Ikaruga
System: GameCube
Publisher: Atari (Infogrames)
Developer: Treasure Video
Games
Released: April 2003
Genre: Shooter
Capabilities: Memory Card (4 Blocks)
Review Written: June 7, 2003
Ikaruga is a traditional overhead shooter (like
Gladius and Raiden) which has an interesting story on
how it made its way to America. It was first released in Japan arcades and
was one of the last Japanese Dreamcast games to be released in late
2002 (there still are Dreamcast games being released in Japan, but
it’s all those crazy dating sims that everyone overseas goes
nuts about). However, by that time there wasn’t a new game
released for the American Dreamcast in over half a year and there was
no chance that it would appear on the ill-fated console in America. The
media was buzzing about how this was one of the best shooters to appear in a
while and petitions popped up everywhere on the Internet to get this game
released in America. Infogrames was the publisher who reacted and
released this game under its subsidiary label, Atari on the GameCube.
I never really cared for stories in shooters, all you need is a setting and
boom, and you’re good. It’s all about blowing things up that people
care about in this dying genre, but I’ll give you an overview of the
background for Ikaruga. You take the role of Shinra,
the sole survivor of the freedom federation, Tenkaku. Shinra
refused to lose and fought the battle alone. Suffice to say, he got shot
down in quick order and crash landed in a tiny village of Ikaruga,
the villagers trusted him so much they gave him a new fighter plane also
named Ikaruga. So there you have it, the story that no one cares
about, and to prove my point that storylines don’t matter in shooters
just name a few shooters where cut scenes appear in-between levels? That’s
what I thought. ;)
Ikaruga controls a bit differently from most of your average
shooters. The main focus of it all is the two main polarities (colors):
black and white. These are the colors for the enemies and your plane
(polarity can be changed with a quick flick of the A button). The trick is
to absorb all the enemy fire with the corresponding polarity of your plane,
so absorb all white enemy fire when the plane’s polarity is white,
and vice versa for black fire. There’s a meter of how much enemy fire
you absorbed, and this attack (dubbed the ‘energy release’) can be unleashed
at any level with a press of the R shoulder button. The higher your meter
is, the more powerful your attack.
The whole polarity facsimile adds many twists and turns to gameplay.
I found myself navigating around mazes of trapped doors, while blasting away
enemies and quickly changing polarities to absorb as much enemy fire as I
can to build up my energy release. This can prove to be rather challenging
and cumbersome simultaneously. Keeping up with the polarities require quick
wits at levels that were never dreamed upon in previous shooters. If this is
too fast for you to handle, there is a ‘prototype’ option of gameplay
available where it throws the polarity system away, and you have a specific
reserve of ammo to use for each stage depending on the difficulty level you
select. The only downside to this is that you must first beat the main game
to unlock the prototype option.
There are also a few more extra ways to play Ikaruga. There is
the standard ‘normal play’ mode which is pretty much a direct arcade port
where you play through the game’s 18 stages. Then there is the
aforementioned prototype option. The ‘practice’ and ‘conquest’ modes are
identical where you have a single credit to play in any level that you
unlocked in normal play, the only difference in conquest is that you have a
few different game speeds to choose from. The last way to play is exclusive
to the GameCube verion, and it is Challenge mode where you
play through Ikaruga using a specific set of game options.
Once you’re done playing you get a 12 character password which you enter on
the official Ikaruga webpage that uploads your high
score.
Ikaruga has your typical overhead 2D view used in
shooters, but also mixes in some nice 3D backdrops for some sweet
looking transition effects in-between levels and has some spectacular 3D
models for bosses to boot. The thing I like about shooters is the massive
explosions and blasts I come to expect out of them, Ikaruga
has them in spades. Destroying a boss after a tremendous battle is a
satisfying experience as I witnessed the huge explosion with a cool slow
motion effect mixed in to up the cool factor. Even though the default camera
is the directly-ported vertical view, there are a few extra unique camera
options such as a horizontal perspective, and a view designed for you to
play the game with your television tipped on its side.
A lot of gamers I know are saying that only the simple overhead view of
action does so much for gameplay, as it seems the majority of gamers
are shifting towards 3D shooters such as Defender and the
upcoming Starfox. The sales of Ikaruga so far
beg to differ. This is as good as your traditional overhead shooters are
going to get, as a matter of fact I wouldn’t be surprised if
it was the genres last hurrah either.
The audio has a personality of its own with a diverse array of sound effects
for your fighter plane, and all the abundant amount of blasts and explosions
that occur. There is this unique voice which has a rather “digitized” voice
like the one found for the announcer in Capcom vs. SNK.
The background music reminds me of what I’d usually come to expect out of
your average RPG, but surprisingly, the upbeat orchestra tunes work
quite well in Ikaruga.
The five levels consist of a total of 18 stages, and only takes an average
of about five to six hours to beat. Playing it through with a friend in two
player is also fun for a while. While playing it through a few times still
isn’t all that long totaled up, the developers made sure to
add a fair amount of extras to keep you hooked. The most interesting aspect
is the Challenge mode to see how you fare against the world’s best
Ikaruga players. There are a bit of extras to unlock such as the
above mentioned prototype mode, some galleries of concept art, and a handful
of other goodies too. They can be unlocked in by either beating the game
modes with certain specifications met (like using only a handful of lives to
complete the game) or by clocking in a certain amount of gameplay
time that is kept track via the save/load screen.
RATINGS
Graphics: 8.2
Sound: 9.1
Gameplay: 8.5
Replay Value: 8.0
Overall: 8.4
The GameCube seems to be the place for Dreamcast ports, and
Ikaruga proves to be another great one in GameCube’s
library. It’s hard to find shooters made like this nowadays, and made
this well I might add. For anyone who remembers pumping countless quarters
at the arcades into classics such as Raiden and Gladius,
you owe it to yourself to experience it all one more time with Ikaruga.