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"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

thanks for that, the leaderboard will become interesting after May 9th !!

I like taking on the Japs too, on MotoGP3 (PS2) latest Namco challenge I ranked 43rd (David Holliss) out of 92 entrants.

http://cgi.namco.co.jp/home/cs/ps2/ motogp3/ranking/chart/round3_off1.shtml

(remove space)

Valentino Rossi wrote:
> Whitestripes, have you read the forum for this game on gamefaqs.com ?
> you may pick up some tips/info (not saying you need any)

pffffffffftttttt

>
> One bit of interesting info I read was that there was a Japanese only
> contest from release (Mid Jan) until 1st April, to get into the top 50
> on 1st April you needed a score of wait for it ....
>
> Over 16 million
>

That doesn't surprise me. The Japs are beginning to fill up the top 50 in this competition now.



>
> Also two questions
> 1. Does the game have a built in clock telling you how long you've
> played for ?

Yes.

> 2. Can you continue until your continues run out and still get a
> password for your score or does your score reset to 0 when you
> continue ?

You only get a password for your score in challenge mode, and in challenge mode you only get 3 lives and no credits.


In the normal game, your score resets to zero when you use a credit.

Whitestripes, have you read the forum for this game on gamefaqs.com ? you may pick up some tips/info (not saying you need any)

One bit of interesting info I read was that there was a Japanese only contest from release (Mid Jan) until 1st April, to get into the top 50 on 1st April you needed a score of wait for it ....

Over 16 million

Apparently the leaderboard was cleared on April 1st and alot of the oringnal scores have not been resubmitted so beware !

Also two questions
1. Does the game have a built in clock telling you how long you've played for ?
2. Can you continue until your continues run out and still get a password for your score or does your score reset to 0 when you continue ?

Ta

woo


I just made it to chapter 5, admittidly only because I have earned so many credits; I didn't destroy the chapter 4 boss, I just tried to survive.


And I made over 4 million in challenge mode (the web ranking one).

Ah, I see, understood.

I do want Zelda but with a young baby I know I won't have the spare time it requires.

The other two games aren't quite as in depth - lot more easy to "pick up and play" for 15 minutes at a time.

How can u not want Zelda?? What's wrong with u??

there's only really this and Midnight Club 2 (PS2) I want at the moment which is nice and not too expensive :)
Will get Zelda eventually also

Heh.

I want this game now!

Along with many others.

I award Chapter 4 of Ikaruga the official Whitestripes Award for 'The Hardest Thing To Do In Any Game, Ever'