Well, I said it “felt” like it was solved. It definitely wasn’t, it’s way too demanding for that, but it was easy to imagine a drawer inside Treasure HQ filled with reams of graph paper showing the perfect path through the game, and I think that’s one of the reasons why the game crossed over. This clearly wasn’t like other 2D arcade games of its era, which had a rep for being visually outdated, mechanically shallow, and intentionally unfair*. Your average IGN GameCube reader could easily pick up on how this game was meant to be played, they could recognize that this is all intentional, they could download a 240x320 video of a good player and sit in awe of the skill on display yet copy at least some of their strats, which is much easier to do in Ikaruga than its peers thanks to the polarity gimmick.
So I’m repeating myself a bit there but yeah maybe I could say it felt solvable in a way other games in the genre didn’t
Like remember this shit, all the comments were “this is bullshit cheating game” while Ikaruga 2p superplays were “this player is superhuman”.
I bet this video has more views than any Ikaruga vid though.
I’d totally forgotten about the online high scores for the GC version. Could that be a first in a Western released shooter? That was pretty important. So was having to unlock extra credits.
They did a lot right with this game, no wonder people love it, that is what I am saying here.
*And in retrospect I can totally understand why most people in the West felt that way, because they had no context for these games. Most home ports did nothing to discourage credit feeding, had no tutorials, skimpy manuals, and why would you even think of playing for score if you had no one to compete with or learn from? This genre flamed out for a reason beyond 2D games falling out of fashion.
Anyway since super plays came up:
Commercial super play videos were nothing new in 2003. They even released them on laserdisc.
The peak of the Famicom and the Japanese arcade and the rise of home video was during the bubble economy. There had to be a bunch of 10,000 yen VHS tapes telling you how to beat, like, R-Type or Gradius or Tower of Druaga. I’m sure you can find rips on niconico or Windy or even Youtube. I’d look myself if I knew Japanese! Ikaruga getting a DVD only proves that it had rabid fans. Cave games got them too! Shit, didn’t all of Arika’s PS2 ports came with super plays on a separate disc? You didn’t even have to buy them separately.
The Ikaruga Appreciate DVD is lovely, by the way. I wanted that so bad back then.
Just found this on my computer. Forgot it was my wallpaper for ages .
Anyway I think it’s much more interesting to talk about why these games may be popular than complain about how something else shoulda taken their slot. Sorry everyone, popular things often win popularity contests. Sorry more people here love Ikaruga than Layer Section or Space Bomber or Tumiki Fighters. Maybe there’s a good reason for that, maybe all the words that everyone’s written explain why, maybe folks on here actually know what they’re talking about. Like, Elevator Action Returns is going to win 99% of the vote against Dota 2, one of the most popular games on the planet. This is a community that likes good, obscure things. These other shooters didn’t get passed over cuz we’re rubes who got duped by marketing. It’s because Ikaruga is a standout game. And because no one rallied to the cause of Espgaluda, which is today’s Best Shooter Ever Made.
