Shooty Excitement! This is the first of a two-piece review! Ikaruga (2001) and Sine Mora (2012), two very different, shootery, bullet hell, mechanically 2D, fighter/spaceship/submarine/aeroplane games, are going to get the same review score (from meeeeee)!
Though the real reasons why I'm reviewing these together are that I see these two as the greatest of their genre (note: I have played only four of these type of games, but Ikaruga is generally considered the best and Sine Mora the newest) and -- the other reason why I'm reviewing like this is -- that these two games are flawed in the opposite ways and excellent in the opposite ways; or at least I like telling myself this is the case; you'll see; it'll make sense.
So first! Let's talk Radiant Silvergun!
Radiant Silvergun is critically considered one of the greatest shoot'em-ups (or "Schmups"). Although not anywhere as famous as Treasure's greatest game, Ikaruga, this 1998 shooter, playable on XBOX Live Arcade, has many of the DNA bits of Treasure's later "classic." Radiant Silvergun is insanely hard. It features not just bullet-dodging, but pattern-bullet dodging (i.e. enemies will be arranged and shoot in ways that force you to discover where you should move and where you should shoot, and with what weapons). There are entire "chapters" (i.e. levels) that can be beaten without firing anything. And varied boss battles there are; varied not merely in how the bosses look but in the patterns you'll need to discover to beat them; in many games of this genre, bosses are beaten simply by discovering their weak points and shooting them, and dodging uber-well; in these Treasure games, you'll need to navigate a maze, you'll dodge in patterns you haven't dodged in before. And sometimes you'll fly fast, and sometimes you'll fly slow -- a pacing tool not seen in enough shooter (flying) games, in general. You'll hear variations of inspiring music. The game's score-boosting combo system is based on killing enemies of the same color in 3's (the games do it a little differently, but I won't discuss it 'cause it's not terribly interesting). And the story and dialogue are, not great, but they have an edgy, anime-inspired theme (note: I do now know what "anime-inspired" means).
But Ikaruga is better than Radiant Silvergun.
It's easier to learn, due mostly to its having less buttons (4, vs. Radiant Silvergun's 7). Ikaruga's unique mechanic (the polarity system), makes the game even more unique than Radiant Silvergun's Radiant Sword and giant animal robot bosses. Ikaruga's a shorter game, which is to say it's fatless, which is to say, for example, that it has less mazes and less bosses, but has mazes and bosses that play even more differently from each other than Radiant Silvergun's mazes and bosses. Ikaruga is better paced; it does away with minutes-long cinematics and talking heads (to whom you would listen to over and over again, and not playing, due to dying over and over again). Almost the entire game of Ikaruga manages to be noob-friendly; on the easiest possible difficulty settings I beat the game in 2.5 hours (although it was still gloriously hard enough that, when I took my left hand off of the controller for a second to scratch my face, I died). Radiant Silvergun's story mode (that is, the whole game) on the easiest difficult settings took me seventeen hours of pain to beat (it's supposed to be an hour-ish in length).
And....that's it, in the Ikaruga's-a-better-game paragraph.
And....that's it, in the Ikaruga's-a-better-game paragraph.
And before this part one ends -- Ikaruga's polarity system: what is it?
It's a system (in Ikaruga) in which all your enemies and all the projectiles are dark or light-colored. Your own ship, too, can be either color (will be either color) via the press of a button that you will press many times; you can switch between the colors in a second at your whim; the game can't be beaten without you doing this.
And gameplay point of this yin and yang visual style is:
When you're dark, you do extra damage to light enemies but can be killed by light-colored lasers. When you're light-colored, you do extra damage to dark enemies but can be killed by dark-colored lasers. You absorb the laser fire that is your current color.
If you're confused and don't mind a spoiler, watch this video of Ikaruga's final chapter on Hard Difficulty: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGNSdcy-apU
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