Why is Ikaruga so Damn Popular with Western Reviewers?

[evil_ash_xero]

I still think it's because it's unique(amongst shmups), good looking, and awesome. I also think that it's polygonal and well done, helps it a lot too. Seems more "modern" to most critics. I don't think they appreciate the sprites as much as we do. And the Treasure brand name doesn't hurt.

[KisakiProject]

Well I love it and as far as I can see the anti Ikaruga sentiment is a snobby thing. But given that other phenomenal shmups get overlooked that got released in the US like Raiden Fighter Aces. Also there was no coverage of the region free CAVE stuff to encourage imports.

So why is Ikaruga such a huge hit? Well the answer I think is simple.

1) Its avant garde. Western critics love anything artsy and color mechanic is arty.

2) Almost no anime. The artwork that is present as well is not Moe. Moe is appropriately looked down upon in western culture even amongst game nerds. So not having 12 year old girls running around shooting stuff is probably a huge turn plus for critics.

3) It is just so damn good despite.

That's why I think its a hit.

[gray117]

Firstly, its not just popular with western reviewers...

... If anything western reviewers were still a bit late to the party - it only became really popular in western circles after it appeared on xbla to be [(re)]discovered... very few of those reviewers who now sing its praises ever forked out for an import copy at the time, nor bought a gamecube for that game.

Obviously, the western release does help it's cause but that never helped gradius; instead ikaruga hits that sweet spot for intrigue, developer prestige, presentation, navel gazing and originality.

However, tired of it we may become there's no denying that I'd much rather a friend saying 'oh like ikaruga' when I show them dodonpachi, rather than, 'Oh, this isn't like modern warfare' .

As a niche you must learn to appreciate your successes where you find them...

[spadgy]

Consider that most of the reviewers are now the type that grew up with the PS1 or Gamecube instead of NES or Atari 2600.

That's an interesting point. At 30 I'm starting to be above the age of many of my contemporaries in the world of games journalism (and development )

Also, Ikaruga's just become one of those games with all the right cultural pointers to make a casual reference to it grant a given publication this bullshit 'cool' credibility. It strokes the ego of readers who consider themselves particularly edgy and hip; readers who can smile at how 'hardcore' and informed they are when they know what it is. those same readers can can even toy with the idea that it's something thing no other readers will get. Pretentious back's scratched.

It's the same logic that means we're obligied to start hating it.

Hell - I might even be guilty of it (and maybe taking it a step further). When Develop magazine got to issue 100, we did a top 100 games, as hand picked by developers and those in the games industry. A couple went with Ikaruga. I campaigned hard for Battle Garegga instead, and if I'm honest, that was partly because I was acutely aware that selecting Ikaruga was perhaps a bit of a thoughtless choice.

In turning my nose up at Ikaruga, I was guilty of the pretentious act of reactionism in the face of convention. In selecting Battle Garegga, perhaps I was being just as bad as those mags thinking they are so high-and-mighty picking Ikaruga for coverage.

I love both games. I owe a lot of my time in the shmups community to its GC release.

Games journalists are just ordinary guys, suseptable to the same shortcomings as

[DEL]

To me its not a shoot'em up. Any game with THAT much invincibility eg. black white black white black white, is a puzzle game.

That aside, Plasmo likes it so it must be worthy of something

As for its popularity, the factors that have already been mentioned are correct:
*General Western mainstream release
*Arty Grandiose look and sound appealing to reviewers who lap that shit up.
The equivalent of Western film critics giving bus174 100% because its real life, gritty ghetto and the crappy Gomorrah getting a good review for the same reasons.
(Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying Ikaruga is bad at all , I'm just saying its not quite a shoot'em up).

spadgy's paragraph is good:

Also, Ikaruga's just become one of those games with all the right cultural pointers to make a casual reference to it grant a given publication this bullshit 'cool' credibility. It strokes the ego of readers who consider themselves particularly edgy and hip; readers who can smile at how 'hardcore' and informed they are when they know what it is. those same readers can can even toy with the idea that it's something thing no other readers will get. Pretentious back's scratched.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

