Section 1: What is Ikaruga and why should I care?
Ikaruga is one of the most promising titles to be released this year. In my humble opinion, Ikaruga is poined to be the best action game of this genaration. What's so special out Ikaruga?
First and most obviously, it's made by Treasure who are widely hailed as some of the greatest talent in 2D action games, and have produced such classics as Gunstar Heroes, Sin and Punishment, Bangai-O, Guardian Heroes, and of course Radiant Silvergun.
The third reason you should care is that the game is simply amazing. It has been very well recieved in arcades, and is finally coming home to Dreamcast at the end of summer. Beleive me, you have to see this game to beleive it. It does things I could have never imagined in a shooter.
Here's the basic gameplay premise: Everything in Ikaruga has either dark or light attribute, including the gun fire. You can change your ship from dark to light. You absorb fire of the same attribute which will power up a super laser which canbe unleashed whenever, but fire of the opposite attribute will kill you. Your fire does double damage to enemies of the opposite attribute. You get scoring bonuses for chains of consecutive enmies of the same attribute.
Second, Ikaruga is the followup to Radiant Silvergun, a title which is hailed by many (myself included) as the finest arcade shootemup ever made. And until Ikaruga, it was the only arcade shootemup Treasure has made. RS was released on Saturn late in its lifetime, and has gained a huge following. There has been alot of pressure for Tresure to do a seqeul. Treasure has a strict policy against sequels (something I wholeheartedly endorse) but Ikaruga is very much designed to be the "next radiant", in that it will be something completely new and fresh that will re-establish the viablity of the genre. In style and gameplay, however, the games share only barbones genre conventions.
Section 2: Media
If at all possible, watch these videos!
I promise you, they are worth the download. If you are on 56k, just get the third one. These are direct feed footage of perfect stages (done without dying) and show you the full extent of the gameplay in the early levels
Stage 1 (Starting Slow)
Stage 2 (Holy Crap)
Stage 3 (First Half) (I Think I saw god..)
Now, after watching those videos you've proabably taken notice of the unconventional music, and if you're like me you've taken a liking to it. So here's a couple MP3s for you:
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~tfahs/ikaruga_chapter1.mp3
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~tfahs/ikaruga_boss.mp3
Section 3: Games
To help you get in the mood, here's a few games based on Ikaruga
The first is pretty loose. It's a mini-game called Ika for windows where the idea is to blow up the different boxes. Nab it here.
The second is an Ikaruga simulator. You can't fire back, but it gives you a feel for how the black/white bullet dodging works, and uses real firing patterns from the game. Check it out here
Here's another neat little flash based fan game. I like this one. It's fun. Gikoruga: http://isweb42.infoseek.co.jp/compu...a/gikoruga.html
Section 4: Articles, links, and info
The game's offocial page can be found here:
http://www.treasure-inc.co.jp/product/ikaruga/ikaruga.html
For news on the DC version, IGN did the nicest update:
[url=http://dreamcast.ign.com/article....p1.html[/url]]http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/363/363511p1.html[/url]
Section 5: Dreamcast
Here's what we know about the release of Ikaruga for home consoles:
Platform: Dreamcast only
Release Date: Sept 5, 2002
Region: Japan only
Supports: VMU, 34 blocks, Jump Pack, Arcade stick
Price: 6800 Yen ($57)
The game at it's core will be a direct arcade port, in that it will have no additional levels or bosses, however it will have the following features:
Selectable difficulty modes
Art Gallery
Sound test
Option to play with horizonal screen, or in TATE mode with your TV on its side, just like the arcade.
"Prototype mode", unlockable by beating the game without continues. This mode features different rules in which players have limited ammo which they must conserve and buld by scoring chains and absorbing bullets.
A "special secret"
The game will be published by ESP, and is likely to be made in limited quantities. Interested parties should reserve a copy.
Oh btw I didnt put this out, someone else did but I thought he did a good job and was quite interesting and informative tho I did leave a few things out.
