If you don't already know, Ikaruga was released onto the Marketplace this past week to the oh-so-wonderful tune of 800 MS points. For the unknowing, that is about $12AUD compared to the grotesque sound of something like $90-100 for it at retail on the beloved Gamecube as can be seen below.
It disgusts me, too.
The reason I'm pointing out the savings of getting this gem on the LIVE that is Xbox is because it is a gem. As far as 2D Shoot 'em Ups (Shmups) go, this is one of the best ever made. I'd say that the reason for this would be that it is a stock standard shooter up to a point, and then tacks on something obscenely cool to mix it all up. Let me explain:
In your standard shooter you pilot some kind of land- or aircraft. Your job is to be a one-an army against a more-than-one-man army which involves dodging any number of bullets, enemy ships, and obstacles on the path to glory. Typically, you'll have either a life-bar of some sort, or a less forgiving one-hit one-kill situation (it's how coin-operated games make their money). Your craft has one or more weapons and to even things out you will generally have at least 1 field leveling (literally) super weapon. In Heavy Weapon it's your nuke, Geometry Wars has that bomb thing and Ikaruga has fancy homing laser things.
One thing changes the way this game does the Shmup genre. That thing is polarity.
Your ship can alternate between light and dark polarities. The enemies in the game are either light or dark and as such they sure bullets of that same polarity. How does this change things, exactly? Well, your ship can actually absorb bullets of the same polarity as you. So if you are dark, and shooting at dark enemies who are shooting back at you then you are practically invincible. Get hit by a light shot, however, and it's R.I.P. for you. The downside to this is that shooting enemies with the same polarity only does normal damage. Dark enemies are weak against light polarity bullets. They do double damage, in fact. So now it's a matter of playing to be an efficient and risky killer, or a slowly but safely kinda thing. Then, for those people looking to get into the high-end of playing the game, there is a combo chaining system.
This system isn't just a matter of pewpew'ing your way through a stage and getting an uber score. It's much harder than that. In order to increase your chain by one you need to kill 3 of the same polarity enemies in a row. You can take as long as you like to get the 3, but your chain won't go up until you pop the third one in a row. Kill two lights then a dark, and your entire chain resets. It may sound easy, but amidst the torrential downpour (at times) of bullets it is difficult to maintain a chain.
If you like 2D shooters at all, then you will love Ikaruga's gameplay. With humble beginnings about 7 years ago on the Dreamcast, then moving on to the Gamecube. That same game is here on Xbox LIVE for a much nicer price and you'd be hard pressed to find anything else as good and cheap.
But now, on to slightly less important things about the game.
The graphics are as good as they were back in the day, maybe even better. From what I understand, the graphics were re-done or optimised or something to that effect for LIVE, but that is inconsequential. The game runs perfectly, and the only slowdown you will ever experience is when the boss of a stage explodes and disappears. But where there are 30 or 40 or more enemies on screen and bullets flying everywhere, the game doesn't even flinch.
I believe my friend Robio best described the music of the game when he said it was "epic," and I agree. The music never intrudes on the game, it's only really overpowering at all the right times. Even if you find yourself failing on a stage over and over, that music will never get old. I should know, Robio and I tried some co-op the night we got it, and fail a lot we did, but the music was always awesome no matter how many times we heard it.
And there is not much more I can say. Given the fact that it is 7 years old and was initially released on a (great) console that would ultimately be doomed to failure, this is a great game. It shows what can be achieved when you take a stock-standard genre, and apply innovative new features to it. That's not to say that every game should feature a polarity system. But that if you have something that you could add to make it more interesting, then go for it (if you can do it well).
I don't really like giving games a score. If you like the genre, then you will most definitely like this game. If you don't, then you may not like it. The only sure way to tell is to go and download the trial version of it, have a go, and see for yourself.
It is 1337.
In your standard shooter you pilot some kind of land- or aircraft. Your job is to be a one-an army against a more-than-one-man army which involves dodging any number of bullets, enemy ships, and obstacles on the path to glory. Typically, you'll have either a life-bar of some sort, or a less forgiving one-hit one-kill situation (it's how coin-operated games make their money). Your craft has one or more weapons and to even things out you will generally have at least 1 field leveling (literally) super weapon. In Heavy Weapon it's your nuke, Geometry Wars has that bomb thing and Ikaruga has fancy homing laser things.
One thing changes the way this game does the Shmup genre. That thing is polarity.
Your ship can alternate between light and dark polarities. The enemies in the game are either light or dark and as such they sure bullets of that same polarity. How does this change things, exactly? Well, your ship can actually absorb bullets of the same polarity as you. So if you are dark, and shooting at dark enemies who are shooting back at you then you are practically invincible. Get hit by a light shot, however, and it's R.I.P. for you. The downside to this is that shooting enemies with the same polarity only does normal damage. Dark enemies are weak against light polarity bullets. They do double damage, in fact. So now it's a matter of playing to be an efficient and risky killer, or a slowly but safely kinda thing. Then, for those people looking to get into the high-end of playing the game, there is a combo chaining system.
This system isn't just a matter of pewpew'ing your way through a stage and getting an uber score. It's much harder than that. In order to increase your chain by one you need to kill 3 of the same polarity enemies in a row. You can take as long as you like to get the 3, but your chain won't go up until you pop the third one in a row. Kill two lights then a dark, and your entire chain resets. It may sound easy, but amidst the torrential downpour (at times) of bullets it is difficult to maintain a chain.
If you like 2D shooters at all, then you will love Ikaruga's gameplay. With humble beginnings about 7 years ago on the Dreamcast, then moving on to the Gamecube. That same game is here on Xbox LIVE for a much nicer price and you'd be hard pressed to find anything else as good and cheap.
But now, on to slightly less important things about the game.
The graphics are as good as they were back in the day, maybe even better. From what I understand, the graphics were re-done or optimised or something to that effect for LIVE, but that is inconsequential. The game runs perfectly, and the only slowdown you will ever experience is when the boss of a stage explodes and disappears. But where there are 30 or 40 or more enemies on screen and bullets flying everywhere, the game doesn't even flinch.
I believe my friend Robio best described the music of the game when he said it was "epic," and I agree. The music never intrudes on the game, it's only really overpowering at all the right times. Even if you find yourself failing on a stage over and over, that music will never get old. I should know, Robio and I tried some co-op the night we got it, and fail a lot we did, but the music was always awesome no matter how many times we heard it.
And there is not much more I can say. Given the fact that it is 7 years old and was initially released on a (great) console that would ultimately be doomed to failure, this is a great game. It shows what can be achieved when you take a stock-standard genre, and apply innovative new features to it. That's not to say that every game should feature a polarity system. But that if you have something that you could add to make it more interesting, then go for it (if you can do it well).
I don't really like giving games a score. If you like the genre, then you will most definitely like this game. If you don't, then you may not like it. The only sure way to tell is to go and download the trial version of it, have a go, and see for yourself.
It is 1337.
No comments:
Post a Comment