is a bullet hell game developed by Treasure. It is the spiritual sequel to Radiant Silvergun (1998) and was originally released in Japanese arcades in December 2001. The story follows a rebel pilot named Shinra as he battles an enemy nation using a specially designed fighter called the Ikaruga which can flip between two polarities, black and white. This polarity mechanism is the game's key feature and the foundation for its stage and enemy design. All enemies and bullets in the game are either black or white. Bullets which are the same color as the player are absorbed while the others will kill the player. The game features both single-player and cooperative modes.

Development on Ikaruga began during director Hiroshi Iuchi's off-hours while Treasure was busy developing Sin and Punishment (2000). Titled "Project RS2", the game began as a sequel to Radiant Silvergun, and borrows many elements from it as well as the polarity mechanism from Treasure's Silhouette Mirage (1997). During the game's prototype stages, the player's ammo was limited. The bullet absorption mechanism was used as a means to refill ammo. However, this was found to be weak as it created too many breaks in the action so it was later added as an additional mode in home ports. In tradition with Treasure's game design philosophy, Ikaruga was intentionally crafted to challenge the conventions of standard game design and develop a new type of shooting game. All together, five Treasure staff worked on Ikaruga, as well as three support staff from G.rev.

Upon its initial release in Japanese arcades, reception was mixed. Treasure staff explained this was due to players expecting a more standard shooter offering but instead being greeted with a different game system that featured more puzzle-like elements rather than the twitch gameplay of bullet-dodging. In 2002, Ikaruga was ported to the Dreamcast in Japan and began to grow a cult following from import gamers worldwide. It was later released in the West in 2003 on the GameCube, receiving positive reviews. Critics praised the graphics as well as the art and sound design. Some criticism was directed towards its difficulty. Most critics felt the unique game design choices were innovative, while some believed they stifled many of the classic shooter elements. Ikaruga was later ported to the Xbox 360, Windows, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation 4. In retrospect, Ikaruga is regarded by critics as one of the best games ever made, especially in the shoot 'em up genre, and one of Treasure's greatest works.

Gameplay

Ikaruga is a vertically scrolling shoot 'em up. The game features five stages, three levels of difficulty, and supports single-player or two-player cooperative modes. The player pilots the Ikaruga fighter, moving to avoid obstacles and other danger. A key gameplay feature to Ikaruga is its polarity system. The player can press a button at any time to switch the polarity of their ship between black and white. When white, the ship will absorb white bullets fired by enemies and store their power until released with a special attack. However, if the ship is white and hit by black bullets, it will be destroyed. The opposite is true when the ship is black. Enemy fighters also have black and white polarities. If the player ship is white and the enemy is black, the player's bullets will do twice the damage than if their ship was black. If an enemy is destroyed with the same polarity as the player, the ship will expel energy which can be absorbed or, if the player changes polarities too quickly, present a fatal danger.

Development

Development of Ikaruga began while Treasure's Sin and Punishment (2000) was still in development. Ikaruga was self-funded (and later self-published). Since company resources were allocated for Sin and Punishment, director Hiroshi Iuchi worked on Ikaruga at home on his spare time and developed a prototype with help from programmer Atsutomo Nakagawa. Gameplay ideas in the prototype version were later included in a special bonus mode in the final game. The concept theme for Radiant Silvergun was “World”, and for Ikaruga it was “Will”.

Release

thumb|The Dreamcast port of Ikaruga was imported by gamers worldwide and gained a cult following before its official western release.

Ikaruga was targeted to Treasure's core fanbase, as pleasing them was the team's first priority. Although the game was primarily being developed for the Sega NAOMI arcade platform, it was standard for NAOMI games to be ported to the Dreamcast, and so the development team had this in mind. The NAOMI version was bug checked on a Dreamcast, so porting was very easy. Although not yet published in the West, Ikaruga began to garner a cult following in North America among import gamers.

On August 15, 2002, it was announced that Infogrames' Japanese division had picked up the publishing rights to a GameCube version of the game and would release the title in January 2003 under the Atari brand name. The game was released in Japan on January 16, 2003. Initially, Infogrames' North American and European divisions had no plans to release the title nationwide, but on January 28, 2003, it was announced that Infogrames would publish the GameCube version in those territories as well, with representatives at the publisher citing the popularity of the title in Japan and a growing fan base around the world. The game was released in North America on April 15, and in Europe on May 9, branded under the Atari label as in Japan.

On 12 September 2007, Microsoft announced they were planning on releasing Ikaruga on Xbox Live Arcade for the Xbox 360. It was released on 9 April 2008, and included new features such as leaderboards, achievements, and the ability to record and replay playthroughs. Treasure later released Ikaruga on the arcade distribution platform, NESiCAxLive, on 8 August 2013. In October 2013, Treasure placed the title into the Steam Greenlight process to bring the game (based on the Xbox 360 version) to Microsoft Windows, with hopes to bring their other titles to the platform later. The game was released on Steam on 18 February 2014. It was also published by Nicalis for the Nintendo Switch on 29 May 2018, supporting both horizontal and vertical screen orientations. In June 2018, Ikaruga was also released on the PlayStation 4. On 22 November 2019, Nicalis announced that physical copies were in production for both the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4.

Reception and legacy

Initial reception of Ikaruga in Japan was mixed. Players praised the visuals and music, but opinions were divided on the gameplay system. The original Dreamcast port of Ikaruga was well received by Greg Kasavin of GameSpot. He praised the game for its visuals, sound, and challenging difficulty. He also praised the game for bringing back a dead genre to the forefront, saying "Ikaruga takes 20 years of great ideas in game design and somehow manages to put an entirely new spin on them...for the sake of making a game that's both familiar and utterly unique." while GameSpot named it the best GameCube title of that month. Reception of the Xbox 360 and Windows ports was similar to the GameCube version. Topher Cantler of Destructoid gave Ikaruga a perfect score and dubbed it a "work of art". Although most critics still agreed that Ikarugas unique game design was a positive characteristic, Simon Parkin of Eurogamer offered a counterpoint that its fresh design is also its weakness, in that it stifles many of the other elements that define shoot 'em ups and morph it into something different and "inscrutable." Reviews of the Switch port were also positive.

Ikaruga continues to be one of the most revered shooters of all time. The Xbox 360, Windows, and Switch ports have received positive reviews.

IGN voted Ikaruga the 3rd greatest 2D shooter of all time. Adam Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun called Ikaruga one of Treasure's greatest works and "one of the most perfect games [he] ever played." Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 shared similar sentiments, calling it one of Treasure's most popular games, and "one of the most remarkable shooters of all time." In 2020, Slant ranked Ikaruga 92nd on its 100 Best Video Games of All Time. They praised the unique polarity gameplay saying it "stylishly revitalizes the genre."

The Dreamcast and GameCube versions sold 33,860 physical units in Japan. The Xbox Live Arcade version sold 137,088 digital units on the Xbox 360, . The PC version has sold 128,543 digital units on Steam, .

Notes

References

  • Official websites for Arcade, Dreamcast, and NESiCAxLive, and versions
  • Official websites for and Xbox Live versions
  • Taito's NESiCAxLive page