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Sunday Comics: Dead Island I look at this amazing model kit on display at the 2010 All Japan Hobby Show in Tokyo and my first thought is a robot voice gargling PREHSZ STAAAHT BATTAN. My second thought is I need this.
“Hard” in gaming is relative. What I might think is easy, you might think is not. What you might is a piece of cake, I may find impossible.
If you’ve been avoiding spending 800 Microsoft points in order to let Treasure’s beloved shoot-em up Ikaruga kill you repeatedly, then perhaps the Xbox Live Deal of the Week is for you.
“GoS-CPT-Stewart” is a student at game design school Full Sail. As part of his studies, he had to make a Pong clone. So he took Pong and mixed it with, of all things, Ikaruga.
Enjoy that XBLA Ikaruga? The current top-rated numero uno player Kingoro58k totally hates it. While he seems to put up with the XBLA port enough to reclaim his spot from a Finnish gamer, Kingoro58k writes:
For the uninitiated, Treasure’s Ikaruga is a vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up originally released for arcades, with ports for the Dreamcast and GameCube released in 2002 and 2003 respectively. It uses a simple mechanic of polarity—your ship, the Ikaruga, can switch between black and white states; there are no traditional shooter power ups, black and white beams are your only weapon. It’s a system that belies its complexity. When white, the ship can absorb all white-coloured incoming enemy fire. When black, the ship can absorb all black-coloured incoming enemy fire. However, when firing on ships of the opposite colour, the Ikaruga does double the damage. Oh, but there’s more to it than that, a layer of depth that makes Ikaruga one part shooter, one part puzzler, with a dash of rhythm and strategy tossed in. How does the Xbox Live Arcade port hold up, with Ikaruga now seven years old?
Warning. The big list of love and hate is approaching at full throttle. No refuge.
The latest issue of Nintendo Power, which is in the hands of subscribers right now features an interview with Masato Maegawa, the president of the beloved action game developer, whose Bangai-O Spirits is due to hit the Nintendo DS stateside this quarter. The Xbox Live Arcade remake of Ikaruga just went live, but Nintendo Power wants to know when Maegawa and crew will get some WiiWare titles out.
Maegawa says that they’re looking into it, but that they already have two unannounced Wii games in development. Details are nonexistent other than the Treasure president teasing that “both games will have a lot of impact.” Who wants to make some wagers?
Treasure’s classic shoot ‘em up Ikaruga has a simple premise. Turn your ship white, become immune to white attacks. Turn your ship black, become immune to black attacks. The casual onlooker would say the premise sounded simple. The seasoned Ikaruga player would say the premise sounded deceptively simple.
So the question isn’t should you play Ikaruga if you haven’t. The question is, should you play Ikaruga on XBLA, or should you hunt down a Gamecube or Dreamcast version. Hit the jump for our Frankenreview to find out: it’s Ikarugalicious.
