I must say, being one of my favourite genres and despite the fact i've bought the game twice, i feel rather honoured to be doing this review. Ikaruga is looked upon as one of the de-facto shmups of all time and certainly one that has influenced a good few homebrew and douijn based shmup games available on the PC. Treasure themselves are an interesting company. Their one of few that dabble in mainstream games like Wario World, which will then usually go on to fund either surrealist titles, hardcore shmups, or their main staple which was run n' jump platformers although recent games have seen them delve into the good but reportedly unbalanced 2D fighting series, Bleach and the another quality shmup, Bangai-O-sprits both of which have seen release on the DS. They have a huge fanbase too, as their games usually feature a mix of great concept, artwork or gameplay although i must stress that anyone new to Treasure's games may feel short changed with this title as their games are notoriously hard to the average gamer. Therefore i warn anyone who is not willing to spend time with the game that you will get hammered. A lot. But i will also balance that by simply stating that this game does not cheat. It simply requires pixel perfect shooting and dodging skills.
Ikargua originally came about in the Arcades of Japan in 2001, based on Sega's NAOMI arcade system. It has since been ported to both the Dreamcast (Japan only) and Gamecube (Worldwide). It was considered the Spiritual sequel to the superb arcade and Saturn game - Radiant Silvergun but the two games are very contrasting. The ship in RS uses a 7 weapon battle system, whereby the Ikaruga (and Ginkei ship) use only 2. But the game features 3 important concepts which must all be mastered for you to have any chance of scoring well. The first concept is that your ship can change polarities and by that i mean it can change shade from either black or white (this concept can also be seen in Treasure's Silhouette Mirage - PSX, Saturn). If your in black polarity your fire is more powerful to white enemies but white bullets will kill you. You can also absorb any bullets/lasers of any same colour ship so in this example, being black, you can absorb black bullets. The reverse rules applies if your a white ship. Absorbing Bullets increases your energy for your second weapon - homing lasers. At first in appears to be a smart bomb clearing most of the screen of enemies but master this and you'll realise it is in fact a secondary weapon because it can power up relatively quickly. Its effects are dependent on the energy you have absorbed with more energy improving its firepower. So thats concept one. Concept two is a more simple chaining mechanic. Simply shoot 3 enemies of either black or white to a maximum of 8 chains. After this, every chain completed (that is for every 3 enemies hit) will earn you 25600 points. The 3rd and final concept is simpler still. You have 2 types of fire - auto fire (hold down button), or single shots (tap button). And thats it. Easy to learn. Very hard to master. The reason for this is that the levels and enemy attacks patterns are designed to allow you to massively exploit the polarity changes, homing laser attacks and type of shooting. Initially enemies attack in groups of 3, but further waves will see you having to completely alter your thinking if you are to achieve maximum scores. Simply put All 3 concepts must be exploited. Most enemies when shot will also release bullets of their colour and if you've changed polarity you risk being killed but you need to be in a position and colour to make the most of the chaining mechanic. So you can see the sub-layers this game offers and there there in abundance. This sub-layer is further strengthened by hidden enemy waves which only appear if the normal wave is destroyed quickly.
Graphically the game is one of the best looking shmups out there. Its a 2D game with 3D backgrounds but these backgrounds are truly superb. Each of the 5 levels are mainly set around industrial planets or giant spaceship and features extremely detailed "nut and bolt" styling's with miniature details visible on every single sprite and ship. Despite the black/white concept, the use of colour has been mastered too with blue and red outlined lasers filling the screen, along with yellows for the explosions. The backgrounds are shaded pastel slightly for atmosphere and to contrast with the foreground sprites. As a result it looks stylishly colour balanced. The levels constantly barrage you in a stream of overlapping bullets and on first play these will simply dazzle you to the point where you'll die because your not concentrating. As for the bosses, well, they're all works of mech art and are superbly animated where they need to be. They nothing you haven't really seen before BUT their detail is shockingly amazing at times. Even the large boss death explosions are slowed down to emphasize scale. Music too is superb with some lush professional orchestral pieces highlighting the industrial and military pace of the levels and a rather cool sonic alarm with manic robotic warning when a boss approaches.
To end, this game is well worth the 800 points. It must rate as the joint best shmup on XBLA so far and like Rez before it, even if you've owned the previous versions you've never seen them in HD. Replay modes are in as are full Vert screen orientation (called "tate" - or rather rotate if you wish to rotate your monitor). Its a vertical arcade game by default so they've accommodated widescreen owners. Normal mode ("Yoko") has obvious borders but support is there for 16:10 widescreen and any level of zoom you could wish for. Border pictures can be turned on or off. There are some omissions from the Dreamcast version, namely slo-mode which allowed players to work out their positioning but replays vids are available on live and at this price it matters not. Sadly also gone is the original intro but personally i feel this is only an issue to previous owners. The game stills feels complete as an XBLA title. I must also stress it works a treat with the analog stick on a stock 360 pad. I just hope Treasure see fit to release more shumps and see XBLA as a true home for their stunning games.