I-K-A-R-U-G-A!!!

[Sylentwulf]

OK, I suck at shooters. The one genre I wish I was better at.

That being said, I LOVE Ikaruga, are there any other CURRENT GEN, NON-Import Shooters that are as good as or better than Ikaruga? (No? Didn't think so, heh, but I thought I'd ask)

[maxlords]

Current Gen NON-import? Fat chance. Only Silpheed (which many don't like but I love). R-Type Final is coming, as is Gradius V, and you can probably pick up a few of the PS1 shooters, but there's NOTHING that looks even remotely close to as good as Ikaruga.

If you like shmups....get used to importing :)

[SoulBlazer]

There's some shooters for the GBA, but I don't know how they are.

Did'nt Working Designs or another company bring over a couple of PS2 shooters?

I guess everyone should be happy we have some shooters coming, at least. :)

[Zaxxon]

Is anyone excited about Border Down? It's not by Treasure so I guess most people don't care. At NCS, IIRC, they are selling a three hour long DVD that is nothing but the video output from a DC, recording some Japanese player tearing through Ikaruga on one life or something like that. It was called the Ikaruga Fan appreciation disc or something. I thought that was pretty weird. Who is going to pay $60 for an import DVD to watch someone else play the game.

[Dire 51]

I'm excited about Border Down. Irem strikes again!

[Daniel Thomas]

There's some shooters for the GBA, but I don't know how they are.

Did'nt Working Designs or another company bring over a couple of PS2 shooters?

I guess everyone should be happy we have some shooters coming, at least. :)

There really isn't much of anything on GBA for shooters. There was Gradius Galaxies, which is pretty cool, but no different from any other Gradius. Darius was pretty good, but I think you'll have to import it. Iridion 3D? Looked great, but wasn't any fun to play -- very much like Silpheed was on the Sega CD. Iridion 2 was a little better, but still, bleh.

When it comes to shooters (oh, how I hate the word "shmups" -- don't the British get all the lousy slang words?), we're screwed on the Advance.

The days of the shooters are past, I'm afraid. It's too much of a niche market now.

[Starcade]

Is anyone excited about Border Down? It's not by Treasure so I guess most people don't care. At NCS, IIRC, they are selling a three hour long DVD that is nothing but the video output from a DC, recording some Japanese player tearing through Ikaruga on one life or something like that. It was called the Ikaruga Fan appreciation disc or something. I thought that was pretty weird. Who is going to pay $60 for an import DVD to watch someone else play the game.

I would pay to see someone one-credit Ikaruga. @_@

[The Scribe]

On the alpha there was a trippy demo mode where the player is absolutely flawless. Not sure if this was part of the final release.

[Zaxxon]

Are we talking about the DC or the GC version? Is one superior to the other?

[buttasuperb]

Are we talking about the DC or the GC version? Is one superior to the other?

Well the DC version is a direct port of the Naomi release, which the DC is very familiar with. I've never played the GC one, but I'd say the DC version is arcade exact. Better cover art too.

[Captain Wrong]

I would pay to see someone one-credit Ikaruga. @_@

There are Japanese sites with videos of just that sort of thing. I don't have a URL for you, but if you ever hang out at shmups.com you can find people talking about them.

[ubersaurus]

Are we talking about the DC or the GC version? Is one superior to the other?

Well the DC version is a direct port of the Naomi release, which the DC is very familiar with. I've never played the GC one, but I'd say the DC version is arcade exact. Better cover art too.

GC one is a direct port of the DC version, with a few extras put in. There's a challenge mode, allowing you to put your score up on the atari website. On the other hand, it lacks VGA support that the DC has. But its the same basic game.

[maxlords]

Is anyone excited about Border Down? It's not by Treasure so I guess most people don't care. At NCS, IIRC, they are selling a three hour long DVD that is nothing but the video output from a DC, recording some Japanese player tearing through Ikaruga on one life or something like that. It was called the Ikaruga Fan appreciation disc or something. I thought that was pretty weird. Who is going to pay $60 for an import DVD to watch someone else play the game.

He he. Actually, I already preordered Border Down (limited edition)! Gonna cost me $75, but it's worth it! I preordered it from sega direct, so I'll be getting the free BD mousepad, as well as the soundtrack and the game! Yay! My buddy in Tokyo preordered it for me cause Sega Direct only ships within Japan, and they're the ONLY way to get the mousepad :D *does a happy dance!* I'm so jazzed about this one!

[l_lamb]

The GC version does support progressive scan even though the package doesn't say so. It looks fantastic running vertically on a widescreen but I still played it better in horizontal mode, though. Hands down the best shooter I've played in years.

[SoulBlazer]

Can anyone help with their honest opinion?

I've been considering getting Ikaruga for my Game Cube, but the stores around me don't have the game to rent so I'd have to buy it.

I'm very picky when it comes to my shooters -- I love the Gradius series and Square's Einhander, along with Slipheed for the Sega CD, but the R-Type series and most other shooters did'nt do anything for me.

There's so many mixed reviews and impressions of this game out there I just don't know what to do. Maybe a true shooter fan -- as I'm only lukewarm except for the above games -- could help?

[Sylentwulf]

For what it's worth, I don't like R-type, I do like Einhander, and I REALLY like Ikaruga.

[Captain Wrong]

Here's an honest opinion from someone who is a certified shmup fan.

I imported Iky for the DC and got it pretty close to when it came out. I was completely enamoured with Ikaruga for the first few weeks I owned it. It's gourgeous, has plenty of Treasure's trademark good level design, and lots of innovation in the black/white game play dynamic.

Then the newness wore off...

I don't think I've played it at all after that first month. Why? I got totally burnt out on the black/white game play. After a while, Iky started to feel like a puzzle type game. Should I be on the black side or white side now? I like reflex based shmups, games that require twitch and fast thinking. I can get with some memorization, but I just feel like Iky becomes almost all memorizing and not as much twitch.

In other words, if you're looking for something really different, you might dig it. Personally, I think it was over hyped and, like most of Treasure's games, innovative, pretty, and a bit tedious to play.

Hope that helps.

[rbudrick]

I would pay to see someone one-credit Ikaruga.




There was a promotional video of someone blowing through this game on one life or something as a giveaway to Japanese preorders, I think. If someone else already posted this, then D'oh....too lazy to read everyone's posts, heh heh.

-Rob

[GaijinPunch]

Ikaruga is awesome... then again, I had played the arcade a few times before I bought it so I knew what I was getting into.

I've got the DC version. was considering getting the GC or the PS2 version -- is there anything good/bad about the other two? I don't have progressive scan TV, so that's a non-issue at the moment.

[Dire 51]

er... what PS2 version?

[Captain Wrong]

Other than the fact that it doesn't exist, the PS2 version is excellent. ;)

[SoulBlazer]

Well, after much debate I finally got the game today at my local EB for $35 as a used copy.

First impressions? It's a unique shooter, with a lot of fun aspects. I don't know about replay value, as there are only five stages, but the game is SO damn HARD I doubt I'm going to care about that. :) I've gotten my ass kicked like nobody's business trying to just do the Trial Stage!

Good points:
-- Love the polarity effect. Very unique idea. Same with the enemies shots being asorbed if they are the same color
-- Great graphics, showing what the GC can do
-- Nice option to play vertical, although I don't have anything that will support that.
-- Good music
-- Two player action
-- Plenty of options in the game (varaiations on how to play and what not)

Bad points:
-- It can be SO damn annoying to asorb a whole mess of shots of the same color and get ready to fire your missles when you get hit by ONE enemy shot of a different color you did'nt see. And sometimes it's impossible to flip between white and black fast enough to stay alive (running the gauntlet in 2-4 comes to mind.)
-- Music seems to repeat.
-- No power up options or anything else to 'add' to your fighter. Just the polairity effect.
-- Even taking up 80 percent of the screen is'nt really enough. I want a full screen option!
-- Can't understand the robot voice.
-- Can't read the text.

As a fan of shooters, I'm sure I'll get a lot of fun out of this, but I would'nt suggest it to anyone who is NOT a fan of shooters.

BTW, what are the extras in the game? I can tell it's going to be nigh impossible for me to unlock some of them. :D

[bargora]

Vertical IS the full-screen option. Flip your TV on its side, unless it's too big and you'll hurt yourself doing it. In that case, get a smaller (maybe 19" to 25") one for playing Ikaruga and all of your import shmups in the so-called TATE mode.

That's my plan, anyway. :)

[ubersaurus]

Well, every hour of gameplay, you unlock another continue, eventually culminating in about 7 hours I believe, where you get infinite continues.

At 20 hours you unlock prototype mode, where you have to keep track of how much you fire. There's another way to unlock that but I don't remember how ;p

[SoulBlazer]

DESPITE the warning in the game manual NOT to flip your TV on it's side? :D

No thanks, my TV is on it's last year of life anyway.

And I'm not dragging my GC into my bedroom for my smaller 19 inch TV just for one game, no matter how good it is. ;)

[bargora]

DESPITE the warning in the game manual NOT to flip your TV on it's side? :D

No thanks, my TV is on it's last year of life anyway.

And I'm not dragging my GC into my bedroom for my smaller 19 inch TV just for one game, no matter how good it is. ;)
What, you think they make special sideways TVs?

Remember the part I said about hurting yourself? Atari doesn't want to pay for your broken toes when you try to flip your 32" TV. It's craven butt-covering. If the liquor industry thought it would help with liability, they'd print "DO NOT DRINK CONTENTS" on the bottles.

Of course, if your TV is truly massive (maybe 27" or more? Captain Wrong would know), then it might be a bad idea to flip it because the set is constructed to support the not inconsiderable weight of the tube in the normal position, not the perpendicular. Not guaranteed breakage, maybe, but potentially risky, I hear. Sounds like you might be using a 32" or something big like that, so maybe you're right not to flip it.

I would have refrained from calling you a wuss, but you just now said that you have a 19" TV in your bedroom crying out to be your own special vertical Ikaruga monitor. And the GCN is damn near a handheld, anyway! Are you man enough to give it what it needs? Or...wussy wussy wussy wussy?
:devilish:

[SoulBlazer]

Yeah, my TV is a 27 inch.

But I guess just for the sake of seeing what it looks like I'll try taking my GC into my bedroom and hooking it up to my older 19 inch one -- as long as it really IS okay to flip it on it's side. (The manual suggest a vertical monitor if you are going to do this, BTW).

[bargora]

Yeah, I guess they would suggest a vertical monitor. Nevertheless, a smaller TV like a 19" should make the flip without hurting either you or it. I've got a 13" TV flipped on it's side, but it's really kind of pointless going from letterboxed on a 27" to vertical on a 13".

Anyway, when you flip the TV on its side (counterclockwise), just make sure that it's been off for the past 15-30 minutes when you first turn it on, or else the degaussing coil likely won't fire, and you may get distortion and color smearing.

You can check the forums at http://dynamic5.gamespy.com/%7Eshmups/shmupsforum/ if you want to read about or consult with those crazy TV flipping shmup players.

Oh, the other possibility for enjoying the vertical mode is to lie on your side. Or, if the game supports flipping the display and the control separately, then you can play it as a sidescroller. (I don't know if the GCN version does this, as I play the DC version.)