@ Spadgy at 30 years old not too old for games!! Like me (im 31 even though i write and spell like a 10 y/o) someone whose the best age to be a gamer since youve experienced all the best moments in gaming IE 8bit - today, sure we missed the very birth of the industry, especially in the arcades with Space Invaders and Pacman mania. But for me all the important eras started after the 80s VG crash when Nintendo brought the NES or more applicable to us Brits we got our 8bit home computers like the speccy +2 and the birth of bedroom programming.

Aslong as you keep open minded to new stuff, youll always have 1up on those young wipper snappers. I bet its funny when you see younger gamers going on about a new game or feature proclaiming it to be modern and fresh, when in reality its just a rehash of an old concept that hasnt been used for awhile.

I know you didnt say youre too old but im gonna pretend you did to give me an excuse to bring up the old times

[Obiwanshinobi]

To me its not a shoot'em up. Any game with THAT much invincibility eg. black white black white black white, is a puzzle game.

What little Ikaruga I played felt shooty-shooty to me. Shooting feels like shooting there I would say. Cave games, on the contrary, don't feel a whole lot like shmups to me. Even those few of them I like: Dangun Feveron is more of a collecting dudes and dodging stuff game than shooting game, Guwange is more of a rubbing a squid (I know it's a fox, but still...) against bad dudes, dodging stuff and collecting coins game than shooting game, and so on and so on. Frankly, the only bullet hell games doing what I want a shmup to do for me would be Dragon Blaze and Gunbird 2 (if you count them as bullet hell games, that is).
There's actually a bunch of games I'd call post-shmups: Shikigami no Shiro series, Psyvariars, Vasaras... Ikaruga, however, does the very shooting thing right.
Oh yes, the original DonPachi feels like a shmup. Terrific presentation, but replaying two first levels over and over again for the sake of 1cc turns me down (even the Hong Kong version) and I don't have a thing for chaining.

Consider that most of the reviewers are now the type that grew up with the PS1 or Gamecube instead of NES or Atari 2600.

That's an interesting point. At 30 I'm starting to be above the age of many of my contemporaries in the world of games journalism (and development )

I'm under the impression that 30 is about the average age of dudes hanging around on forums such as this one. Moreover, I don't expect much younger people to debate about games in such a navel gazing manner. It's the senior thing at this point. Younger lads born in a world where gaming is something ordinary probably don't do this, just like we don't feel any need to marvel at electricity and running water to no end (steam engines and electric arcs are trendy again, though).

[spadgy]

It's just noticeable that as a 30-year-old games journalist, it's increasingly apparent how much younger than me many of the games developers I'm interviewing are, and how spritely my fellow journalists are being.

I'm not fussed about being 30 though. I'm still denying adulthood nicely!

[Kobayashi]

A combination of 2 factors:

1) The game is very good, beautiful and well done.

2) Treasure has a legendary status (because of the great games that launched earlier, especially Radiant Silvergun.)

[MR_Soren]

I'm 33, and I think the world could use more 30-something game journalists. There is a huge difference between people who played through the 80s compared to those who got started in the mid 90s, and it is difficult for me to find viewpoints in the media that are even relevant to my perception of the video gaming hobby.

Those who name-drop Ikaruga often seem like they are pandering to the older generation of gamers, but their writing generally makes it clear that we don't see eye to eye.

[spadgy]

There are still a good chuck of us in our 30s and 40s, but the press industry works in a way that does push people out at the top. That is, there is only one editor at a magazine, and potentially quite a few juniors; it's the same at websites. The maths of it just doesn't allow everybody to make it to the top.

So people tend to move into marketing, PR, publishing and so on. Journaliasm's also relatively low paid compared to the parallel fields (Average yearly wage in the UK is £23,000. Average yearly wage of a journalist in the UK is £17,000). As kids and mortgages come along, the higher wages of PR understandably tempt older press away.

