Ikaruga

"Simply Amazing!"

Ikaruga is the newest shooter to appear on the dying/dead Dreamcast in Japan. Many shooter enthusiasts have waiting for this game to come out.

Run down: Simply put Ikaruga (Ikga) is a shooter created by Treasure, also responsible for Radiant Silvergun (R.S.) on the Japanese Saturn. Many online stores have claimed this is not a sequel to R.S., but the store I bought it from was the only store that said it was. Behold on the title screen as you see ''IKARUGA: Project RS2'' Treasure claimed they would never make a sequel, but it may have actually happened! Since I can't read Japanese I don't know the story. For R.S. there was an anime opening and ending, which is lacking in ''Ikga''. So I don't know how the story plays out, or if it's even related to R.S. or not. It almost seems like a R.S. upgrade that was made for the Japanese Arcade scene eventually brought out to the home market for the DC.

Graphics: Absolutely astounding. The enemies and your ship may be small, but everything else is perfect eye candy. Think R.S. on steroids... and you have Ikaruga. The coloring seems perfect, the shading and shadows, transparencies... everthing is perfect for a 2 dimensional shooter. The game has a very serious nature compared to R.S.

Control/ Gameplay: Easy to learn, hard to master. Where have we heard this before? You can shoot 2 colors, and absorb 2 colors of the enemy fire depending on the color of your shield. If you're hit with the opposing color your shield is not... bye bye one life (insert quarter..just kidding). The barrage of bullets becomes more like candy as you soak them and slowly build up your ''spread cannon'' (press R trigger button) to fire on larger enemis or a group. This very innovative system makes up for the lack of uber weapons like Gunbird, Giga Wing, or Mars Matrix (trying to keep within the systems previous shooters). What lacks in variety of weaponry makes up for the skill the game is played. Plus you're graded like NiGHTS at the end of each stage.

Difficulty: With the interesting control scheme and hard difficulty, this game was made for replay and playability as an ''arcade'' shooter, not a ''video game'' version so to speak. On easy... it's hard. I was playing around and on the current hardest difficulty I died twice on the intro stage! Ouch.

Secrets: No spoilers here. Actually I haven't really had the time to truly sit down and bear my teeth into the game. I'm sure secrets will show up the longer you play similar to R.S. But check Gamefaqs section for more continues. 3 continues just doesn't cut it. No. I haven't completed the game, but I had to ''preview'' this game so to speak for the sheer need! If you missed out on the pre-orders, and the online store get a second shipment... then this is my recommendation!

Overall: 9/10 ''What are you kidding, Freeway? You must be insane! This game deserves 11 out of 10!'' Well, while Ikaruga is a great shooter on the DC (Japanese) or best shooter ever in quite a while... I took off 1 point for missing ''uber'' weapons, length (from heresay so far), (OK so I can't read Japanese) but lack of story or the typical anime greatness Treasure has been known for since Guardian Heroes! That's missing. Or any real ''opening'' so to speak other than rushing out of the hanger bay (at a really cool angle I might add) joining forces shortly and continuing on your own to fight millions of enemies.


So if you don't like old skewl shooter, forget it. If you love the rush of shooting by yourself attempting chain combos (or with a friend) on an arcade perfect shooter made by a company with a wonderful reputation with enough eye candy to make an elephant pucker up... this is up your alley. Pick it up! And find a way to play it on your DC. DC isn't dead! ''I'm not quite dead yet...''

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/10/02, Updated 09/10/02