XBLA Today: Ikaruga

So here it is, a little late, but better then never. No excuses, so here we go.

As some of you may know, Ikaruga has had plenty of gamers excited for it to come out to XBLA for quite some time, and plenty of you already know what it’s all about. If not, full reviews are easy to find of it. So, knowing this, I’m going to focus a little bit on whether is holds up to the original, but still give plenty gameplay info for those who don’t know about it.

First of all, all of you know, or at least have an idea, what shoot-em-ups (a.k.a. shmups) are. The fast paced, you have one ship, and they have 1000, bullets everywhere, with wave after wave of enemies, game. This is a shmup. But, there are two main differences between this and most other shumups.

First, no, and I mean no, power-ups. What you start with is what you get. It is good in two ways, 1, it makes skill the only way to beat the game, not a overpowered power-up. Two, when in these games with power-ups, when you die, you end up in a really hard spot, with a really basic shot, and you usually die again. Here, the weapons you have work for every level.

Next is the polarity system. You can change the polarity of your ship from dark to light. The use of this is enemies of the same polarity, their bullets do not harm you. They actually fill up a meter which you unleash with the power button, homing missiles. Opposite polarity enemies however, their bullets will kill you, one hit, and your bullets do double damage to them. This, as the levels go up, created a more complex system, where you have to use the polarity to survive.

The XBLA version seems to live up to the games before it very well, looks good, plays well (after I changed the default controls), and still has the insane difficulty from before. Don’t worry, there is 3 difficulty levels so those new to the game, and shmups in general have a chance. There is also an online and offline 2 player multiplayer to change up your strategic plans even more. And if you are really good, there is a video recording option so you can show off to your friends how good you are, without them actually seeing you play.

In the end, the game is still really good, but hard as well. It is considered to be one of the best shmups ever, and I would tend to agree with that statement. I would recommend changing the default controls, but try them out first just in case. A definite pickup for shmup fans, and at least a trail run for everyone else. Try the trial and see for yourself. See you next week on XBLA Today (and hopefully I’ll be on time next week.)