Even the difficulty levels open up new challenges. On medium difficulty if you destroy an enemy of the same polarity it will release bullets. With this you can master the ‘bullet eater’ technique by pulling off a Lando Calrissian and engage those star destroyers at point blank range, in doing so you’ll charge up your homing lasers quicker. On hard all ships give off bullets when destroyed, so move fast and watch your step.

Ikaruga is relatively old but it still looks quite impressive. The graphics are similar to the Dreamcast version and there is nothing here that will tax the GameCube. Even though all the ships are themed to black and white there is quite an impressive diversity of them. Each chapter features it’s own interesting boss as well as a number of unique enemies, from small fighters to large space stations. The chapters play out on a 2D plane but they have backdrops that whiz past. There is something to be said for art that is well conceptualised as opposed to just using every polygon available and that is certainly the case here. The soundtrack is what you might expect consisting of a heavy synthesised feel. A nice touch with the weapon effects is that you will hear the distinction between firing against the same or opposite polarity that indicates if you are doing twice the damage or not.

Special mention must also go to the two player mode. With two players it is possible for one to act as a shield, absorbing a certain colour of bullets, while the other hides behind you. You can obviously dish out more damage, particularly useful in boss battles, but building up chains is harder to orchestrate. If one player hits the other you will nudge them out of the way and during some claustrophobic chapters this can be very dangerous, and slightly annoying. When forced to manoeuvre through moving blocks and beams it definitely makes things a little more interesting with two people. It is quite nice that the game provides opportunities for teamwork and it adds another interesting dimension to the proceedings.

Some people might say that Ikaruga is not for everyone but I have to disagree. It is the same circular argument that assumes certain games aren’t suited to a European/mass market so they won’t release it, or if they do they think it will never be a huge hit so little effort is put into the publicity. The brilliant ICO and Rez on the are good examples of this. Hopefully the release of Ikaruga will be a great success, it deserves nothing less. In turn it may also provide impetus for more diverse titles to make their way here. With any luck it may also spur on a few more games in the genre to be produced. Granted if you’ve never played a vertically scrolling shoot ‘em up before it is a trial by fire and that may put some people off. But Ikaruga is a damn good game plain and simple. Even though the genre is very old, Ikaruga is original, unique and a welcome breath of fresh air.

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By Richard Clifford