[mangadrive]

I'm 33, and I think the world could use more 30-something game journalists. There is a huge difference between people who played through the 80s compared to those who got started in the mid 90s, and it is difficult for me to find viewpoints in the media that are even relevant to my perception of the video gaming hobby.

Those who name-drop Ikaruga often seem like they are pandering to the older generation of gamers, but their writing generally makes it clear that we don't see eye to eye.

Exactly this.

I'm 33 myself BTW.

Its just growing more and more noticable that commerical review sites have taken a 'this gen' stance on reviewing things. Modernized FPS can take 9.0 reviews in droves even if the concept is tricked up graphics. Put Doom on the screen then put COD:BO beside it and lets draw up the advancements and many will agree we have come a long way in this genre, arguably. Lets then put Space Invaders on the screen and put Mushihimesama Futari 1.5 and start drawing up advancements here. Even though being on this board makes me instantly biased I'm just going to say that shmups have probably evolved more, yet when we get a review for anything modern its scrapping the barrel trying to get a 7.5 because its 'outdated'.... This logic is killing me.

Mark my words though. In 5-6 years we will have reviewers mentioning Halo on every FPS review and the scores will decline. Its already noticeable with COD:BO where people are slowly understanding what we have been saying since Quake III/Counterstrike:CZ/UT era that its just not evolving past graphic engines. Just like every racing game isn't Gran Turismo. Just like every mainstream shmup isn't Ikaruga. Again: GC/XBOX1/PS1 have set the tone for today's reviews. I've just read so many revamp, reboot, or HD remix type review where the reviewer had not even heard of nor played the original at all. They didn't even bother to try it before they did a professional review. Its baffling.

[gray117]

So people tend to move into marketing, PR, publishing and so on. Journaliasm's also relatively low paid compared to the parallel fields (Average yearly wage in the UK is £23,000. Average yearly wage of a journalist in the UK is £17,000). As kids and mortgages come along, the higher wages of PR understandably tempt older press away.

Its a question of security... or the lack of that, and the 'enthusiast' wages - especially in the uk, this is the scourge of the games industry at large...

It's a problem that film and tv have attempted to avoid by being a relatively closed industry - although even they are increasingly finding those fiefdoms under threat.

But what's the solution?

Games are expensive, and closed industries really shouldn't be encouraged (see the 'gallery art world'). And we can't make people take notice of what we want them to...

...or can we?

I feel the lack of value and demand is largely due to the fact that the 'Old Guard' are still in charge - there's plenty of juicey stories in the games industry, but hardly any of it makes it's way onto the airwaves and newspapers, and only a portion of them even appears in blog land... even amongst 'fair' organisations, such as the BBC, who effectively subsidise the film and music industries, but end up effectively persecuting games...

We all know the monetary value of the games industry - but its fetishtic value is almost non-existent on a social level.

Ever seen Peter Molyneux on the BBC? How about Tracy Emin? Welcome to our soceity...

/rant

Ikaruga is a perfect fetishtic landmark for informed games commentator - be they a target audience themselves, or a reviewer making a point.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Still i cant see things for you journalists getting any better, what with the internet, globalisation shaking the industry up.

[gray117]

Still i cant see things for you journalists getting any better, what with the internet, globalisation shaking the industry up.

Journalists are story tellers, but ones with whom we grant factual assurance.

It depends who/what journalists are; if the future is fox news, family guy and you tube replies, then what we understand as real journalists are probably fucked.... However, if that happens I'd probably also predict the end to western civilisation due to some kind of collective stupidity...

I think many confuse the death of paper distribution as the death of the reporting we think 'journalism' has become.

Meanwhile, we employ more and more 'consultants' and 'pr [community] managers' - at great cost - to help facilitate the gap that print vacates. And you'll probably find that many of these cultivate there value in much the same way that the original print journalists did.

I still think its linguistically amusing that bloggers and jounalists are categorised, valued, judged, held to account and thought of so much differently... is a journal that much different to a blog?

