Programs: Two-Dimensional 'Ikaruga' Is Flat-Out Fun
Sat Jun 14, 3:33 PM ET
By Gene Emery
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Reuters) - Curiosity made me take a peek at "Ikaruga." I was curious because, from the packaging, I couldn't begin to figure out what it was all about.
Now I understand why the information is so vague. This $40 GameCube game from Atari has something to hide. While presenting itself as a grand adventure, at its core it is no more than an old-fashioned arcade game.
"Ikaruga," based on a game made for the Dreamcast (news - web sites) system, is a throwback to the two-dimensional arcade shoot-'em-ups, where the player is assigned a shape on the screen and then has to blast all the "bad" shapes.
There is, however, an interesting twist to "Ikaruga." Pressing a button on the controller allows players to toggle the color of their aircraft between black and white. If you start out white, you are immune to the effects of white bombs. You can absorb their energy and turn it against enemy fighters. If you can't dodge the black bomb coming at you, you'd better change your color to black, or risk ending up as digitized detritus.
"Ikaruga" is a real challenge to play. On the first level, for example, waves of bombs are constantly sweeping toward you and aircraft of various shapes drift around the screen trying to box you in amid the highly confined space of the game. Touching an enemy craft also means instant destruction.
Fortunately, the pattern of attacks is always the same, so a little practice will help you sweep between the bombs, skirt the planes, and progress a bit further with each try.
To help players along, "Ikaruga" offers a "conquest" mode that lets you replay the level you're on and do it at half speed. That feature gives me, and other people with the reflexes of a dead slug, a fighting chance.
What's missing from this game is a sense of purpose. The instruction booklet offers an insipid "plot" about a player assuming the role of a pilot battling an evil ruler infused with "the Power of the Gods." But because the game itself doesn't offer any introduction or justification for your actions, the backstory seems like an afterthought.
"Ikaruga" has some spectacular three-dimensional background graphics that are meant to give this two-dimensional game some depth, but they're little more than a distraction. Real air battles would never be fought like this. Fortunately, those two-dimensional elements of the game are rendered so vibrantly and the game is so challenging, it doesn't feel flat.
If you're pining for the bygone days of arcade games where reflexes were everything, plots were a distraction, and racking up points gave meaning to life, "Ikaruga" will be a thrill.
But if you insist on more depth and some sense of realism in your game experience, "Ikaruga" will seem "vacuous."
"Ikaruga" is rated for everyone.
