Hispanic! At the Disco
Member
My dad one day came home with Ikaruga on Dreamcast. He said "You have to play this. This is the best shooter I've seen." It is still possibly the best shooter I've ever played. I own Ikaruga on Dreamcast, Gamecube, and Xbox 360. Through the new Backwards Compatability function of the Xbox One I started up the game again and it's just as wonderful as the first day I started it up on the Dreamcast.
Ikaruga is full of depth for every type of skill level for shooters. Each level feels like it is training you for the next level and both teaches you and tests you challenges and mechanics.
It can be overwhelming at first. I was very often switching to the wrong polarities and what did more damage to what but now looking back its very simple. Black absorbs black, white absorbs white. Opposites do higher damage, same colors are weaker. Opposites kill you, same colors will give you energy. After getting a hang of the simple concepts there is a huge learning curve. Training yourself to see all bullets on the screen. Not just the bullets coming at you, but the ones coming right after those, when to avoid, when to switch, when to absorb and even when to fire back.
First level helps you understand how the game works and its mechanics, with the boss simple switching between black/red and white/blue, with 2 small turrets shooting both colors. Very easy boss, just alternate between the 2 as the boss does, and dodge the very few turret bullets or just destroy them and not deal with them at all.
Second level throws in very easy puzzles with moving colored blocks, showing you that it is important to know when to use opposite colors to kill things faster or when to stay the same color to absorb the bullets some blocks will fire back at you. It also gives you the choice of just using your own bullets to get through these obstacles or to absorb their shots and fire back. The boss of this stage is more complicated than the first with multiple mechanics. Black and White weak points with guards that need to be shot with the same color as the weak point to reveal it. Switching colors to open the guards while he's shooting alternating colors as well with a smattering of random black and whites again, can be very confusing and is easy to panic.
I just played the first 2 levels just now on default arcade settings so I don't remember the last 3 levels super well, but the way that each level trains you for whats coming in the level after it is great, introducing new mechanics but only one at a time so you can learn without being frustrated. Once level one can be beaten easily, level 2 should be beatable. Once level 2 is easily beaten, level 3 is beatable.
Then there's the chaining for score. I'm not at the skill level of this game where I can focus on chaining kills for score, but I do not feel like I am missing out for not doing it. For people who are skilled enough to play through the whole game in the default settings (I need infinite lives for stages 4 and 5) they have open to them a whole other way to play for higher scores. when you kill 3 of the same color you get 1 chain. Kill another set of 3 you get 2 chains, and so on and so forth. With how often you must switch colors, and the amount of enemies and how they are mixed together with the different colors, this is very difficult for me. Especially difficult to worry about what types of enemies im shooting at with how many bullets are coming at me and switching polarities and absorbing and dodging.
Whether it is absorbing or avoiding, switching for extra damage or sticking to one color, chaining or just wanting to beat the game, I'm constantly surprised at how much depth this simple game has. I often enjoy just beating the first stage without ever changing polarities in one life, but then there's people who can beat the game playing as 2 different ships at once which is CRAZY to me. There's just always room for improvement and different ways to approach each scenario and it keeps it fresh for me every time.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzhCa5l5AFA
^^^ Chapter 4. 1 player, 2 ships. Arcade.
(also chapter 4 is the best stage)
refuse to try it on easy.
