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This thread has been linked to the game 'Ikaruga'.
Got this today, felt like doing a mini review.
This game really is a touch of genius. You probably know it's a classic 2D scrolling shoot 'em up, and that instead of having the usual selection of power-ups, you can switch between being white or black. And I must say that it's probably the best decision made in a game for years.The enemy ships are either white or black, and depending on what polarity you are affects what happens:
Same polarity:
Their shots can't hurt you.
You absorb their fire with the bulliet eater technique, which powers up your homing missiles.
When you destroy them they fire 4/5 shots at you.
Different polarity:
Their shots will destroy you.
You inflict double damage on them.
You earn double points for destroying them.
When you destroy them they don't fire any shots (unless you're playing on Hard)
But what makes it so great is that there are advantages to both ways. If you change to the same polarity as them you will be safer, and you can power up your lethal homing cluster missiles attack, but then again you can destroy them quicker and get a higher score by being brave and making yourself vulberable.
Also you can build up your chain combos and earn huge amounts of points by destroying 3+ ships of the same polarity. Naturally, you will be faced with ships and fire of each polarity at the same time for most of the game. The strategy element therefore is remarkable, and getting anywhere will require quick thinking and quicker reflexes. Another thing that struck me was that unlike the Monkeys Balls games, it has never once left me feeling frustrated, and I've never felt like the game was being unfair or irritating at anytime.
The graphics are pretty much what you'd expect, at some points I thought it could have done with some improved back grounds, but then when you think of the amount of ships and bulliets on the screen at one time, it's acceptable. Besides, if you actually want to be half good at you won't have time to admire the background anyway.
There's a few game modes, the normal story mode, trial mode (which is just the first 2 chapters, with unlimited lives for the first chapter), practice mode (choose a level to practice), Conquest; where you can choose a stage of a level and work on your technique, you can choose the difficulty and also if you want to play in slow motion for refinement. And of course, there's the 2 player co-op which I havne't tried yet.
There are also 4 modes you can unlock (I don't know what they are yet). They require things like beating Trial Mode on normal with one credit (continue), and beating the story on normal with one credit (which would only take...say..a year). But they can also be unlocked in a SSBM way, the first of the four will be unlocked after 5 hours of play time, the second 10 hours and then 15 and 20 hours for the others.
Lastly, there is a challenge mode, with is the story mode on normal, you are given one credit and you have to get the highest score possible. You will also get given a code, which I'm guessing is your score in some form of encryption; you can enter it on the website to enter your score in the world rankings. The top 5 for each category win a prize when it ends (July 31st).
Summary:
+ Classic retro action
+ Quick thinking
+ On the fly strategy
+ Hours and hours of game play
+ Extremely addictive
+ Very challenging
+ Enter world rankings
+ 2 Player co-op
- Slow down when a boss explodes, although it doesn't really matter because it's the end of the chapter.
- Doesn't give you cash for a high score.
- ..er..that's it.
And one final thing. I've spent ages playing it today, and I made it into the world rankings! Yep, for a whole glorious 15 minutes I was ranked as the 100th best player in the world at Ikaruga. I've been knocked off now, but I took a screenshot as a memento:
www.geocities.com/whitestripes15/ikaruga.JPG
This game really is a touch of genius. You probably know it's a classic 2D scrolling shoot 'em up, and that instead of having the usual selection of power-ups, you can switch between being white or black. And I must say that it's probably the best decision made in a game for years.The enemy ships are either white or black, and depending on what polarity you are affects what happens:
Same polarity:
Their shots can't hurt you.
You absorb their fire with the bulliet eater technique, which powers up your homing missiles.
When you destroy them they fire 4/5 shots at you.
Different polarity:
Their shots will destroy you.
You inflict double damage on them.
You earn double points for destroying them.
When you destroy them they don't fire any shots (unless you're playing on Hard)
But what makes it so great is that there are advantages to both ways. If you change to the same polarity as them you will be safer, and you can power up your lethal homing cluster missiles attack, but then again you can destroy them quicker and get a higher score by being brave and making yourself vulberable.
Also you can build up your chain combos and earn huge amounts of points by destroying 3+ ships of the same polarity. Naturally, you will be faced with ships and fire of each polarity at the same time for most of the game. The strategy element therefore is remarkable, and getting anywhere will require quick thinking and quicker reflexes. Another thing that struck me was that unlike the Monkeys Balls games, it has never once left me feeling frustrated, and I've never felt like the game was being unfair or irritating at anytime.
The graphics are pretty much what you'd expect, at some points I thought it could have done with some improved back grounds, but then when you think of the amount of ships and bulliets on the screen at one time, it's acceptable. Besides, if you actually want to be half good at you won't have time to admire the background anyway.
There's a few game modes, the normal story mode, trial mode (which is just the first 2 chapters, with unlimited lives for the first chapter), practice mode (choose a level to practice), Conquest; where you can choose a stage of a level and work on your technique, you can choose the difficulty and also if you want to play in slow motion for refinement. And of course, there's the 2 player co-op which I havne't tried yet.
There are also 4 modes you can unlock (I don't know what they are yet). They require things like beating Trial Mode on normal with one credit (continue), and beating the story on normal with one credit (which would only take...say..a year). But they can also be unlocked in a SSBM way, the first of the four will be unlocked after 5 hours of play time, the second 10 hours and then 15 and 20 hours for the others.
