Ikaruga review for the Sega Dreamcast


Released in 2002 by .
Wow another vertical scrolling shoot 'em up is released and what more it's released on a DEAD SYSTEM; the Sega Dreamcast.
Props to Treasure for having the balls to do this.
Included in the follow up of Radiant Silvergun subtitled "Project RS-2" is a full screen "vertical arcade mode".
Check the How to.. section of this site for instructions on how to succesfully rotate your monitor.


"It doesn't matter if it's black or white" [Mischael Jackson]. Well it does in this game, it's all about black or white.
There are black enemies & there are white enemies. The black enemies shoot black bullets & the white enemies shoot white bullets.
You have a constant shield around your ship (all the time), no button pressing is needed for this.
You can change the color of your shield with the change button. change it to either black or white. The black shield can only absorb black bullets. The white shield can only absorb white bullets.



You are however vulnurable to the enemies themselves; touch them & it's bye bye. regardless of what color your shield is.
Absorbing bullets builds up a power meter consisting 10 segments.



When you have one or more segments charged up you can release the power by pressing the button "release power". This will release the homing lasers displayed below.



When for instance 10 black bullets & 1 white bullet approach you, you'll make sure you have the black shield so you can absorb the black bullets to build up your power meter & only have to worry about getting hit by one white bullet.
You can offcourse also absorb all black bullets with your black shield & then quickly change to white shield to absorb that other white bullet.
What's funny is that when you have a white shield you need to avoid black bullets, but when you change your shield to black those black bullets suddenly become your friends as you can absorb them to build up power. This can become frustrating and very hard when you have to switch between shields quickly when being approached by black & white swarms of bullets. You constantly have to switch your mind state: switch, collect, avoid, switch, switch, switch.

Partialy explained above there are three buttons at your disposal:
-shot
-release power, which can be looked upon as a smart-bomb. Pressing shot+change will also release power but this can be disabled.
-change, change the color of your shield.

I play this game with a "total control"-adapter to play with a playstation pad. I set my controls like this:
shot C(R), change X, release power A.
This way you can continiously hold the "shot" C(R) button (either R1 or R2 on PS-pad) and free your thumb for "change" X (
on PS-pad) & for "release power" A (X on PS-pad).



FACT FILE     

Vertical arcade mode   Yes
Unlimited continues    No 
Levels                 5  
Aircraft               1  
BGM Audio test mode    No 
CD player audio        No 


THE GOOD, THE BAD & TH.......
I'm not a fan of Radiant Silvergun because it's so boring. I'm glad Treasure opted for a vertical monitor this time around. (RS was for a horizontal monitor).
But, it's stil not very exciting. There's no real drive to keep playing this game.
Some level designs are directly from RS like the maze thing made up of big blocks. These among other aspects make it kind of a puzzle game. It's more a puzzle game than Twinkle Star Sprites, which is sometimes refered to as a puzzle-shooter.
I like puzzle games very much but the two don't match well.
Same deal with Kingdom GrandPrix, a game that tries to combine racing & shooting.
On a possitive note: the boss characters are very nice indeed and blow the bosses from Zero Gunner 2 away.
The explosions of the bosses are the best ever.
But overall I think Zero Gunner 2 is a much better game. Giga Wing 2 has better 3D level design.
The music is ace & will blow you away. The sound effects are also of high quality

This game though, really does go back to basics.
There is only one ship. There are only 5 levels. There are no power ups for your shot.
I like simplicity though and I'm glad Treasure got rid of the RS weapon system where you allways have 6 different weapons at your disposal.
But throw some power ups in this game or something damn.
The black & white themes make Ikaruga very colorless. All enemy ships are either black or white.
Also some enemies are very small & make it look like your playing a very old game.
The backgrounds while all in wonderfull 3D are simple designs & look very cold with little color.
When designing 3D vertical scrolling shoot 'em ups designers need to pay more attention to playability instead of ..........well.....everything other aspect of the game.
The two different color theme is a nice touch, but should not have been the basis for the entire game and leave everything else a traditional shoot 'em up has out.
I want more color, power ups, more ships. Ikaruga seems like an unfinished game.
There however a few secret options to be unlocked. Here's how:
1st, beat trial mode in a single credit
2nd, beat the game using continues
3rd, beat Easy in a single credit
4th, beat Normal on a single credit
You are vulnerable when switching the color of your shield; I find it takes too long to switch; sometimes you need to switch quickly & you'll die because you are in the middel of switching.
IMPORTANT******************************************
your ship moves way too slow. And I mean reeeeaaaaallllyyyyy ssssslllloooowwww. Slower even than Raiden Project & Raiden DX on the Playstation.
The stunningly slow ship is so lame. Why did Treasure do this? Treasure has certainly proved themselves to the gaming community.
Somebody important in the company probably wanted a slow ship. The programmers couln't have wanted such a slow moving ship. What is behind all this? This game is not a good example of a good shooter.
**********************************************************
Now you might think that I'm bitchin' because making your ship move faster would make the game too easy!
It's like crossing a busy street in a wheel chair. It is very hard, but is it fun?
I want the game to be more playable (faster moving ship) & the enemies harder. So the difficulty stays the same but it'll be more action packed and more fun.



Verdict:

Playability 3
Music 8
Lastability 2
Graphics 7

Overall 5
This rating will probably make a lot of people angry, but Ikaruga is not as great as I expected it to be. For Ikaruga 2 Treasure needs to consult me.
It nevertheless is a safe buy and will probably be worth hundreds of euro's in the future.

screenshots: