This is one of those games where I totally get the hype around it, it's absolutely a well-crafted game with lots of great design ideas, but *I* personally just cannot vibe with this game and enjoy it much. It's a difficult juggling-act of a game and the scoring system leaves little room for error or experimentation. There aren't really many setpieces in this game that I feel give this series a strong identity.

Also this version in particular (the Nintendo Switch port by Nicalis) has this quirk where if you turn on continues, you cannot register high scores, even if you do not use continues at all. You have to turn them off in the options meny before starting a run. The most logical way to handle the relationship between high scores and continues is to accept the score the player gets on their 1st credit while disregarding all subsequent credits' scores on the same run. The GameCube version at least has continues always on and registers your score before handing you the continue screen, so that your choice to continue (e.g. for practice or just to explore the game) doesn't invalidate that sick new high score you just got.

A beautiful shmup game from back in the day, simple and challenging, crazy bosses, wonderful designs. This game has always looked so stunning if only because of the wild red and white bullet patterns, but the enemy and boss designs were quintessential cyberpunk from a time when that genre hadn't really been milked to death.

As far as shooters go the gameplay is fun, switching between the two energy types keeps you thinking and adds a layer of complexity to an already challenging genre that makes it stand out as one-of-a-kind and hasn't been replicated since.

"Thus achieve your mission without any regrets."

"I will not die until I achieve something. Although the Ideal is high, I never give in. Therefore I never die with regret."

Então....não tenho o que dizer de forma adequada sem uma pesquisa, peço perdao pois nao sera uma analise, só um comentário arbitrário como quase sempre.

Esse jogo encapsula tudo o que eu mais amo numa temática e conclusão ( o final desse jogo é apoteótico pkrl)

É um jogo especial apesar dos perrengues que passei, sério muito mais difícil que radiant e realmente me incomodou pra valer num certo stage (sim aquele mesmo.)
Dito isso aquela primeira frase estará marcada para sempre em mim, provavelmente uma das melhores frases inseridas.

Amo também como cada stage tem uma temática própria e como a música ressoa em cada estágio é um trabalho muito cuidadoso e resultou numa realização perfeita, a harmonia musical aqui é impecável.

Terminei esse jogo com lágrimas apenas, minha visão sobre esse genero expandiu após esse camarada.

Not necessarily done playing this entirely but I can't help but wanna write about it having seen the credits and unlocked all the levels for practicing.

Ikaruga is a fuckin ride of the senses man. Sleek and slick presentation that dumps ya right in, the kinda gameplay systems that encourage ya to REALLY dig into those mechanics and really learn how to space your ship, when to switch colors, how to maneuver around all of the chaos. I sucked total ass at this game (I switched to Free Play after I hit a few walls) but I still wanted to persevere and at bare minimum unlock the rest of the levels in order to practice!

Sitting here and writing this I'm really just thinking about flipping it back on and practicing each level until I can at least learn it and do alright at it, slowly easing away from Free Play in order to really more-so challenge myself.

I really love difficult games that have ways to just like learn them like this, letting you essentially slowly submerge yourself in the waters of this game and its mechanics. Especially in a game so beautiful, so lean, so to the point ya know? Each level prefaced by a quote of some kind, spurring ya further onwards to your ultimate goal of killing everything in sight.

What a way to start getting into SCHMUPs!

That music too oh my GOD dude fUCK.

When I first started to play this game it was pretty confusing and I died all of the time even on easy mode but this is a game that you can keep playing and keep improving at and it has such incredible presentation and game design. I think with how this game works on easy mode vs normal and the scoring system combined with the enemy and bullet patterns this might be the closest thing I have ever seen to perfection in game design. I still after all these years have never had time to fully master the game. I am proud to report that I have managed to get to level 4 on one continue though.

L'ultime shoot'em up, un gameplay arcade jouissif, très dur voir impossible à maitriser, mais le moindre progrès est un accomplissement énorme. La possibilité de jouer avec vies infinies permet de s'amuser en complétant la campagne avec le moins de morts possible afin que n'importe qui puisse au moins voir ce que le jeu a à offrir. L'aventure dure à peine quelques dizaines de minutes, mais c'est la quête de maitrise du jeu, son ost superbe et ses boss ultra difficiles qui vous pousse à relancer et qui font de ce jeu un chef d'oeuvre au sein de son genre.

There are three answers to the question, "What makes good hard games fun?" IMO. First of all, they are reliable, and second is they're giving the player some advantages and making the game "fair" and the last one is getting the consequences of mini decisions you made (of course, I'm not including things like challenges, etc.). And Ikaruga IS reliable. Your main concern is not some input delay or thinking about if you're hitting the boss or not; the gameplay is responsive (and juicy!). The game gives you advantages like the center of the player is a hitbox etc., and the PC version has a continue option, but this is still an arcade game, so it may frustrate you on some occasions. And, of course, the thing that makes this game great as it is: "color-changing" mechanic. It's so simple, yet it's so deep, and it does make you those mini decisions and get their consequences like, "yes you're immune to the blue projectiles but is it worth it to spend your limited boss time?". The ost is pretty good, the sounds are decent, game looks nice and the story is surprisingly fun to read!

Garten of peakpeak was too hard, but thank god, this one is way easier

No seriously, this game is really solid, and honestly succeed at what he attended to do: this is a REALLY tough as nail shoot and up, working on the concept of changing color to avoid damage from certain colored bullet, and this concept...is great ! It forces you to keep attention on what is going on in the game, it make the action super ectic, it allow the level design to be really creative...and the game...is just a blast, notably due to this great concept (and of course, the great visual and soundtrack compliment the awesome gameplay)

Not a lot to say: just a very good shoots and up, and the only reason why it doesnt get more stars...is just because im not that much of a shoots and up person, but otherwise, if you are into ultra hard and endearing japanese shoots and up, GO PLAY IT