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The story follows a rebel pilot named Shinra as he battles an enemy nation using a specially designed fighter called the Ikaruga which can flip between two polarities, black and white. Bullets which are the same color as the player are absorbed while the others will kill the player.

How to Play Ikaruga

Once Ikaruga is running in the app, these are the default controls — every one of them is remappable from the Controller Mapping panel.

The Story Behind Ikaruga

On 22 November 2019, Nicalis announced that physical copies were in production for both the Nintendo Switch and the PlayStation 4. By the time development was finished, 5 Treasure staff had worked on the game, as well as 3 support staff from G.rev which was raising funds to develop its own shooter, Border Down (2003). The game's pacing follows a "mountain" and "valley" approach, in which the music and action will peak, followed by a melancholy atmosphere, only to build up tempo again.

Development of Ikaruga began while Treasure's Sin and Punishment (2000) was still in development. Since company resources were allocated for Sin and Punishment, director Hiroshi Iuchi worked on Ikaruga at home on his spare time and developed a prototype with help from programmer Atsutomo Nakagawa. In the beginning, the stages were designed with the combo system in mind, however this made the optimal route too obvious.

What You'll Play

Modes are available that allow players to practice single stages they have unlocked at normal or slow speeds. The game features five stages, three levels of difficulty, and supports single-player or two-player cooperative modes. In an alternative way to play the standard game called "Bullet Eater", the player does not fire any shots and instead navigates through all the stages by absorbing bullets.

Home console ports of Ikaruga feature additional gameplay modes apart from the standard arcade mode. Enemy fighters also have black and white polarities. The player will earn 100 points for their first chain bonus, and double the amount for each bonus thereafter.

Why It Still Hits

Adam Smith of Rock, Paper, Shotgun called Ikaruga one of Treasure's greatest works and "one of the most perfect games [he] ever played." Kurt Kalata of Hardcore Gaming 101 shared similar sentiments, calling it one of Treasure's most popular games, and "one of the most remarkable shooters of all time." In 2020, Slant ranked Ikaruga 92nd on its 100 Best Video Games of All Time. Director Hiroshi Iuchi noted that players would tell him “this isn't an arcade game...make it more thrilling and fast-paced.” Both Iuchi and producer Masoto Maegawa stated that this mixed reception was due to players expecting a more standard shooter offering. Initial reception of Ikaruga in Japan was mixed.

The difficulty was both highlighted for being inviting to old-school shooter fans, but was also criticized for building a barrier to genre newcomers. Ikaruga continues to be one of the most revered shooters of all time. IGN voted Ikaruga the 3rd greatest 2D shooter of all time.

Ikaruga — Frequently Asked Questions