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Gatsby Game Museum

Ikaruga

Ikaruga cover

Game Information

Original Release Date: December 20, 2001

Platforms: Arcade

Involved Companies: Treasure, G.rev

Genres: Shooter, Puzzle, Indie, Arcade

Summary: In this vertical scrolling spaceship shooter, you control a ship that can change its polarity at will. As blue/white, the ship can easily destroy red/black enemies, and vice versa. Bullets of your polarity can be collected to fuel your energy gauge, but those opposite will kill you. Destroying an enemy ship causes them to fire revenge bullets which can be absorbed and fired back by the player. Different difficulties exist to change exactly how you interact with polarized points, or how they appear. It is the spiritual successor to Radiant Silvergun, featuring similar level and boss design, as well as it's buddhism inspired themes and aesthetics. Both are directed by Hiroshi Iuchi, who also composed Ikaruga's soundtrack.

Screenshots

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This work is part of CSCI E-114, Web Application Development with Jamstack, Harvard Extension School. All video game data was obtained from The Internet Game Database (IGDB).