Ikaruga
Treasure’s ingenious and rewarding shooter provides nothing but pure, gaming goodness. And the occasional seizure.
Tags: Ikaruga Categories: Game Cube Reviews, Reviews
Posted by Ludwig on Sep 13th, 2003
| Title | Players | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Ikaruga (title page) | |||
| Developer | Publisher | Genre | Online |
| Action | No | ||
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In a world where videogames are frequently being labeled as cinematic experiences, Ikaruga is like a refreshing kick in the pants. Sharing many traits with the fantastic Panzer Dragoon Orta (Xbox), it’s a game that requires practice and patience in order to reap the endless rewards. Considered to be a spiritual successor to the developer’s classic Saturn shooter, Radiant Silvergun, it was initially released to the arcade scene in Japan. A Dreamcast port followed in 2001, further cementing the title as a cult favorite. In a relatively risky move, the folks at Atari have been gracious enough to bring the Gamecube version stateside. With considerably high production values, tight control and engrossing gameplay, there’s just no excuse for missing out on this old school triumph.
As with most titles in this forgotten genre, Ikaruga tasks you with controlling an extremely advanced and maneuverable aircraft from a scrolling, top-down viewpoint. There’s a fairly decent storyline involved, though its relegation to a single page in the manual is an accurate indication of its importance. Suffice it to say, you have to blast evil enemy ships into tiny pieces. Of course, mindlessly firing away at the oncoming hordes is not what this is all about. Incorporating some elements from Treasure’s Silhouette Mirage (a quirky Playstation/Saturn platformer), the gameplay twist comes in the form of your ship’s ability to change polarity. Enemies and their fire come in two varieties, namely black or white. The ship absorbs bullets that are of the same polarity and opposites tend to attract your demise. Since your constantly flying in the face of incoming fire, you’ll need to switch colors regularly and rapidly to survive. Sounds pretty simple, right?
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Wrong. Let’s not mince words – Ikaruga is no piece of cake. Not unless the common birthday treat comes to life, tears off your limbs, sets them on fire and then proceeds to beat you over the head with them. Taking into account that a single shot of the opposite color or a mere scrape against a wall will send your fighter into oblivion, the game wants to kill you in a hundred different ways with every passing second. The frequent sight of the entire screen filled with white and blue orbs of destruction may be enough to send casual gamers fleeing. Sticking with it, however, results in an extremely satisfying experience. The game never resorts to cheap and frustrating tactics to wipe you out, it’s simply a matter of playing and learning the necessary skills. Obscenely difficult and seemingly impossible situations steadily become more manageable as you memorize movement patterns, develop strategies and become more adept at quickly switching polarity. You’ll feel truly accomplished after defeating one of the spectacular bosses, complete with defiant face basking in the enormous explosion that results. That is, until the next level arrives to smack your frail sanity around.
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Just when you think you’ve got the play mechanics figured out, Ikaruga’s true challenge makes itself known. As any hardcore gamer can attest to, the high score is truly the mightiest foe of all. Once you start aiming for a better score, the game opens up to reveal an addictive vortex of depth. The trick to raking in a huge quantity of points lies in the Chain combo system. Eliminating three enemy ships of the same polarity in a row will start you off at a bonus of a hundred points. Do it again and you’ll receive two hundred. With each chain of three kills, the amount added to your total is doubled. Wash, rinse and repeat. If you mistakenly blow up a ship (including your own) of the opposite color in the midst of a chain, you’re bumped back to the bottom. Just staying alive can be tricky, but spotting these trios of targets as they come rushing at you requires a keen eye (or two) and a good deal of restraint. Taking the color concept a bit further, it’s possible to destroy ships much faster and earn a better score by firing at them with an opposing polarity. The trade-off is that you’re in a prime position to be eradicated by their return fire. Deciding on when to take risks and when to play it safe adds yet another layer of complexity and tension to the already stellar gameplay. In especially hectic situations (basically all the time), your craft’s energy release gauge will come to the rescue. Steadily building up as you absorb enemy ammo, it fires off a volley of powerful missiles that automatically seek out and destroy the targets nearby. An essential technique during the supremely challenging boss battles is to garner a sizeable stockpile of missiles, immediately switch polarity and then release them to inflict a wealth of pain. If you’re really up for those bonus points and a bout of psychosis, you can do this exclusively throughout the game’s five levels, never firing a shot from the ship’s main cannon.
With intense patterns of black and white bullets taking form, Ikaruga’s visuals are quite hypnotic. It’s not up to the technical level of the Gamecube’s first-party titles, but the beautiful art design more than makes up for it. Somewhat resembling the original Star Wars trilogy, the detailed 3D backgrounds have a faded, industrial look to them. There’s also some great use of muted colors throughout, with the assault on a massive defense station, floating before a twilight sky, being particularly striking. Bizarrely, some noticeable mip-mapping lines appear here and there, no doubt an artifact carrying over from the game’s original platform. To be fair, you probably won’t get an opportunity to notice them, at least not without paying a visit the Game Over screen afterwards. Even though the bosses steal the show, the lesser enemy units boast such unique designs; it’s almost a shame to reduce them to smithereens. Overall, the elements of gameplay only stand to benefit from this excellent presentation. Quite a surprise waits in the game’s sound department. Composed by Hiroshi Iuchi (also the game’s director and background designer!), the synth-heavy soundtrack is both wonderful and memorable. Give this guy a full orchestra and he’ll do great things. Well, unless he supplies them with weapons and uses them as a personal army.
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If you feel the need for extra help in order to vanquish the game, a second player can leap into the action at any time. The perfect controls take all of five seconds to get used to, so feel free to join forces with your grandmother and save the world together. The practice mode allows you to slow the game’s pace right down, perfect for when she’s still struggling to locate the A button or the TV screen. When you end up with a granny that rants about elite skills and such, the conquest mode provides a code for uploading her high scores to the Ikaruga website. Additional variations on the gameplay and a selection of secrets provide some padding, but it’s the main game that’ll keep drawing you back. By itself, it can eventually be completed in a single sitting. A superb shooter, however, will force you to go out and buy a comfortable chair. Prepare to be utterly addicted.
Outstanding in every sense, Ikaruga is immensely difficult and just as enjoyable. Though it excels in all areas, the gameplay clearly forms the foundation. Taking a simple idea and expanding upon it in every conceivable direction, Treasure has created a refined and inventive shooter that challenges and rewards its players. It requires a great deal of investment and finesse to make sense of the on-screen chaos, but therein lies the fun. Old school is cool.
| What Works | Score |
|---|---|
|
- Clever polarity concept - Top-notch presentation - Tight controls - Deep gameplay that improves as you do |
9.1 |
| What Doesn't | |
| - Difficulty may drive some to tears | |
| Under the Shrink-wrap | |
| Going against the gargantuan budgets and development teams of today, Ikaruga is a glaring example of exceptional gameplay above all else. One of the finest shooters ever made. | |
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Tags: Ikaruga
Posted by Ludwig on Sep 13th, 2003 and is filed under Game Cube Reviews, Reviews. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can post a comment, or trackback from your own site.
