Wow...and only 800 points. Think of a your hardest game ever - times it by 10, then add 5 - it is that HARD. On the other hand, Its fuckin great though.
Loved it from the first time I slotted it into my GameCube. XBL ver is even better.
You'll never want to put it down, even though it will have you in tears.
WTF is it? you shout. A top down shooter, with great graphics and details and a story (well sort of). From Wiki:
iKaruga's gameplay centers primarily around the polarity mechanic. In most scrolling shooters, any enemy fire will damage or destroy your ship on contact, but in Ikaruga only bullets of an opposite polarity (i.e. a black bullet hitting a white ship and vice versa) can kill the player. Same-color bullets are instead absorbed and converted into energy for the game's special weapon, a homing laser that fires up to 12 blasts (if the energy meter is full). Switching the ship's polarity also changes the color of the player ship's bullets, and shooting an enemy using opposite-polarity bullets will cause double damage. Thus, much of the challenge of Ikaruga comes from careful polarity-switching, choosing between high damage and (relative) invulnerability. This is especially true when fighting bosses, as they often fire bullets of both colors in overlapping patterns. The game also presents navigational challenges where the player must maneuver through continual streams of weapons fire, using their shields to absorb one color while avoiding the others. The first kanji in the title (which is normally pronounced in its Japonic reading as /fu/ or /madara/, or its Sinitic reading as /han/) means spotted or variegated, which can be interpreted as a metaphoric reference to this polarity change.
Adding an extra layer of gameplay, skillful players may also perform combination "chains" for points. A chain occurs when three enemies of the same polarity are destroyed consecutively. The more sets of three enemies that are dispatched in a row, the more points are acquired, eventually rewarding the player with an extra chance/life. This form of point scoring is similar to the one used in Radiant Silvergun, but in that game enemies are red, blue and yellow. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the entirely original "bullet eater" or "dot eater" strategy, wherein the player doesn't shoot down a single enemy, including bosses, which retreat after a set period (usually 100 seconds).
Despite the fact that only 4 individuals are responsible for its creation (an uncommonly small team at this point in game development), Ikaruga features full three-dimensional landscapes and a strong soundtrack. It also has a TATE mode - the ability to rotate the game's display by ninety degrees while the player's monitor rests on its left side (for full-screen arcade size). This same mode can be used without rotating the monitor by configuring the controls, in essence changing the game from a vertical scrolling shooter to a horizontal one. When the game is played with the display in a normal orientation (YOKO mode), the sides of the screen are blank because the game field itself is taller than it is wide. If it is turned on its side, it can take up the whole screen and still have the same aspect ratio. An interesting feature of the arcade release (which is also included in the home formats) is the 'Trial Game' mode, where infinite lives are awarded for a single credit on the first level, but only the first two chapters of the game can be played, offering a good way to practice.
In addition, Ikaruga features a 2-player simultaneous mode (with player two piloting the Ginkei fighter plane), an in-depth slow-motion tutorial mode (with stage tutorials becoming accessible to players who reach them in the main game), and an in-game art gallery featuring character and mechanical designs by Yasushi Suzuki (who previously did designs for Treasure's Sin and Punishment for the Nintendo 64).
10/10
iKaruga, Posted 04-10-2008 at 10:00 AM.
Linear Mode
