Overview:

Ikaruga is an extremely hard vertical space shooter game developed by Treasure, originally released for the Sega Dreamcast, then ported to the Nintendo GameCube and, golly, it has always been fucking hard.  You switch between polarities of black or white and, based on the color of the ships you’re shooting, can either inflict normal or double damage.  Also, upon explosion, the ships shoot colored bullets back at you.  You’ll absorb the same color and die from a different color.  It’s hard hard hard.  It’s been hard for over 20 years.

Visuals:

I would say this game is a visual treat but I really can’t pay attention to what is going on in the game other than watching bullets coming at me.  I can’t tell you what’s happening in the background, what the ship designs look like, etc. because everything for me is condensed to the small bottom sector of the screen.  From what I can see it does look beautiful, even if it’s from the Dreamcast/GameCube era.  

Audio:

This is something I can actually pay attention to because the soundtrack and everything audio about this game is fucking rad.  The soundtrack amps you up enough to be like “I’m gonna fuckin do it!” to immediately being humbled by your first explosion, then second, third, and then the robot asking to to Continue digs the knife even deeper.  All of that culminates to the sound of, what I can describe, as a “zombie explosion” when you run out of continues.  Other than that, though, all the explosions from the ships to the boss’s ultimate demise just are top notch.

Completion:

I bought this game for the GameCube from Wal-Mart back in 2003 and still cannot ever get past the second stage.  There must be something wrong with me because I always keep coming back to the game over and over again.  I bought it again for the Xbox 360 in 2008 and still can’t do it.  It’s never going to happen as I get older and my reflexes deteriorate.  Either way, it’s been a hell of a ride.