004
Author: Amazon User

This game is quite good in graphics and sounds. Gameplay, however, is absolutely hard. I can't make it past the second boss and that is on easy mode. I must say that it is not your conventional shoot and evade kind of game. You must also change polarities(change the color of your ship between white and black) to be able to survive. This technique requires precission. I still think that you have to be a Jedi to play this game. Overall is a good game but only if you have the patience.

Beautiful, yet insanely challenging

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 21 / 23
Date: September 08, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Ikaruga, if you haven't heard of it (and many of you probably haven't) is a rare breed these days -- an old-school 2D scrolling shooter, in the same vein as Raiden (or, going back further, Life Force, Gradius, and in some sense all the way back to Galaga/Galaxian). However, this is the 21st-century version.

The first impression you get when you fire up Ikaruga is how polished it is. Everything -- from the title screen, to how the ships move, to the zen-like fractal beauty of the bosses' energy blasts -- is flat-out gorgeous. Although the game is a top-down 2D shooter, almost everything is rendered in real-time 3D, which allows for some fantastic special effects.

The second impression you get is how insanely difficult this game is. The first level isn't hard to survive, although you'll probably get a terrible score ranking your first few [hundred] times through it. Level two is difficult. Levels three through five are crazy. The game is short -- very short -- but it's the kind of experience that video game junkies will play again and again (and again), trying to eke out a few more points each time.

Finally, you may come to realize how ingenious this game is. They've stripped away all the extra stuff that's crept into shooters over the years -- there are no powerups, no "bombs", no bonus point items to pick up, and not much of a storyline (there was a bit more in the version released a few years back on the Dreamcast, but they dropped it on the GCN instead of translating it). The only "gimmick" they have is the polarity system -- every enemy ship and projectile in the game is either "white" or "black", and you can toggle your ship back and forth nearly instantly. Projectiles of the same color are harmless (and in fact give you points and energy to power your devastating homing laser attack), while ones of the opposite color mean instant death. Furthermore, you deal twice as much damage to enemies of the opposite color. This adds incredible complexity and depth to the gameplay, as you'll have to choose between playing the same color as the enemies (thus gaining immunity to their shots and extra use of your homing laser), or the opposite (allowing you to kill them faster, which usually causes more enemies to appear, earning you bonus points). In the later levels, enemies of both colors will regularly flood the screen with bullets, forcing you to frantically switch colors while blasting anything that moves. The scoring system is based upon destroying "chains" of similarly-colored enemies -- for maximum points, you need to kill enemies in groups of three. It all comes together to produce something that's, at times, more of a puzzle game than a shooter, and that's truly unique.

This game is *not* for everybody -- if you have a short attention span, don't like games that will kick your...for weeks, or don't have lightning-fast reflexes, great hand-eye coordination, and an intuitive ability to read 2D shooter patterns, *stay away*. Just find someone who's good at it, watch them play, and marvel at the pretty graphics.

Made Me Laugh Out Loud at the Learning Curve

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 10 / 11
Date: July 03, 2004
Author: Amazon User

I've always been a fan of the horizontal/vertical space shooter genre, and "Ikaruga" manages to roll up all the best stuff about each entry in that genre, and then, do it one better.

Made by the geniuses at Treasure, the team behind the legendary "Gunstar Heroes" (Genesis), "Ikaruga" is not your typical shoot-fest. The story is negligible, because you won't be seeing anything even vaguely related to it, and it's cut-and-dry, anyway. The meat of this game is definitely the hardcore, old-school-feeling gameplay. There can be hundreds of bullets on the screen at a time. However, the twist that "Ikaruga" introduces is that you don't necessarily have to dodge them all.

Your ship is unique in that it can change its magnetic alignment at any time with a press of the A button, from Black to White and back again, on the fly. If you are hit by a bullet of your ship's current color, you'll absorb the bullet and it will power up a set of special homing laser shots, and these homing lasers do ten times the damage of your normal cannon. Also, if you fire upon an opposite-colored ship, it will do twice the damage, but you will be vulnerable to its hostile fire.