Ikaruga is one of the most promising titles to be released this year. In my humble opinion, Ikaruga is poined to be the best action game of this genaration. What's so special out Ikaruga?
First and most obviously, it's made by Treasure who are widely hailed as some of the greatest talent in 2D action games, and have produced such classics as Gunstar Heroes, Sin and Punishment, Bangai-O, Guardian Heroes, and of course Radiant Silvergun.
The third reason you should care is that the game is simply amazing. It has been very well recieved in arcades, and is finally coming home to Dreamcast at the end of summer. Beleive me, you have to see this game to beleive it. It does things I could have never imagined in a shooter.
Here's the basic gameplay premise: Everything in Ikaruga has either dark or light attribute, including the gun fire. You can change your ship from dark to light. You absorb fire of the same attribute which will power up a super laser which canbe unleashed whenever, but fire of the opposite attribute will kill you. Your fire does double damage to enemies of the opposite attribute. You get scoring bonuses for chains of consecutive enmies of the same attribute.
Second, Ikaruga is the followup to Radiant Silvergun, a title which is hailed by many (myself included) as the finest arcade shootemup ever made. And until Ikaruga, it was the only arcade shootemup Treasure has made. RS was released on Saturn late in its lifetime, and has gained a huge following. There has been alot of pressure for Tresure to do a seqeul. Treasure has a strict policy against sequels (something I wholeheartedly endorse) but Ikaruga is very much designed to be the "next radiant", in that it will be something completely new and fresh that will re-establish the viablity of the genre. In style and gameplay, however, the games share only barbones genre conventions.
Section 2: Media
If at all possible, watch these videos!
I promise you, they are worth the download. If you are on 56k, just get the third one. These are direct feed footage of perfect stages (done without dying) and show you the full extent of the gameplay in the early levels
Stage 1 (Starting Slow)
Stage 2 (Holy Crap)
Stage 3 (First Half) (I Think I saw god..)
Now, after watching those videos you've proabably taken notice of the unconventional music, and if you're like me you've taken a liking to it. So here's a couple MP3s for you:
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~tfahs/ikaruga_chapter1.mp3
http://www.eden.rutgers.edu/~tfahs/ikaruga_boss.mp3
Section 3: Games
To help you get in the mood, here's a few games based on Ikaruga
The first is pretty loose. It's a mini-game called Ika for windows where the idea is to blow up the different boxes. Nab it here.
The second is an Ikaruga simulator. You can't fire back, but it gives you a feel for how the black/white bullet dodging works, and uses real firing patterns from the game. Check it out here
Here's another neat little flash based fan game. I like this one. It's fun. Gikoruga: http://isweb42.infoseek.co.jp/compu...a/gikoruga.html
Section 4: Articles, links, and info
The game's offocial page can be found here:
http://www.treasure-inc.co.jp/product/ikaruga/ikaruga.html
For news on the DC version, IGN did the nicest update:
[url=http://dreamcast.ign.com/article....p1.html[/url]]http://dreamcast.ign.com/articles/363/363511p1.html[/url]
Section 5: Dreamcast
Here's what we know about the release of Ikaruga for home consoles:
Platform: Dreamcast only
Release Date: Sept 5, 2002
Region: Japan only
Supports: VMU, 34 blocks, Jump Pack, Arcade stick
Price: 6800 Yen ($57)
The game at it's core will be a direct arcade port, in that it will have no additional levels or bosses, however it will have the following features:
Selectable difficulty modes
Art Gallery
Sound test
Option to play with horizonal screen, or in TATE mode with your TV on its side, just like the arcade.
"Prototype mode", unlockable by beating the game without continues. This mode features different rules in which players have limited ammo which they must conserve and buld by scoring chains and absorbing bullets.
A "special secret"
The game will be published by ESP, and is likely to be made in limited quantities. Interested parties should reserve a copy.
Oh btw I didnt put this out, someone else did but I thought he did a good job and was quite interesting and informative tho I did leave a few things out.
