Ikaruga Reviews

Legendary shooter

After playing Ikaruga for a few hours, I can say that this game might just be my new favourite shoot 'em up, and one of my most favourite games ever despite the fact that I still can't beat mission 2 on a 1 credit run. This game manages to be insanely difficult whilst also still being very fun to play. The unique polarity system leads to very interesting level design and boss fights, and the chain combo mechanic is very fun too. The presentation, artstyle and music are all just the cherry on top of this very delicious cake... Besides the poorly translated text in the mission intros. This is definetley a must-play in the arcade shoot 'em up genre, and if you are into those sorts of games at all then I heavily suggest that you try this if you have not already.

Unmatched all-timer in the Games You Suck At bracket. I do not see myself getting so much as a single A++ on almost any stage (save for Chapter 1, [i]maybe[/i]), let alone 1cc'ing or reasonably playing for score/chain, but that's fine. You probably shouldn't listen to me when it comes to difficulty, anyhow. That's not my main point here, and it's not what'll lead my review—besides, almost everyone else and their mother already touched on that. (Hell, the difficulty's probably what you know Ikaruga by to begin with.) No, my main point is in the presentation, because good [b]God[/b], there's nowhere near enough superlatives in my lexicon to express just how much I adore, adore, [i]ADORE[/i] Ikaruga as an audio-visual feast. It's such an immaculate piece of design on every last front; the punchy, echoey SFX, the robotic voice that leads you into the game and makes note of your chain, the enemy, popcorn, and boss design, the stages, almost every last damned bullet pattern past Chapter 2, and the [b]music[/b], which is absolutely to die for. Iuchi does in ten tracks what some composers try to do (and, not to come off as ignorant, sometimes [i]succeed[/i] in doing) in a few dozen; throws you into the world and the atmosphere that surrounds it. Ideal and Butsutekkai alone are some of the absolute best tracks I've ever heard in the STG sphere, and they're in the background of [i]the first bloody stage![/i] It starts at a hundred and it does not go down!! Honestly, for ten bucks - half that on sale - you owe it to yourself to have this in your library if for no reason other than to own a wonderful piece of gaming history. Best to ever do it, even if it's a game whose credits you may not see even after dozens upon dozens of hours of play-slash-toiling. I wanted to shoehorn one piece or another from the Xoxak vid into this review but I can't really make it work I think. Just pretend that I did and chuckle or whatever.

Challenging, deep, gratifying and fun gameplay. If you are looking for something with those elements, i highly recommend Ikaruga for you sir!!!

Incredibly difficult, but it's seminal for its innovation. From a casual perspective, your ability to play offensively or defensively with the mode switch is immediately intuitive. Also incidentally, the best concept art of any shmup -- even if it has "I'm not regret" printed on top.