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[Arsic]

Have you ever played a game you suck so bad at you can't beat it, but you adore it?

Ikaruga is likely my favorite shmup and in my top 10 games ever. It's such a simple concept, it's artistic, and so damn well crafted. Yet, unless I play on bitch made mode with lots of continued my brain just cannot fathom it.
You know the rub your stomach while you pat your head exercise? This is the game turned up to 11.

If you've never played it I impede you to pick it up. It's simple you can switch your ships polarity between black bullets and white bullets. When in white mode you absorb enemy white shots, and vice versa. However, to rack up a high score multiplier you need to shoot white enemies with black bullets. If you accidentally shoot black on black or white on white you will still kill enemies but the multiplier goes to 0.

Wanna go hardcore!? You can play the game in 2 player mode as one player to control two ships at once. Now we're cooking with real meth.

Look at this. Just look at it bros.



Ikaruga and master ninja runs on NG2 I play to this day with acceptance I'll never beat it as you should, but I still love the thrill they offer.

The games prologue says it best:

"I will not die until I achieve something.

Even though the ideal is high, I never give in.

Therefore, I never die with regrets."

 

[Cyberpunkd]

The games prologue says it best:

"I will not die until I achieve something.

Even though the ideal is high, I never give in.

Therefore, I never die with regrets."

Next chapter's quote is better:

"Alas, Ikaruga is going . . .

Undesired, unwanted them, What makes them go?

It is nothing else than the principle of the man who has the reason for being."

 

[Ceadeus]

I can't get past level 2. This game is infuriating lol. The soundtrack is so good though..

 

[Arsic]

I can't get past level 2. This game is infuriating lol. The soundtrack is so good though..

I actually got into top 500 for score on level 1 for leaderboards at one point. In a lot of ways that made me think I can do this!

My brain just can't retain so much necessary information for my placement, patterns, and movements,

I'm much better at Cave game shmups. Hell I even 1cced dodon pachi jaidou and other shmups.

Ikaruga though? Nope.

 

[GateofD]

my claim to fame, is being able to do a (near)perfect score run on level1, and can't do the rest of the game at all lol.
the black and white mechanic is so simple and invigorating , can't believe no one has copied it since

 

[Arsic]

my claim to fame, is being able to do a (near)perfect score run on level1, and can't do the rest of the game at all lol.
the black and white mechanic is so simple and invigorating , can't believe no one has copied it since

It's genius. How can you one up it? Add one more color, red.

Ooooh. Aaaaah.

 

[Knightime_X]

I've made it to the last level, thats it.
The stage with the satellite looking space station with the water sprinkler bullets wrecks me every gd time.
That's where a chunk of my continues go to.

 

[Xaeroxcore666]

I love this game, it´s pure digital art, as usual with Treasure. I´ve just played it solely on my Dreamcast since the last 23 years...But how good is the GCN and 360/Steam versions?

 

[Dr. Suchong]

Great game.
I think Radiant Silvergun is the better of the two though.
If you haven't played it, I strongly recommend it.
I imported it aeons ago and it blew my mind.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

You can guess Ikaruga has had an impact on me.
I will never forget the day I downloaded the Dreamcast version from mIRC. It was 18 MB. Yes, 18. Burned it into a disc and booted it up. Got to the first boss. Understood almost nothing. Left home to go attend a university exam. And throughout all the exam, the boss music played in my head. Little I knew the game would take so many hours of my life for a year or so.

Since then, I've bought the game a humber of times. Gamecube. PC. Xbox. Switch. Even Android.
The GC version had online ranking for a while. I got first in the Italian ranking, even if there were people much better than me who weren't participating. I 1CC'd the game with 25+ million points.

And yet I could never go past that. I watched so many videos, there were a website or two dedicated to those. I even bought the Ikaruga Appreciate DVD, with videos from the best Japanese players. I could do good chains, but never as many as I saw in the videos. The hardest points in the game were always hard for me. The beginning of level 3, or level 4 with the infamous "rotating shit" as we used to call it on an Italian forum, those I could never master. And I never tried to milk the penultimate boss until the last second. The hand-eye coordination required for that is crazy.