Lastly, there is a challenge mode, with is the story mode on normal, you are given one credit and you have to get the highest score possible. You will also get given a code, which I'm guessing is your score in some form of encryption; you can enter it on the website to enter your score in the world rankings. The top 5 for each category win a prize when it ends (July 31st).
Summary:
+ Classic retro action
+ Quick thinking
+ On the fly strategy
+ Hours and hours of game play
+ Extremely addictive
+ Very challenging
+ Enter world rankings
+ 2 Player co-op
- Slow down when a boss explodes, although it doesn't really matter because it's the end of the chapter.
- Doesn't give you cash for a high score.
- ..er..that's it.
And one final thing. I've spent ages playing it today, and I made it into the world rankings! Yep, for a whole glorious 15 minutes I was ranked as the 100th best player in the world at Ikaruga. I've been knocked off now, but I took a screenshot as a memento:
www.geocities.com/whitestripes15/ikaruga.JPG
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I'm just, quite simply, crap at chaining. How come on one go it say how many chains I'd got and then after I haven't got that since? :-\
Anyway, just got to last boss, he's extremely fast... isn't he...
Quite annoyed, actually, made some really stupid mistakes and lost lives. Got to halfway through the 3rd level with only one life lost, again, another stupid mistake, then lost two on the mini-boss, and after the main boss, ended up with 6 credits. I also did crap on the 4th level, and just missed the boss bonus. I did quite well on the final chapter, thought, beating that 4-head and 2-head mini-boss fairly easily... then I got caught out by uber-fast polarity changing. D'oh.
Anyway, just got to last boss, he's extremely fast... isn't he...
Quite annoyed, actually, made some really stupid mistakes and lost lives. Got to halfway through the 3rd level with only one life lost, again, another stupid mistake, then lost two on the mini-boss, and after the main boss, ended up with 6 credits. I also did crap on the 4th level, and just missed the boss bonus. I did quite well on the final chapter, thought, beating that 4-head and 2-head mini-boss fairly easily... then I got caught out by uber-fast polarity changing. D'oh.
Rickoss, nice to see I'm not alone in this topic, go to the gamefaqs forum for Ikaruga at
http://s3.cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/gentopic.asp?board=34161
there are some topics on there with links to movies of high scores if you want to see how chaining should be done (and achieve 30+ million !)
keep practising, I'm still stuck on a maximum chain of 63 on Chapter 1, I think 128 chain is possible (and a score of just over 4 million)
http://s3.cgi.gamefaqs.com/boards/gentopic.asp?board=34161
there are some topics on there with links to movies of high scores if you want to see how chaining should be done (and achieve 30+ million !)
keep practising, I'm still stuck on a maximum chain of 63 on Chapter 1, I think 128 chain is possible (and a score of just over 4 million)
The most I've got is 23 chains, I'm pretty bad at that :-D
Anyway, closest I've got to completion is that mini-boss with 4 heads. Has two credits, but still died. Damn those guns!
Anyway, closest I've got to completion is that mini-boss with 4 heads. Has two credits, but still died. Damn those guns!
cookie monster wrote:
>
> Ive not seen any of the vids, no. Ive only got a 56k modem.
most are only about 15mb per chapter, using getright you could just download a bit everytime your online. Let me know if you need any links, I have about 4 movies per chapter.
Also, whose Alistair ?
>
> Ive not seen any of the vids, no. Ive only got a 56k modem.
most are only about 15mb per chapter, using getright you could just download a bit everytime your online. Let me know if you need any links, I have about 4 movies per chapter.
Also, whose Alistair ?
Valentino Rossi wrote:
> excellent review Cookie, has you downloaded and watched any of the
> high score movies of the web ?
Cheers man, still not good enough to win though. Well done to alastair.
*wears fake smile*
Ive not seen any of the vids, no. Ive only got a 56k modem.
> excellent review Cookie, has you downloaded and watched any of the
> high score movies of the web ?
Cheers man, still not good enough to win though. Well done to alastair.
*wears fake smile*
Ive not seen any of the vids, no. Ive only got a 56k modem.
Maverick, the game has a built in challenge mode (set at normal difficulty and 3 lives, no continues, you cannot alter these - so everyone takes part on a level playing field)
Once your game is over you get a 12 digit password relating to your score, look at www.ikaruga-atari.net for more info. My best is 2.1 million, a few people have scored over 30 million but the game came out in Japan in January and USA in April so us Brits are again way behind. There is a way to see a UK only leaderboard also, I will explain how to get to it if your interested.
Once your game is over you get a 12 digit password relating to your score, look at www.ikaruga-atari.net for more info. My best is 2.1 million, a few people have scored over 30 million but the game came out in Japan in January and USA in April so us Brits are again way behind. There is a way to see a UK only leaderboard also, I will explain how to get to it if your interested.
Codes.
I think.
I think.
Is Ikaruga an online game? Otherwise, how would this world ratings thing work?
excellent review Cookie, has you downloaded and watched any of the high score movies of the web ? they are insane, the players must have photographic memories, bascially you need to know the whole level off by heart to pick off enemy's in order (for chains) and before they disappear off screen
There must be people than me just playing/impressed by this game ? where are you and what are your scores ......
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