This game can be played 1 or 2 Players. Ikaruga is one of those games you either love or hate from the very beginning. It will take you all of 5 to 10 minutes to get a feel for the game and whether you like it or not. Ikaruga is a vertical scrolling shoot-em-up like traditional 2D games of its kind like Gradius III, IV, V and R-Type series but you can change the screen layout so that it scrolls sideways like those traditional games I just mentioned. You see before first person 3D games like Metroid prime, Halo, Quake, Doom and the rest came along, shoot-em-ups was what these kinds of games were called. The genre always implied a ship/mech/vehicle against endless waves of enemies. Ikaruga is your typical one ship vs. the overwhelming enemy fleet that has taken over the world. Ikaruga has a very barebone and forgettable story and the text in the english version is strangely absent. Pro’s and cons: This game is all about repetition, skill, and practice drills as you play the same levels over and over again in order to master them and figure out the puzzle patterns with the polairity and chain combo system. As a single player game Ikaruga is just barely passable, since if you play it only because you like to get to the end and see the ending then Ikaruga won’t have anything remotely satisfying for you there. This game is all about action, dodging, absorbing bullets and shooting things in the right sequence. So for these types of people it is only worth a single rent, if even that. The game is incredibly short, you can finish the game in 20-25 minute sitting once you get good enough to beat it or infinite continues sets in after you play for 10 hours or so. The game is also incredibly hard, it will take you ages before you can beat the game without continuing. Some levels are maddeningly difficult because the game forces you to master them. If you don’t like very difficult challenges and being frustrated constantly, stay far far away... Or wait for the infinite continues to kick in after 10 or so hours of playtime! The maddening thing is that, you have to play the game for that time too. You can’t just leave your gamecube on and pause the game for 10 hours overnight or anything like that, since the game doesn’t count time toward unlocking more continues while the game is paused. The new gameplay that ikaruga adds to this genre of games is being able to absorb bullets of each color depending on your polarity that charges your super lasers. This is part of the bread and butter of Ikaruga. Is having to intelligently switch between black or white to avoid getting shot down by the opposite color bullets. Ikaruga starts to shine as a game when you play the game with the goal to chain the enemies concurrently in sets of 3 (3 black or white, as long as you keep the chain going in 3 colors, then 3 colors) to get the highest score. You'll realize that Ikaruga is a puzzle game wrapped in shooter mechanics. The game mechanics (what we really mean when we say “gameplay”) are top notch, the ship moves a little slow but this is made up for the fact that you can change your ships polarity and absorb bullets of the same color your ship is. White absorbs white and black absorbs black. The game can be great fun for two players for a while before infinite continue sets. But after the game forces you to get infinite continues once you've played enough time to unlock it you probably won’t want to play the game multiplayer again since the challenge is gone. But what's really maddening is that there is no way to revert or change the infinite number of continues short of deleting your save game and resetting everything you have since unlocked. There should have been a way to select how many continues you are able to have in the options after infinite continues becomes enabled. Quirks like these make you wonder how the game was released in North America with major oversights like that. The major hooks that make and break this game is whether you like this type of game and whether or not you like extreme challenge and the chain combo system. Because that’s essentially what Ikaruga is designed around. The puzzle element IS the chain combo system which makes this game infinitely replayable if one is going for a highscore and getting the S++ end-level rank in each of the five levels. As a game of the 2D shoot-em-up genre, it's not pushing the genre forward where it needs to. To attract new blood and keep interest in these types of games is what this kind of game needs, and treasure while to be applauded for catering to it's audience should also be boo'ed for not taking the genre new and interesting places. These 2D vehicle/space ship game mechanics have been around for decades now. The only thing Ikaruga adds is absorbing bullets and the score-combo system. I fear that it's not enough to keep and increase an audience. When you compare this game to other much older games of this type from previous generation consoles like the Super Nintendo, Playstation 1 or even the few newer games on the Playstation 2, Ikaruga and the genre it represents just feels stale and played out. The developers aren't doing much to bring these games to new levels of fun and bring it out of its small niche of hardcore fans. Bottom line: Pro’s: 1) Old school gameplay from the Super Nintendo Era 2) 2D gameplay but rendered in 3D graphics 3) Puzzle element with the chain combos 4) Ability to absorb bullets of same color polarity as your ship 5) Bullets add to your score and recharge your homing laser 6) If the game is too hard you eventually get infinite continues after playing the game for about 10 hours of *in game time* or so. 7) Only 5 short levels, but they are hard and will take a long time to master. 8) Designed for hardcore gamers Cons: 1) Nothing really new and innovative pushing the genre forward 2) Puzzle gameplay gets old if you don’t like challenges 3) Repetitive you have to practice the levels over and over to beat this game 4) Replay value is limited if you getting a high score is not enough of a reward for you 5) Poor attempt at a story (i.e. doesn’t try to take the genre forward) 6) No other weapons besides regular fire and homing lasers 7) Only five short levels, and they are HARD. 8) No way to disable infinite continues after it is unlocked short of deleting your savegame. 9) Stay away if you have reflexes. 10) Internet ranking system is now broken 11) Designed for hardcore gamers
Ikaruga comes from the same team as the ill-fated Radiant Silvergun on the Saturn, which some have claimed to be “the greatest shooter of all time”. With that kind of heritage, it should be expected to have some impressi... Read Full Review
Chances are, you fall into one of two categories. Either you imported the Dreamcast release of Ikaruga last year and are already hopelessly addicted, or you’ve never heard of it before. For those of you who fit into the ... Read Full Review
