When it comes to vertical shooters, we're pretty easy to please. All it needs are a few giant bosses, an insane number of bullets and a difficulty curve that goes from easy to insultingly MENTAL in half a level.
Ikaruga madness
Gameplay footage
3:02Enemies come on screen, go mental, then leave. And you die... probably.
Ikaruga madness
Gameplay footage
3:02Enemies come on screen, go mental, then leave. And you die... probably.
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Ikaruga madness
Gameplay footage
3:02Enemies come on screen, go mental, then leave. And you die... probably.
The good news is that Ikaruga has all that. This is the stuff we're all about; An alien-looking ship thingy that resembles nothing you've ever seen in real life appears and, no questions asked, unloads a BA-ZILLION bullets in your direction and in the direction you were about to move into. He wants you dead, by the way.
But, for those of you who've never been fortunate enough to have played Ikaruga before, it has so much more than your ordinary crazy shooter.
Ikaruga's special twist revolves around swapping your ship's colour from white to black. Every enemy and every bullet in the game is either white or black, too. Let us explain why this matters (get your brain in gear for this).
Part is about immunity - you cannot be killed by bullets of the same colour. On the contrary, you absorb bullets of the same colour, and those bullets charge up to give you a handy burst of lasers. Hold on though - it gets deeper.
When you're black you shoot black bullets, and vice versa. Shooting enemies of the opposite colour does more damage, which temps you away from the safe tactic of being the same colour as the majority enemy for immunity benefits.
Then there are chains. Shooting three enemies of the same colour consecutively counts as one chain. Continue shooting enemies in batches of three (you can swap from white chains to black chains freely, so long as their in sets of three), and your chains link together, sending your score sky high. This, in turn, earns you those much-needed extra lives.
All of this comes together to make Ikaruga one of the most unique, challenging and mentally taxing shooters (or, dare we say, videogames) in existence.
Most shooters simply have you dodging bullets frantically, but Ikaruga with bend your mental matter as you try to keep up with swapping your colour at the right time. Each time you hit the colour swap button, 'dangerous' and 'safe' does a 180 and you struggle to compute that in your mind. It's almost like a rhythm-action game in places as you pump the black and white button in time with the enemy's attacks.
Treasure's level design exploits this fact with cunning cruelty - bosses fill the screens with swarms of black, then white bullets. Gun turrets shoot bullets in patterned waves, forming insane, mind-breaking (but beautiful - as the videos below show) patterns on your screen.
And now it's all in 720p it looks even better. If you have an LCD TV you can flip that bad boy on its side and, in the options screen, flip the gameplay sideways so you get full-screen up-scrolling action (known in the shooter scene as TATE mode). That's how the purists play (and us).
But that's not the only perk of the 360 version. In addition to the expected achievement objectives, two-player via Xbox Live enhances the multiplayer aspect of the game, and online leaderboards mean you will actually bother trying to master the chain system (unlike before, when staying alive was all you cared about).
Ikaruga is one of our favourite no-messing shooters of all time, so its arrival on XBLA has put big smiles on our faces. With just five chapters it's quite short, but we challenge you (new-to-the-game players, of course) to get through all five levels on normal in your first week of play. Not happening.
Its brutal difficulty will separate the men from the boys, we assure you. See how insane it is for yourself with the videos below - then check out this ego-destroying video of some nutter controlling TWO ships on his own... without dying a single time. Not even once. Bastard.
I LOVED this game on the Dreamcast. Sure, It's hard as nails, but think of it as reflex training for every other game out there. I don't think I ever managed to get past stage 3, but I sure as hell enjoyed every frustrating minute of it.
I am still in two minds in getting this as I still have the Gamecube version, so I have just played through the demo and I may be mistaken here but did'nt the Gamecube version have Japaness text before each boss and down the side before each level? I would check but that would mean getting up!
Played the trial version this morning, on Normal. Have thus far died about 10 times on level 1, have got to the boss 3 times and died. But, I bloomin' like it so much I'll be buying it once I get my free 1000MS points for pre-ordering GTA IV.
I love the whole art design and overall feel of Ikaruga.
Is it on XBLA now then? Fantastic game. Have it on GC. I could complete it in 2 credits when I first got it . Im s**t at it nowadays though
How? I'm finding it incredibly tough!
Played it s**tloads. I could do the first 2 stages without dying quite comfortably. But stage 3 onwards were very tough & never fully mastered them but managed to scrape through a few times without dying too much.
Level 4 is utterly nasty and when the game becomes a notable challenge.
Woo! You must be good. The chaotic mass of black and white bullets toward the end of level two has me licked so far. I don't think I ever got past level four even when I was young and spritely. Still loving every minute of it though.
Oh and I agree; Mars Matrix and Gunstar Heroes would be lovely too
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. Im s**t at it nowadays though 
I'm finding it incredibly tough! I used to be able to complete Super Stardust as well but now can't get beyond level 4-5 
