The usual strategy of dodging the wall of bullets on screen, which is standard fare in any shoot-’em-up, becomes a whole lot more complicated when the polarity system is factored in. That doesn’t mean, however, that the game itself is simple or easy, because it is decidedly not either of those things. Though complicated to explain, it is a simple enough principle to understand when put in motion. Similarly, if the player ship fires bullets at an enemy ship of the same color, it will do a moderate amount of damage, but if it fires bullets at an enemy ship of the opposite color, it will do much more damage. However, if the player ship is the same color as the bullets being fired at it, it will absorb the bullets and charge up a meter to the left of the screen that unleashes a powerful attack when full, with a simple tap of the R button. If the player ship is the opposite color of the bullets being fired at it, it is a near-instant death. The enemy ships are similarly endowed with a color, either black or white, and they fire bullets of the same color. Many an arcade-goer found it difficult to wrap their brains around this revolutionary system, which grants a black or white color scheme to the player ship that can be flipped at the press of a button. Original reception to Ikaruga was mixed, mostly due to the differences that separates Ikaruga from its peers, namely the polarity system. Since then, Ikaruga has found its way onto the Xbox Live Arcade, PC, and now the Nintendo Switch, which is fitting considering it was a Nintendo console that gave the game its first legs in the West. Two years after its original release, Western audiences finally got their hands on the quirky little shooter in the form of a GameCube port, where the game garnered much acclaim among players and critics alike. After garnering a rabid following in the import scene when it was ported to the Dreamcast in Japan in 2002, it was only a matter of time before Treasure and Sega pulled the trigger on a proper Western release. This interesting and brutal shoot-’em-up by legendary game developer Treasure has come a long way since it was first introduced to Japanese arcades in 2001.
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