Publisher:
ESP
Developer:
Treasure
Released:
2002
Price:
£50
Bought from: Another World
For the uninitiated a brief rundown of the game; this is not your run of the mill shooter, oh no, in true Treasure style this is the thinking persons shoot 'em up. The basic principle is to kill as much as you can, however with 3 big differences to your average shooter:
1) there are no power ups
2) you only have 2 weapons through whole game both of which you have from the very beginning.
3) the central theme to this game is polarity - positive and negative/black and white, simple as that
Gameplay.....
That's right - no powerups just a lightning fast double laser that can also be used in short controlled single bursts for accuracy, and if you want to join the Ikaruga elite you're gonna need to learn how to use this. In its simplest form the gameplay mechanic focuses on the positive/negative aspect in that all enemies are either black or white, and at the flick of a button your ship can fire black or white. Shoot black baddies with black lasers and they fire black bullets at you, shoot black baddies with white lasers and they just die and similarly with white lasers and enemies too. Your ship can absorb enemy bullets of the same colour which slowly builds up a bar at the side of the screen representing the power of your secondary weapon, a big laser blast that does large amounts of damage. Shooting enemies of the opposite polarity to yourself however deals out twice as much damage so there are tough decisions to make and strategies to devise.
But fret not shooting fans you will become so engrossed in the challenge of this game that powerups will be of no consequence to you any longer, you will start to wonder why somebody didn't think of this whole colour thing before (not that powerups don't have their place, in fact the powering up aspect of Silvergun, in my opinion, just gives it the edge over its spiritual successor).
Then there is the chaining. In a similar (but more refined) vain to Silvergun you can earn points by chaining alternate kills of 3 white, 3 black enemies together. Whilst this is not a key component in finishing the game, it is the icing on what is already a charmingly cerebral and expertly crafted shooting cake. Mastering this style represents a shooting prowess that can only be aspired to by many of us mere mortals (myself included), but to a few particularly gifted/hardcore/alien individuals it is a game within itself and a demonstration of the mastery one can achieve with enough dedication and spare time. To be truly sickened by a gargantuan display of shooting mastery download the videos here.............but don't say I didn't warn you.
The Visuals.......
Lets not beat around the bush here, Ikaruga looks absolutely stunning; Treasure really have pulled out all the stops and this bitch is going to make your precious Dreamcast break into a sweat by teasing out every drop of processing power the machine can muster. And it does it with aplomb, the only noticeable slow down being on the demise of the games colossal bosses as they break into chunks and small explosions before completely disintegrating into an immense explosion the like of which you will never have seen before in a video game. The 3d models of your own ship and the enemy drones and behemoths alike are all exquisitely detailed and expertly textured. You will spend weeks, nay months, just taking all the detail in trying to comprehend what performance enhancing drugs the team at Treasure were on when they programmed this beauty. For those of you with anti-dreamcast 'friends' this is your secret weapon guaranteed to make them wince when they return home to their inferior hardware whatever it might be.
Oh yes, this game is a stunner, so much so that the first few times you play it you won't be taking any notice of the sublimely crafted gameplay or dealing with the shooting task in hand and consequently it'll be a while before you see level 2. But when your jaw is firmly back in place and your pupils have stopped dilating your hands and brain are in for a real treat.
In Conclusion.....
IKARUGA is a technological marvel and a supreme triumph in gameplay innovation and balance to the extent that even if you do have the skill to complete its 5 levels (take it from me, this is quite some feat) you will be coming back to it years from now just for the sheer enjoyment of playing it, and that is truly the measure of a great game.
Irregardless of whether you like shoot 'em ups or not you owe it to yourself to own this piece of software history. One of the greatest games of all time and unquestionably one of the best shoot 'em ups, only surpassed by Radiant Silvergun and Border Down and even then by the narrowest of margins. Do all that you can to find and buy this game and if you own a gamecube buy it before Infrogrames deletes it from its release schedule.
