![]() ![]() When I called the Ikaruga ‘special’, it wasn’t mere pompous description. A traditional, 2D vertical-scrolling shoot ‘em up, the driving force behind the game is a brilliant concept that, like so many brilliant concepts, is so devilishly simple. Ikaruga is no musical of course, but it is pure theatre. After being nursed back to health following a crash, Shin’s gifted a special ship named after the village that aided him: Ikaruga.įrom the instant you’re beamed through a teleportation device into the battle-scarred skies of the opening level, and met with a soaring yet bleak burst of sci-fi music, there’s the feeling you’re involved in something very grand a War of the Worlds scenario in gaming form. Shinra is apparently humanity’s last roll of the dice in the midst of an increasingly-desperate war against the self-styled ‘divine ones’, who seek to sanctify the world through the usual, impractical means of killing everyone in it. It carries the kind of involved backstory that never gets fully explained (or frankly, even touched upon) within the game itself, but here’s what a bit of research yielded. Like nearly every member of the Dreamcast’s scrolling shoot ‘em up fraternity (which, with the imminent arrival of Neo XYX, continues to expand into 2013), Ikaruga sports English-friendly menus. In case you’re fretting over a language barrier, don’t. ![]() But it’s important to remember that Ikaruga wasn’t just notable for its ideas, the game itself was of outstanding quality. It’s a curious notion when considering the scope of influence Ikaruga can now claim to yield games as far-removed as roaming beat ‘em up The Red Star and the more recent 2D adventure Outland owe it a debt of gratitude, as do a sizable majority of scrolling shoot ‘em ups that have followed in its footsteps. Surfacing on the Dreamcast a little more than a year after the format had been discontinued, it’s funny to think that, save for a similarly low-key worldwide GameCube localisation a year later, this most pioneering of shoot ‘em ups may never have seen the light of day outside of Japan. Whilst Ikaruga’s quality will come as no surprise to those familiar with the work of its developer Treasure (the bods behind Gunstar Heroes and Radiant Silvergun), it remains a remarkable achievement in its own time, and a game that continues to age with exceptional grace. ![]()
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