The Scoreboard #9

Ikaruga

Famous for its ball-breaking difficulty, Ikaruga forces players to memorize its six challenging stages if they want a mere modicum of success. It still manages to be an addictive arcade shooter (with sweet tunes) that keeps you coming back to finish one more stage or increase your high score, and doing so will rake in the tough-to-earn Achievements. Ikaruga vets should have little trouble, but the shooter is new to a lot of gamers. And the new kids are going to be absolutely crushed by the game’s brutal unlock-requirements.

Best Achievement – Dot Eater (10 pts.) Clear a certain chapter in any mode without shooting at all It’s a great feeling to wrap up a level in Ikaruga when you’re chaining colossal combos (red-red-red, blue-blue-blue!) but it’s even more stimulating to eat thousands of laser dots (nom, nom, nom) without ever firing a shot. Pacifism goes a long way, folks. All the way to ten points and the right to brag that you’re “so good at Ikaruga, I didn’t even have to kill anything!”

Worst Achievement – The “Grade” Achievements – (5 for 20pt. each) Perhaps the most demanding Achievements in history, these practically demand that you (and a co-op buddy) be the most unrelentingly awesome Ikaruga-ers  on the face of the earth, requiring precision shooting and 40+ chains and zero deaths. We’ve mentioned memorization already, but seriously: know the stages inside and out, or your chains won’t take you anywhere. Trying to keep a combo going across all six levels sucks, but the masochists who manage to do it deserve these points.

Easiest Achievement – Target: Eboshidori (10 pts.) Destroy Eboshidori! First-timers might require a couple tries, but beating the first boss – concluding what is the game’s interpretation of a training level – isn’t exactly tough. Everything else is.

Hardest Achievement – Unstoppable (25 pts.) Clear the game in any mode without using Continue In all honesty, it’d be easier to climb Everest without legs or arms than to finish Ikaruga sans-death.

Time Investment  vs. Payoff – 4 (out of ten) Every hour you play earns you another continue credit. After tireless toiling, you’ll eventually just get infinite lives, so you can blast through all six levels (taking out the bosses for Achievements in the process) without worry. If you’re not committed to learning Ikaruga’s intimate (and awesome) details, then skip it.

Overall – 6 (out of ten) Your mileage will vary since Ikaruga’s difficulty will be more solvable for experienced shooter fans. It’s far from n00b friendly, but it’s fun to shoot things and learn the patterns. The more you play, the easier it gets, and the game helps you as you spend more time with it, but those “get an A” Achievements will be unreachable for most.

PREV1234NEXT