Dreamcast game reviewed by: dj_xero

Title:             Ikaruga
Genre:          vertical shmup
Developer:   Treasure
Platform:      Dreamcast

But now, this nation calls itself Shintsusha. They have gotten
"the power of God" and begin to conquer other nations by military
power.

This incident was caused by the Ubusubagami Oukinokai which Hourai
Tenrou dug from the ground several years ago. Hourai was able to
perform miracles after he discovered the Ubusubagami Oukinokai.

An organization called "Tenkaku", which is a force of freedom,
went to battle with Hourai. The Tenkaku used a fighter called the
"Hitekkai". The "Tenkaku" where quickly annihilated.

However, a young man named Shinra survived. He went to fight against
Hourai again, and was shot down.

He landed in the village of Ikaruga, where an elderly man named
"Kazemori" helped him. Shinra recovered from his injuries and vowed to
fight against Hourai again. Kazemori entrusted the fighter "Ikaruga"
to Shinra to fight against Hourai.

Okay, so I haven't been around in the review section, well, just about at all for a long, long time. Let's face it, I just dont review well... or rather, I just haven't been playing alot of new games lately. The Dreamcast has give me more than enough entertainment for the past 2 or 3 or so years, and it continues to do so.

So picture the look on my face when I learn that there is one more Dreamcast being released, well after the system's untimely demise, and it's made by Treasure. Yeah, Treasure, pretty crazy, right.

Ikaruga is an overhead vertical shooter, which as most of you know, I am completely obsessed with these types of games, and as you also know: these games have gotten so incredibly difficult over the years your brains would just explode looking at the video screen.

it boils down to this: BLOW UP EVERYTHING WITH LOTS OF GUNS! now that that's settled...

Gameplay:

There are black enemies and white enemies, which each shoot black and white bullets, respectively. Your ship can change colors, from white to black, alternately shooting each color. In black mode, you absorb black bullets, though the white bullets are deadly, vice versa. Additionally, your black bullets will do more damage to white enemies, vice versa. AND, when you destroy an enemy with the same color, it drops more bullets of the same color. AND, this game totally gets me off in ways that are unimaginable, AND, it has an insane combo system: for instance, kill 3 white enemies in a row: 1 combo, 3 more, 2 combo, 3 more black enemies in a row: 3 combo, all in threes. So to keep a combo, you have to actually be wary of what you're firing at, not just destroying everything on the screen. Which is sooooo hard to do when the screen is full multicolored enemies, and you're surrounded by bullets with seemingly no way out... just insane.

Controls are simple, 2 buttons, fire, and bomb, use both to switch colors, tap the fire for a single shot, hold it down for twin gun rapid fire. Killing enemies is no problem, it's dodging bullets and keeping a combo that is... I'll have to compare alot of the control's to Gigawing2, not in the analog control(which Ikaruga unfortunately lacks), but in that the hit detection of a bullet hitting your plane is incredibly small. There's only a few pixels in the center of your plane that can be hit... so believe me when I say this game is much much easier (relative) on a larger screen tv/monitor.

Graphics:

What can I say, the game looks incredible. Sure Sure, there'll be alot of people out there complaining that the screen is too damn small, but what do you want? It's an arcade shooter, the screen was meant to be that small for an arcade machine! Although not fully 3d, Ikaruga pulls of some stunning scenes and effects, yes, the Dreamcast still ROCKS YOUR ASS.

Music/Sound:

You all know me, the audiophile, i love a good game with good music and good sound effects, the simple fact of having decent music and sound can almost always make up for anything lacking in the game. Unfortunately Ikaruga's sound effects are sub-par, the classic machinegun effects, no big bass for missles or anything like that. The music, on the other hand, is quite good, sounds like well done classic game music, but nothing spectacular or overly different about it.

Overall:

From what I'm told, the game is too short, containing what I believe only to be 6 or 7 stages. I CANNOT DEFEAT THE 3RD STAGE. This game is incredibly difficult, but so awesome you wanna keep playing. The only problem is, it only gives you so many continues, and you only earn more continues by how many hours you play... which kinda sucks, playing the same 3 stages for hours and hours... really boring that way, but with practice, and a large tv (you need alot of screen, those bullets get tiny), it shouldn't be a problem. I would recommend this game to any fan of shooters, that's all, this one aint for everybody, but it's damn nice to look at as well!

Rating out of "video game zen like state" twitches:
7 out of 10 twitches. THANK YOU TREASURE!