Hey, you. Yeah, you. The one who calls himself a hardcore gamer.
You're not hardcore. You don't know the first thing about being hardcore.
What's that? You can beat Halo on Legendary without ever dying, or needing to save? You can beat Metriod Prime 100% in your sleep? You can do a lot of things impressive like that? Big deal. You want a cookie?
Trust me when I say you aren't hardcore. There's a game out there that'll make you go crying to your mommy and daddy. A game so ungodly hardcore, that you aren't even worthy of being in the same room with it.
But don't feel bad. You aren't hardcore; but neither am I. Ikaruga showed me that.
Fans of 2D shooters will rejoice in the coming of Ikaruga to US shores for it's first time as a North American release. They'll also cry. Tears of joy. Tears of frustration. Tears that say "Don't you worry, game....I SHALL BEAT YOU!!!!"
And they'll be trying for a long time.
Brought to us by Infogrames' Atari line of games, and by developer Treasure Video Games, Ikaruga is the latest in what seems to be a dying breed in today's gaming world. Traditional 2D shooters seem to be a thing of the past with everyone's fixation on 3D and full control of movement. I, for one, am glad Ikaruga made it to North American shores.
Many of today's gamers won't know about these types of games. They're simply too young to. But, for the longest of times 2D shooters were what separated the strong from the weak in the ranks of those who considered themselves hardcore.
Ikaruga is no different. The strong will survive; while the weak will run back to the store returning the game, saying how much it sucks. The truth is, it's not that the game sucks. Nay, they probably don't really beleive it does. Rather, they will simply be too humbled by the sheer difficulty this game eschews, and will be too embarrased to keep it in their collection.
Make no mistake about it. Ikaruga is hard. Let me spell that out for those not quite up to speed: H--A--R--D. I predict Merriam Webster's next edition will replace the first definition of hard with "Ikaruga".
Ikaruga takes the basics of old school 2D shooters, and throws a twist upon them. You still fly in a 2D plane, with enemies coming at you, and shooting at you. The twist is in how Treasure has worked the methods of damage prevention. You're going to get shot, a lot. The thing is, only one type of bullet can hurt you at any given time.
Treasure decided to go with a 'polarity' system. Enemies come at you in 2 colors, white and black. Your ship has the ability to change its color to either white or black with the touch of a button. If an attack of one color hits you, while you are of the same polarity (color) as it, then instead of dying you absorb the shot. This builds up your power, and you can then release the stored energy in a massive attack. Attacks from the opposite color destroy you in one shot, however; and all of your shots, no matter what color, can destroy the enemies.
Ikargua also takes away from the classic "destroy everything in sight" approach of the older shooters. You still should destroy everything, but the difference is in how you do it.
Every 3 enemies destroyed of the same color, in a row, nets you a combo bonus called a chain. Each time you get a chain, without breaking from the pattern, you get a bonus that is double what the last chain was (until you reach the maximum amount of points). You can switch colors of chains, if you want, but don't start a chain and then hit another color or you start over again at the first chain.
It gets to be very difficult. Trying to keep yourself alive, while being forced to switch colors to do so, really tests your hand-eye coordination and gaming skills. I don't think God Himself could beat this game perfectly....but I'm sure he has his GodShark game enhancement device lying around.
Graphically, this is one of the finest shooters I have ever seen. The game runs at a pretty constant frame rate, the only exception being when the bosses blow up. Ikaruga uses fully 3D graphics, but just places them in a 2D plane.
Nice techno music permiates the background, along with gun shots and explosions. Although the computerized voice alerting you to chain combos, filling your energy meter, and when a boss shows up can get fairly annoying.
Like all 2D shooters, the AI in Ikaruga is pretty limited. Basically every level follows a set pattern, and it never changes. Not that this is a bad thing, learning chains can only be done by learning the patterns.
With three difficulty settings to choose from, you'll not have a shortage of replay value, even if the game is only 5 chapters/levels long. But, don't get fooled; easy isn't any easier than hard, it just affects whether enemies will fire back upon you when destroyed.
Even though the game only has 5 chapters, don't think you'll complete the game quickly. Quite the opposite. You'll spend hours trying to master the first few levels, just so you have enough continues to make it past the last few. And each level is a good few minutes long.
There are a few extras, and Treasure was nice enough to give you two ways of oepning them. Either through playing the game and beating it within certain paramaters, or playing the game for a set amount of time. Trust me when I say that you'll play for the time before completing the paramaters of the extra objectives.
Fans of 2D shooters will ove this game. Others will cry like babies when trying it. It's a fun game, but difficult to master.
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