Tech: Ikaruga

"Ikaruga" is an arcade game developed by Treasure. It's been ported to both the Sega Dreamcast and the Nintendo Gamecube, but its most recent appearance is the Xbox Live Arcade version. The game is a vertical scrolling shooter in the same vein as the Raiden series or 1942 - you control a ship on the screen that dodges enemy bullets and returns fire.

The game's central conceit is that all bullets and ships are either black or white, including your ship and your bullets. So, you are tasked not only with moving around and firing, but with switching between black and white as necessary. Hit enemies with opposing-colored bullets (a white bullet hitting a black enemy, for instance) and you'll do more damage. If an opposite-colored bullet hits your ship, you're toast. As you can see from the video, it gets complicated:



In theory, completing the game can be done on the first try, assuming you have incredible reflexes. More likely, though, you'll have to play each stage multiple times in order to memorize the layout if you want to survive until the end. And if you want to really increase your score, you're going to have to plan your route in advance.

Ikaruga's one of my favorite games - it takes only about 20-odd minutes to traverse all 5 levels, but it takes hours and hours of practice to truly master the tricky, puzzle-like enemy formations for maximum points. After a certain point, you can start to play the game from muscle memory, which provides for a hypnotic, almost Zen-like experience that will amaze your friends.

Rating: 95/100