Maybe we'll learn to distinguish opinion from reporting... [ps. Make up your mind which one you want to be Mr. Andrew Marr]...

[spadgy]

/rant

Mate - you should be a journalist - that was great, honestly. It's an interesting issue too. Perhaps one day There's a feature in that topic

[mangadrive]

From IGN's top XBLA game list of 2010:

#18 (of 25) - Ikaruga

The Xbox Live Arcade is the home to top-down shooters this generation. Plenty of classics have been brought to the download service, and Ikaruga is easily the best of the bunch. Exceptionally difficult to master, this is one seriously hardcore game. In addition to a bullet-hell setup where the screen is regularly filled with obstacles, it also employs a black-and-white dichotomy where you'll have to switch back and forth between two ship states to do extra damage and protect your ship from destruction.

Oh and by "classics" they meant it was the best by putting Marvel v/s Capcom 2 (a game with a similar release period for the DC) and PAC-MAN CE(ranked SECOND?!) far ahead of this.So not all Western reviewers have it for this game, but its always going to make a conversation piece.

[gray117]

/rant

Mate - you should be a journalist - that was great, honestly. It's an interesting issue too. Perhaps one day There's a feature in that topic

Probably, the result of too much navel-gazing

mangadrive; makes me think - I feel there's an interesting parallel here with Demon Souls here... wasn't it ign 's game of the year [a quick google - navigating their best of web site - I may have it wrong] - it WAS gamespot's 2009 game of the year though. Reviews themselves - now there's another dangerous territory - a combination of opinion and fact...

Ah well, I don't think anyone's suggesting Ikaruga/Demon Souls were bad games - just trying to work out why they're so valued... That intrigue rating definitely has something to do with it.

[TrevHead (TVR)]

Concerning journalists & bloggers credability (for me) its the fact that one is getting paid for his work, which the reader would "assume" he/ she was of a std good enough to make money from his work in some way. Still ild guess allot of a journalists worth is based on the contacts & networking. So if I think about it more a blogger would put more stock into his writing then some pro journalists. Thats certainly the case with ICY and his articles.

Out of curiousity whats you guys opinion on Icyclem's games journalisms articles, primarily his articles detailing (if im remembering his article correctly) "game journalist shitting in their own back yards"?

OT it just came to me that a good reason why Ikaruga is the reviewers darling, is that due to the game been akin to a puzzler and memorisation been the key to mastery more so then other modern shmups where dexerity and improvisation are needed aswell. Plus the fact that Ikaruga like many 8/ 16bit arcade ports limit the player in the amount of continues allowed and stop credit feeding, thus enrichig the experience.

(Rant on) Why modern shmups dont limit continues continues or atleast unlock unlimited credits after putting in 10 hours or so. Is something that really fucking baffles me It would eradicate all this "played the game for 30mins, got to the end beating the game, what a shitty over priced game!" I we wouldnt have to be called elistist nerds by the wider gaming community every time we bring up the dont credit feed method of play. Surely Cave and the others can see such an obvious thing FFS its not rocket science? (rant off)

[Skykid]

@ Spadgy at 30 years old not too old for games!! Like me (im 31 even though i write and spell like a 10 y/o) someone whose the best age to be a gamer since youve experienced all the best moments in gaming IE 8bit - today, sure we missed the very birth of the industry, especially in the arcades with Space Invaders and Pacman mania. But for me all the important eras started after the 80s VG crash when Nintendo brought the NES or more applicable to us Brits we got our 8bit home computers like the speccy +2 and the birth of bedroom programming.

Aslong as you keep open minded to new stuff, youll always have 1up on those young wipper snappers. I bet its funny when you see younger gamers going on about a new game or feature proclaiming it to be modern and fresh, when in reality its just a rehash of an old concept that hasnt been used for awhile.

I know you didnt say youre too old but im gonna pretend you did to give me an excuse to bring up the old times

I like this post.