The beauty is that no enemy is immune, really. Each one is colored black or white accordingly, and the bosses like to switch between the two periodically. Speaking of the bosses, they're very inventive and challenging, and will teach you how to die in many, many ways.

And you will die. A lot. Believe you me. I do consider myself something of an elite gamer, and this title continuously schools me; with only 3 credits at the start of the game, that makes this a very fun, very cool, but very, very hard title. Recommended? You better believe it.

Inventiveness: 8 (out of 10)
The extra black-and-white twist on a classic genre helps "Ikaruga" define itself as not just another difficult face.

Sound: 7.5
The sound effects are all mostly spot-on, but the music, while uplifting and appropo, seems to all carry the same hooks and themes, like one long continuous track.

Graphics: 7
While not the prettiest title out there, the graphical stylings do get their point across. However, exclusively considering this genre, Ikaruga's graphics are stellar.

Control: 9
While you may be wishing you had a "kill everything on the screen" button every now and again, Ikaruga handles almost flawlessly. It's mastering your little ship that will test your patience, not mastering the controls.

-----------------

Overall Score: 8
The bottom line: a game that will make you laugh with joy at the gimmick and groan with pain at the difficulty.

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.

SO MUCH CHAOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: February 15, 2004
Author: Amazon User

In an age where so many games end up realying on the gimmick of the week, Ikaruga is sort of an oddity. It's a top down perspective 2-D shooter that has sort of a back to basics feel. How well you do depends entirely on your reflexes.

What Keeps Ikaruga from being like every other shooter in the past ten years is the polarity system. basically at a touch of the A button you can change from white to black. You absorb the energy from the bullets that are the same color as yourself and deal double damage to foes of the opposite color. While this sounds simple and easy to understand when the screen starts filling up with both colors of bullets things get hectic fast.

This game is legetimitly hard. while only five levels long, each level ups the difficulty quite a bit. The good news is(or bad news depending on how much varity your looking for) that all the enemies fallow a set course. At no point does a level change from what it was in previous game. Things do become alot easier when you get a feel for each level.

My favorite part about Ikaruga is that it can be played Co-op with another person. However there are a couple of restrictions. Continues become shared, and it actully takes one to get the second player into the game. since you only have three to start that limits you too one apiece. But the problem that I really like is that your ships will actully edge eachother out for space. this may not sound like a big deal but space at times becomes really limited. you really need teamwork if you expect to survive past the second stage.

only five levels with three difficulty settings. while each one provides another level of insanity Ikuruga probably isn't a game that will hold intrest for those all night gaming sessions. but if your looking for some frantic fast paced fun for an hour or two (prefrebly with a cohort) then you could do much worse

WOW! Finally a reason to own a Gamecube!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 1 / 3
Date: April 28, 2003
Author: Amazon User

I've owned a Gamecube for over a year now, and even though I get easily bored or stuck on a certain game, I'm always out there looking for the next "cool" game.

For a while though, I didn't think Nintendo was ever going to make a cool game for their Gamecube system. So far the only games that were fun to play were EA sports games.

Then, came Ikaruga. I've only been playing this game for a couple of days (since I just received it this week and I hadn't had a chance to play it), but wow! What a sweet game. If you're longing for the old-school style of play reminiscent of the old Galaga and Galaxian games, then this one's for you.

Nevermind that the graphics are out of this world, and the sound is unbelievable, but the gameplay itself is completely worth the $.... The gameplay is simple and straightforward, which makes playing the game, not trying to figure out how to play the game, the focus of your actions.

The replayability of the game isn't great (5 worlds, 18 levels), but that's not the point. The point is challenging your friends to beat your high score, or trying to finish a level without continuing, just like the way it used to be. I highly suggest you go out and get this game. The price is totally worth it, and if you want a "new" style of game to play with or share with your kids, this is the one.

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 Stuff!

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 0 / 2
Date: November 09, 2003
Author: Amazon User

Right from the start you will be amazed by the astonishing graphics and the ingenious simplicity. If you don't like it at first, KEEP PLAYING! This is a gem that was missed once allready, so don't miss it again.

Review Page: 1 2 3 4 5 Next 

Actions