Still love the game, and I play it every once in a while, but I don't think I could never get that good again. I never found another shooter that was so simple in concept, yet that complex in execution. Radiant Silvergun is great, but it's too long and much more intricate in its chaining and powering-up system. Ikaruga is visually stunning, and its soundtrack is among the best ever made, forever burned in my brain.

 

[Porcile]

I love this game, it´s pure digital art, as usual with Treasure. I´ve just played it solely on my Dreamcast since the last 23 years...But how good is the GCN and 360/Steam versions?

New versions on PC and Switch etc lack any training modes except for a stage select so it's really hard to practice a game that's all about memorising sequences perfectly. They are responsive and look good but really annoying to get good at it and practice. Also when you game over you are kicked all the way back to the top menu and have to go through the whole menu system to get back into the game again. It's really annoying. I don't remember too much about the GC version but I think it has some bugs but does have a mode where you can practice sections of a level. Could be wrong though.

OP you probably don't suck. Ikaruga is not a difficult game at its heart, it's just that to play it well means literally replaying individual sections of game hundreds of times till you get it perfect. It's not a reaction based game as such. Just a crazy routing game. As you put more time into it you'll just improve because you'll memorise the game and it also doesn't have any dynamic difficulty so it's a straight run.

You can also play the game on Easy mode without the suicide bullets and it's still a challenging traditional shmup.

I think Radiant Silvergun is tough too with its slow ship and big hitbox

 

[Halfkut]

Used to smash this game on my Dreamcast back in the day

I've been thinking about playing it lately. I have it for my Naomi cab but I can't be arsed to rotate the screen

 

[alf717]

I own the GameCube version and remember having a blast every time I picked it up to give it a whirl. I beat the game multiple times but this was the SHMUP I sank the most time into. Runs extremely well. The only thing I could think of comparing it to the Dreamcast version is that the voices were a bit muffled on the GCN version but its been a very long time since I compared them and my DC version was a bootleg version. The video of that person playing two player solo is incredible. I watched it many years ago and I'm still impressed by it to this day.

 

[Mr Hyde]

Loved Ikaruga. Played the shit out of it on GameCube. But I never beat it no matter how much I tried, it was just too difficult for me. That's the whole shmup genre for me. Love it but I rarely beat the games. I think the only shmups I ever finished was Life Force and Einhander.

 

[Dacvak]

Have you ever played a game you suck so bad at you can't beat it, but you adore it?

Ikaruga is likely my favorite shmup and in my top 10 games ever. It's such a simple concept, it's artistic, and so damn well crafted. Yet, unless I play on bitch made mode with lots of continued my brain just cannot fathom it.
You know the rub your stomach while you pat your head exercise? This is the game turned up to 11.

If you've never played it I impede you to pick it up. It's simple you can switch your ships polarity between black bullets and white bullets. When in white mode you absorb enemy white shots, and vice versa. However, to rack up a high score multiplier you need to shoot white enemies with black bullets. If you accidentally shoot black on black or white on white you will still kill enemies but the multiplier goes to 0.

Wanna go hardcore!? You can play the game in 2 player mode as one player to control two ships at once. Now we're cooking with real meth.

Look at this. Just look at it bros.



Ikaruga and master ninja runs on NG2 I play to this day with acceptance I'll never beat it as you should, but I still love the thrill they offer.

The games prologue says it best:

"I will not die until I achieve something.

Even though the ideal is high, I never give in.

Therefore, I never die with regrets."

Great thread, and a really enjoyable read. You have a talent for writing, dude.

Ikaruga is among my favorite games, and easily in my top 3 shmups. It perfects the state-swap mechanic better than any other game of any genre, and I'd recommend playing it to anyone who appreciates excellency in game design. Plus, that soundtrack is simply outstanding.

Anyway, OP, don't be a bitch. Git gud.

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

Loved Ikaruga. Played the shit out of it on GameCube. But I never beat it no matter how much I tried, it was just too difficult for me. That's the whole shmup genre for me. Love it but I rarely beat the games. I think the only shmups I ever finished was Life Force and Einhander.

