Would anyone port a game from a dead console unless it was worth it?
Actually, Ikaruga is the name of a village. A village that our hero Shinra, crash lands in after being shot down by the enemy being led by an evil man named Tenro. Tenro discovered the Ubusunagami Okinokai - the Power of the Gods- and formed an army who called themselves "Divine Ones,”. Shinra is from a rebel fleet of pilots called “Tenkaku”. But he was the last remaining member when he was shot down. Luckily, the village of Ikaruga built Shinra a custom ship so he could continue to fight for peace. They named his ship the Ikaruga.
In Ikaruga, the combat seems very simple but is extremely deep. You fly your ship against a massive amount of enemies, both of you can change the polarity of your ship and fire on one another (sounds simple, but this game demands Zen-like skill if you plan to get anywhere). Your enemies have black and white ship’s that can fire black or white bullets at you. If your ship has the same polarity as an enemy when you fire on them, it will damage them. If they fire on you, you will absorb their bullet and store that as power in your power gauge. If your ship has the opposite polarity as an enemy when you fire on them, it will damage them twice as much. If they fire on you, you will explode on impact. You can use your special meter to launch offensive special attacks. This style of gameplay is hypnotizing to watch, and ultra-challenging to partake in. But it will have you playing as much as you can to get to the final boss, or at least play for 8 hours (After 8 hours, you unlock unlimited lives). You can even post your high scores on the Ikaruga website. And because Ikaruga is a Dramcast port, you'll probablly find it at a lower price.
Ikaruga’s visuals are not it’s only strongpoint either. It excels in excellent music, not too complex but the scores keep the action going and are rather quite legendary in terms of feel. Explosions and bullets all sound good too, there’s even a distorted robotic voice that talks in the main menu and counts from 10 when you die, it’s very cool.
The controls are fairly straight forward, but sadly they take a long time getting used to. Not due to bad controls layout, but simply because there is nothing like Ikaruga, and you will not be used to switching polarity, coordinating attacks, and slipping in special attacks all so quickly. It takes quite some time to get used to it, but once down, they stick perfectly and you’ll be worrying more about enemy polarity than what button does what.
Ikaruga offers 18 beautiful levels. Usually the environment does not pose a threat to your ship, it’s mainly just enemies, but a few levels will have gates which you have to weak in and out of without exploding, or giant lasers that fire on you. You can even mount cooperative attacks with a buddy in two-player mode. This is very intense, but it’s hard to find friends patient enough to learn how to play. If you have a brother or sister who plays it frequently though, it’s much more exciting and easier.
In the end, no one should look past Ikaruga for it’s 2D look, or because it is a port from Dreamcast. If anything, they should take advantage of it, why would anyone port a game from a dead console unless it was worth it? And Ikaruga is truly worth every second of your time, it is an unforgettable experience that you will want to share with everyone.