Taste-Test: Ikaruga

Rated: E for Everyone Developer: Infogrames Publisher: Treasure Players: 2 Saving: 4 blocks

It has been a long time since true hardcore gamers have had an old-school genre such as the side/top-scrolling shooter brought back to life with enough decency to make note of, but the time has finally come. Atari has brought a classic genre nearly as old as the company itself back to life without making it seem dull and out-dated like most born-again classics.

The game I am talking about, is none other then Ikaruga, one of the most original top-scrolling space shooters I've played in a long time. Now, I know you're going to ask how any space shooter can be original, seeing as there have been dozens upon dozens throughout video game history. The originality lies within a new ability to change polarity and absorb a certain kind of shot, but I'll talk more on that in a bit.

Like most shooters of its kind, there really isn't much of a story involved, though that's not entirely a bad thing. The little story there is was only a bit of background story written in the instruction manual. Basically it goes like every other space shooter there is: some random group of people wants to take over the world so they're conquering tons of different countries. Then there's this random psycho who thinks he can take the entire group down all by himself. He got a hold of this cool advanced space fighter called the Ikaruga and set off to kick some invader ass. To give the gamer a reason for insane two player action they decided to thrown in a bad-guy turned good with a remodeled bad-guy fighter called the Ginkei.

Now that we're done giving a bit of background information (that is actually kind of pointless for this type of game,) let's get on to gameplay. The game basically plays like any other top-scrolling shooter. Move the ship back and forth with the joystick, shoot with B. What makes it interesting is that pressing A changes the polarity of your ship from black/red to white/blue. Doing so allows you to absorb shots of the same color and do double damage against the opposite color bad guy. If you kill a bad guy of the same color it'll shoot back at you instantly allowing you to absorb mad points. Once you absorb enough you'll be able to fire off an awesome special attack using the R button, killing everyone in sight.

What's ingenious about this is that unlike in most shooters, where you find yourself holding on to the bottom of the screen for dear life, you'll soon find yourself inching closer to the top grabbing for as much colorful goodness to absorb as you can. Instead of being as cautious as possible you're running head first into the insanity. This makes the pace of the game nearly twice as fast as most shooters because you're running around a lot more.

Another great part of this game is the fact that one game can last anywhere from 5 minutes to 30 minutes, depending on how good you get. I can pretty much guarantee that you'll only spend about 30 seconds in each new level you get to before being obliterated. Each time you play it you learn the patterns of the level and where you can hide to get farther along. Eventually you'll make it to the boss and get destroyed by it. Once you manage to beat the boss then it's just on to another level where you'll get killed once again. It's pure insanity and I love it.

You WILL be frustrated in this game, you WILL die more times than you can count. That is why I love this game so much; not only is it a classic shooter, but it's made for the hardcore gamers. If you were ever a fan of this type of game, you definitely have to pick up Ikaruga. It's just that good.

Matt Schraeder