You beat Life Force and Einhander and find Ikaruga too difficult?

I only tried Einhander recently and that third boss that goes behind you and has missiles shooting from slots in the ceiling is impossible for me. I tried it several times and just can't survive the barrage of attacks.

 

[Cyberpunkd]

My brain just can't retain so much necessary information for my placement, patterns, and movements,

Isn't the whole point not to rely on the brain but on trigger relexes?

 

[Alexios]

I don't love the color switching so I prefer shmups like Thunder Force V, Zero Gunner 2, Radiant Silvergun, Psyvariar 2 to me looks about as good too, even (so does Under Defeat but it doesn't seem so tight and polished in comparison as a shooter, Zero Gunner 2 did helicopter controls better too). Also Esp Ra.De., ProGear, 19XX, Blazing Star, Idk if something like Metal Hawk counts as it's not on-rails like these normal shmups... But I prefer more player control anyway so over shmups I'd play side (or any direction) scrolling run and gun like Metal Slug, Shock Troopers, Gunstar Heroes, Mystic Warriors, Sunset Riders, Alien Soldier, etc... Also Space Harrier type stuff like, er, Space Harrier and G.I. Joe, Alligator Hunt, Blood Bros, Wild Guns, their 3D successors like Star Fox & Panzer Dragoon, Sin & Punishment... Oh I forgot how crazy cool Wolf Fang is for a shmup (Skull Fang is ok).

 

[NeoIkaruGAF]

New versions on PC and Switch etc lack any training modes except for a stage select so it's really hard to practice a game that's all about memorising sequences perfectly. They are responsive and look good but really annoying to get good at it and practice. Also when you game over you are kicked all the way back to the top menu and have to go through the whole menu system to get back into the game again. It's really annoying. I don't remember too much about the GC version but I think it has some bugs but does have a mode where you can practice sections of a level. Could be wrong though.

I seem to remember that the GC version has a training mode where you can play in slow-mo. It's a bit bugged too, iirc when you quit it and start a regular game, there'll be some slowdown until you quit and restart again.

The real problem in Ikaruga is how tight some spaces and timings are to get some chains. The beginning of level 3 requires perfect positioning, perfect movement, perfect button presses, and perfect timing if you want to max-chain it. Heck, all of level 3 is about perfection, now that I think of it. It's even less forgiving than most of level 4.

 

[Evil Smurf King]

I've always been a huge fan of Shmups, even though I've never had the reflexes or even the memory skills that some of them require. However, I managed to beat R-Type in the good old days, as well as Raiden and Raiden 2 DX (I think those are more my style).

I knew Ikaruga as an urban legend, and one day I snagged an esoteric second-hand copy for Gamecube with that dreadful note on the cover: "...Our frothing demand for this game increases. - IGN" Blergh.

Ikaruga, after Radiant Silvergun - even with that "Galaga refused art" ship -, was a bucket of cold water for me, unfortunately. Despite the serious and apocalyptic art, nothing impressed me much, and I confess that, despite all the praise for the game, I didn't like it at first. And I still don't like it, unfortunately. I tried to like it but I couldn't.

Never made it past the second stage. It's impossible for me. It's more of a annoying memorization puzzle than a classic Shmup, and to tell you the truth, I don't have the patience for that at all.

I had more hope when they announced Gradius V for PS2, and when it was released, despite everyone saying it was a masterpiece, I didn't like it either. I found the art shallow, sterile and even ugly, and the gameplay was boring as hell and uninspired. Even so, I was hoping for a new Shmup from Treasure, but I guess that's now a thing of the past.

I bought the digital version of Ikaruga for X360, and a few days ago, I discovered that it had disappeared from my XOne S game library without any explanation or warning from Microsoft. Did the license expire or something?!

I wasn't going to play it anyway, but it would have been nice to keep it in my collection... After all, I payed for that!

 

[calistan]

the black and white mechanic is so simple and invigorating , can't believe no one has copied it since

There was Outland on the 360 / PS3. A platform game by Housemarque where you flip between light and dark to deal extra damage, absorb bullets, etc.

 

[Sticks]

Damn OP...