"No refuge."

Have you ever played a game that you just couldn't seem to beat? You know, the kind that had you stark raving mad, tearing your hair out because of its difficulty? Maybe it was because it was a long or boring game. Or maybe it just tried your patience just one too many times, making you banish it to the bottom of the pile of your video game collection. Maybe it was something so simple, but undeniably hard. In this day and age, such games are rare. There are few games out now that truly require skill, dexterity, and superior technical ability. This lacking has resulted in a generation of gamers that have little patience for the difficult aspects of gaming, and even less patience for such difficulty woven into their games. And so when a truly difficult game comes along, it becomes a real test of skill and patience. And thus Ikaruga was released onto the Gamecube, where it was both revered and despised by gamers worldwide.

As with any shooter, you need at least some semblance of a plot in order to understand why your character even exists, let alone why he's annihilating everything in his path. Apparently, there was once a man named Tenro Horai, an influential member of the government on his humble island. Tenro found some sort of mystical artifact that was infused with the “Power of the Gods.” We aren't given the details as to what these powers actually are, but Tenro attained a cult following of thousands of people. Soon, Tenro amassed enough military force in an attempt a global military conquest. Everyone that opposed this awesome power was annihilated…except for you. You're Shinra, the scrappy pilot of the Ikaruga, the last stand against Tenro's regime. It's up to you to avenge your fallen comrades and your country!

Okay, so let's just ignore the generic hero-avenging-country shooter plot. The real importance of this game lies with the actual gameplay. It operates like a standard overhead 2-D shooter, pitting your measly little fighter craft against hordes after hordes of enemies. We've seen it all before. What makes Ikaruga stand out is the polarity system infused into the gameplay. Instead of a bland fighter with only chargeable laser or missiles, the sleek Ikaruga can shoot two beams of polarized energy into the hearts of countless foes everywhere. Fancy words aside, your ship can basically shoot light and dark bullets. The Ikaruga can send a never-ending stream of destruction directly into the fray, spreading a path of death and destruction everywhere.

It sounds so awesome, right? Dealing out massive damage upon your enemies just seems so much cooler when you can use light and dark weapons to take them out. However, this appeal is quickly gobbled up by how the actual polarity system is implemented. You've got your two colored beams, both with the equal amount of firepower and attack strength. But when you toggle between the two beams, it's actually you're ship that's being reconfigured. So your ship can magically change color too. What's the big deal with that? The thing is that your ship is left vulnerable depending on the situation. Say you're facing a horde of negatively charged foes. If you change the Ikargua into a positively charged fighter, the white bullets will have twice the attack power against the dark foes. But while you're in white mode, all of the bullets from your foes will eat away at your health. And if you happen to be polarized the same way as your foes, the energy from their bullets will simply be absorbed into your shielding, letting you charge up for a massive attack the likes of which we've probably all seen.

Also, it's your unwritten duty to rack up as much point as possible If you manage to hit three or more foes of the same polarity, you'll get a chain bonus. But if you hit something of the opposite polarity, the chain bonus goes down the drain, leaving you no choice but to start afresh. But despite this heavily implemented gimmick, is this simple concept of light and dark forces really that imposing? Absolutely. You'll face swarm after swarm of foes of both polarities, making weave your way through patches and clouds of light and dark energy. And since the your foes are in constant movement, you're going to have to keep on your toes and watch out for every single stray energy bullet that's heading your way. The thing scary thing is that you can't watch everything on the screen. Not all at once. You'll have to make all sorts of split decisions with every newly formed swarm of foes. Can you manage to dodge all those bullets and deal out twice the damage? Can you absorb all that firepower without getting destroyed? Eventually it'll get to the point where you won't care about get chain bonus points or dealing out more damage. All you'll care about is staying alive long enough to reach that legendary fifth level, a place that few gamers can boast about seeing.

However, all of those countless gaming session do pay off. If you spend countless hours obsessing over the attack patterns and levels setups of this game, the practice really will pay off. You'll progress further, learn better shooting tactics, and likely improve your patience and concentration. Also, the game designers decided to show some mercy and grant you unlimited continues after you've played a certain number of hours. But such devotion to this game comes with a price. You'll spend hours and hours on those first few levels, blowing away enemies and hoping to hoard enough continues to last you through the last half of the game. But if you don't want to spend time getting blasted to smithereens thousands of times, you can always play the Practice and Conquest Modes. These options allow you to practice as much as you want, but they are limited to only levels that you've already completed in the Story Mode.

But despite the game's nerve-wracking difficulty, it's presentation is outstanding. You know that warning that's usually written inside game manuals, the one about the risk of epileptic seizures? This game is the epitome of such a risk. This epic quest of the Ikaruga is portrayed through an amazingly detailed combination of lighting and sound effects. The Ikaruga itself is awfully small most of the time, but you can still make out the sharply angled wings and the incredibly bright engines. You can practically see the energy glowing from your dual polarity lasers. All of the visuals in this game, from the wispy clouds of the first level to the flaming explosions, are incredibly detailed, creating a sense of realism unrivaled in most shooting games. Also, the futuristic techno music is epic and awe-inspiring, adding so much more emotion to this impossible game.

But in the end, it doesn't matter how hard this game is. The longevity of this game completely revolves around your personal limits of patience. Are you one of those that can spend hours obsessively playing a game, perfecting strategies and striving for that ultimate high score? If so, Ikaruga will fill your days with an unrelenting difficulty. If you prefer a game where everything handed to you on a silver platter, you might want to choose something that's a little less demanding. You know that a game requires so much attention and focus when you're getting annihilated on the second level and your continues are dropping like flies. And while this game will become repetitive after you've mastered the enemy positions and strategy, Ikaruga remains one of the greatest challenges to ever grace the Gamecube. If you feel up to the challenge, seek out this game and give it a dual-polarized shot. Chances are, you'll get annihilated and love every second of it.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/28/04