Ikaruga (2001)

Treasure

Arcade

3.76 from 333 ratings

1194 members have it in their collection · 25 playing now · 493 backlogged · 173 wish listed

How long? Main story 6h (from 2 logged playthroughs)

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 … Read more
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. Read less
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Details

Developers
Treasure
Publishers
Treasure
Genres
Arcade, Indie, Puzzle, Shooter
Themes
Action, Science fiction
Steam
View on Steam

Release dates

  • Dec 20, 2001 (Japan) Arcade

Also available on

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Featured in lists

Tiny Games by Roach · 186 games · 4
GOTYs 1977-2025 by shinespark · 132 games · 0

Rating distribution

5 stars
73
4 stars
137
3 stars
96
2 stars
22
1 star
4
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Community All Reviews Statuses

shinespark

Status shinespark Oct 17, 2024

Been slowly chipping away at stages 4 and 5 in stage select, and then today it all came together at once and I rolled credits on my first full attempt! I can sense the absurd skill ceiling still infinitely high above me, can imagine finding a line of perfect monochromatic death through the whole thing, but for now I'm content …

Read more

Been slowly chipping away at stages 4 and 5 in stage select, and then today it all came together at once and I rolled credits on my first full attempt! I can sense the absurd skill ceiling still infinitely high above me, can imagine finding a line of perfect monochromatic death through the whole thing, but for now I'm content with my clumsy win.

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It's been 15 years since I last beat Ikaruga, and nothing's gone like I planned back then. For better and for worse, I ended up someplace else entirely, with new scars and new aspirations. But I'm still here, striving.

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shinespark

Status shinespark Oct 1, 2024

Replaying Ikaruga for the alphabet challenge and I'm horribly out of practice, ran out of continues on stage 4. On the plus side, playing on PC and not being stuck with the tiny dpad of the GameCube version is a huge improvement.

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SIGINT

Status SIGINT Jan 1, 2023

This game… I’ve said it before, it’s cool but so hard. I thought once I got used to the color changing mechanic it would be fine but the game is still just brutal. Feels like most of my deaths are either hitting or getting pushed into some obstacle or wall. 3rd level, I just can’t seem to get it together …

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This game… I’ve said it before, it’s cool but so hard. I thought once I got used to the color changing mechanic it would be fine but the game is still just brutal. Feels like most of my deaths are either hitting or getting pushed into some obstacle or wall. 3rd level, I just can’t seem to get it together to clear it consistently.

I like some of the encounters in this game, bosses and minibosses and such. Presentation is super cool, neat camera movements and hummable music that make it feel really epic. But overall it feels so annoyingly designed to me. So much memorization of little obstacles to inch your way around or barely slip through or avoid getting pushed into.

I definitely do prefer some of Treasure’s other games (the run & guns and rail shooters), and prefer my shmups from other developers. Will be giving Radiant Silvergun another go though at some point now that I’m more used to this sort of game.

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Nachonskiplays

Status Nachonskiplays Jun 18, 2021

Considerado de los mejores shooters en 2D de todos los tiempos y también de los juegos más dificiles de todos los tiempos, Ikaruga ha sabido ganarse su espacio en la historia de los videojuegos. Que no te engañe su mecanica facil de entender sobre los cambios de colores de la nave para esquivar balas, ya que rapidamente te da a …

Read more

Considerado de los mejores shooters en 2D de todos los tiempos y también de los juegos más dificiles de todos los tiempos, Ikaruga ha sabido ganarse su espacio en la historia de los videojuegos. Que no te engañe su mecanica facil de entender sobre los cambios de colores de la nave para esquivar balas, ya que rapidamente te da a entender que, a pesar de solo contar con 5 niveles, vas a pasar un buen rato aprendiendo los patrones de los niveles para poder completar el juego. Es un juego que si o si debes jugar alguna vez en la vida.

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kasparius

Status kasparius Jun 14, 2019

Physical edition announced for Switch and PS4 by Nicalis, which hopefully means manuals too!!