Ikaruga – Just like space invaders, only crunchy.

By SithLordJim

©2008 Jim McIntyre

“`Treasure’s Ikaruga has moved from the Dreamcast and Gamecube onto the Xbox Live Arcade. The transition has added a few new additions, such as online co-op, leaderboards, and replays, to what was already a solid title

“`Ikaruga seems to simply throw you into the deep end, and then laugh at you as you quickly drown. There is no tutorial of any kind, or any indication of what buttons do what. You are simply expected to figure it all out for yourself. This is almost acceptable because Ikaruga deviates so little from the standard side-scrolling 2D shooters, but it is still very frustrating to die just because you have no idea what button to press to shoot.

The biggest thing that Ikaruga does differently is the dark and light color system. Enemies come in one of the two color types and shoot matching colored bullets. Your ship can change between the two and also shoot matching bullets. When you are light your shield absorbs light bullets, and when dark you absorb dark bullets. This means that when the screen is covered with enemy fire you can still maneuver through it safely. Absorbing the bullets also charges up your missiles, adding an extra incentive to charging headlong into enemy fire. This system is also used to secure high scores as to build combo points you need to shoot three of the same color enemy in a row.

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Even though, like most Xbox Live Arcade titles, this game seems intended for the more casual gamers, the difficulty is sure to deter the majority of them. Even with the color shield system to absorb bullets, the amount of enemies on the screen and obstacles to dodge, makes memorizing their patterns a necessary evil to be able to progress at all through the game. This is compounded by the fact that the only way you can unlock levels is by playing through all the previous levels in one play. So if you want to unlock level three you will have to play through one and two, rather than just being able to start from two. Even with continues set to the maximum you only have the three. With how hard the game is, this just does not seem to be enough.

The game seemed to hint to me that there is some form of a story somewhere that has something to do with something about this game. Each level starts off with a message that you are sure to struggle with reading before it disappears. I am a very fast reader, and I had to start each level two or three times to figure out what it was saying. Of course that was not that much of a problem considering how many times I died. Suffice to say apparently storyline does not really matter in this genre anyway.

The levels are wonderfully visually designed, but the graphics do not seem to have undergone any change at all from it’s previous iterations. The sound is pretty much standard and what you would expect for this type of game.

As far as 2D side-scrolling shooters go, I have no doubt Ikaruga is the best of the lot. To me thats not saying much when talking about a genre that is defined by it’s repetitive nature and lack of any sort of depth, but thats a rant for another time. If you are a fan of this genre, you will absolutely fall in love with this game. I could not see myself spending 800 Microsoft Points on purchasing this normally, but if I did want to play something from this genre this would definitely be the best option by far.

7/10

©2008 Jim McIntyre

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