Ikaruga

"A vertical shooter revival!"

Vertical shooters are steadily becoming a thing of the past. Originally found in arcades and home consoles during the Saturn era, there were great hits like Gradius and Radiant Silvergun. Ikaruga then made an appearance in the Japanese arcades, coming off as a much sought after and upgraded sequel to Radiant Silvergun. Astounding audiences with its innovative color-switching and ship polarity, it instantly made a hit and soon instigated a cult gathering for the game. In September 2002 it was released for the dying Dreamcast in Japan, with many gamers from America importing it. Soon after there was a GameCube version announced. On April 15, 2003, Ikaruga for the Nintendo GameCube was released in the USA as an exclusive upgraded version, complete with online ranking and a new demo mode. Ladies and gentleman, this is Ikaruga, quite possibly the greatest shooter of all time. With this new GameCube version, is it worth buying it, even if you already have the Dreamcast version? Probably not, but is it worth buying a GameCube for? Definitely! Read on to discover this game and if it is right for you!
Graphics are important to a lot of people, and Ikaruga is not an eyesore. Even in 2d, you still get the glorious backgrounds, complete with illusions like diving through a city and even cool little details like the bad guys swooping in from the background. I would advise you not to look at the backgrounds too long, though- this game requires every spare second you have. If you waste your time you will end up a dead man.
The detail on the ships as well is astounding. Even only in two main colors (white and black) there still are little hints of other colors. On the white ships there is a blue residue, and on the black ships there is purple and orange. With the colors on the background they make a great view (not that you would have much time to look at them anyways).
The sounds of Ikaruga, unfortunately, are not as astonishing. Aside from the standard sounds, there isn’t much else to listen too. There is a “lacking” soundtrack to the game, but it isn’t amazing or special in any aspects to make it an A+ design. The music does take a dramatic twist right before a boss or when you are diving down into the city, so it does help. It is definitely not an ear sore, though; I find it pleasant to listen to. Lacking, but pleasant.
The gameplay. The deciding factor most of you will use to buy the game. You know of the standard vertical shooter, right? You are a ship, a one-man army (usually) against a whole militia, with X amount of continues and lives. You shoot continuous streams of flying bullets at the army, hoping you don’t get hit in the return fire. Sometimes you have shields, sometimes you don’t. Once you make it through a varying amount of stages, you get to fight a main boss of some sort. Sound easy, right? Not in Ikaruga! The main basis is there, but there are several twists. First of all, it is a one shot death. No shield pickups or ammo upgrades, you fight with what you have. The new addition is new and innovative; ship polarity. Sound complicated? The basis is very, very simple, but in depth it is very tough. You have two polarities, white and black (or good and evil, whatever floats your boat.) The bad guys are one of the two polarities. If you are black and a black enemy hits you, now harm done. In fact, it helps you by giving you 100 points AND by adding to your homing laser bank. For the homing laser, there are 12 bars (one for each homing laser.) If you absorb 10x enemy shots, one bar gets filled. You can shoot at any time you have more then one bar filled. Each shot is 10x more powerful then a normal shot. Get the picture?
Now, back to the polarities. If you are black and a white bullet hits you, you are toast. However, if you hit the white guy first, you inflict double damage. It is very helpful at some parts. The game is also two player. Same game exactly, but with two people. Fun.
You have the normal version, but what about the others? There are two more.
The online ranking is a very interesting addition. You play Challenge Mode; a version of the game where you have three lives, but no continues. After you die all your lives, you get a 12-digit password, where you insert at www.ikaruga-atari.net. The third and final mode is conquest mode, a mode where you get to practice any level you have unlocked at half speed, and watch videos of a master player speed through the level, laying waste to your self-esteem.
There is also a hidden mode that you need to unlock. Prototype mode is tough, but a great addition. It is essentially a prototype version of the ship. You only have 500 shots (999 max), and you gain more by sucking them up from enemies. You can also shoot homing lasers, but they take up 12 shots per laser (120 in all). If you run out of bullets, you get a weak targeting laser that takes a while to kill.
Ikaruga is a very short game, as it probably takes an hour to traverse through the five levels. You won’t win on your first try, though. Expect at least 8 hours to be able to beat it, and that’s with infinite continues! (Every hour you play, you get another continue. After 7 hours, it goes to infinite.) Even so, this game is based on points. You will want to go through and get your highest points ever, your highest chain combo.
Chains are the way to get max points. This is a very simple, but frustrating, technique. Kill 3 of the same colored enemies in a row. Continue indefinitely. If you go W-W-B, then the chain ends and you start over. After every successful chain, the next chains point value doubles to a maximum of 25,600 every chain. Keep going for massive points.
Ikaruga is a very great game filled with many possibilities. It is a very difficult game, though. Just keep trying and you will succeed.
Ikaruga currently retails at a $39.99 USD MSRP.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/29/03, Updated 04/29/03