Rant for the night...

[BoostedGR33K]

Okay, I love scrolling shooter games. I LOVE Vapor Trail, R type Final, Life Force, Darius 2 and I could go on and on. So my friend Matt hands me this 'Shooters Collection' for the Sega Dreamcast. He tells me 'That has the only scrolling shooter game Ive ever beat on it. Its kinda easy tho, theres only 4 levels plus a final level. Its called Ikaruga. I played it for 4 1/2 hours tonight, and have come to the conclusion that I A. Suck at video games and B. This game fucks you harder than life itself with an 8ft sandpaper dildo. Seriously.... I thought R-type and R-type II loved kicking my ass up and down the block.... I cant even get past the 3rd level! I called to tell my friend that his game sucks and his reply was 'sorry dude...but thats an easy game. I've beaten it like 1,000,000 times and never died once....you're just terrible at games like that I guess...' While I know I suck at a lotta things in life, I try not to make video games one of them...but it seems lately like video games are getting harder and harder for me to play. Are the games getting harder or am I just sucking more and more as I get older? Either way, it took everything I had not to snap the disc in half, light it on fire and chuck it out into traffic.... >__> Okay I feel moderately better now.... -Ben

[Guntz]

Try some different games. Scrolling shooters aren't for everyone. Have you tried a platformer or action game lately? Maybe a slower paced RPG or perhaps an adventure game? There's too many games out there to let one really hard game bother you.

[Yharnamresident]

Ikaruga is an amazing game, spoiled by a gimmick.

[BoostedGR33K]

Try some different games. Scrolling shooters aren't for everyone. Have you tried a platformer or action game lately? Maybe a slower paced RPG or perhaps an adventure game? There's too many games out there to let one really hard game bother you.

Most RPGs I can never finish. I always get stuck and am never able to finish - be it cause I cant beat a certain boss or I have zero clue where to go. I cant sit down with a strategy guide either cause most of the time I dont have the stuff they tell me to use anyhow.... I think why its bothering me is the fact that he hates shooter games and sucks at all of them (he couldnt get past the 2nd level of Vapor Trail!) and he plays Ikaruga flawlessly... whereas I grew up on games like Vapor Trail and R-type and have very little problem with them. I mean, I know Im slow n all thats a medical fact... Its just up until this point Ive never met a scrolling shooter I couldnt beat - it was kinda my wizard thing ya know? Idk maybe Im reading too much into it.... guess I'll have to stick to Genesis games from now on n leave the more modern consoles alone...

[Assman]

You sure your friend isn't just fucking with you? "Never died once" reeks of bullshit to me. I definitely wouldn't classify Ikaruga as easy, but I wouldn't claim it to be any harder than most shmups either.

Ikaruga is an amazing game, spoiled by a gimmick.

I don't really get that train of thought. The gimmick is the whole point of the game; without that it's a standard shmup, or even sub-standard considering there aren't any upgrades.

[Yharnamresident]

You sure your friend isn't just fucking with you? "Never died once" reeks of bullshit to me. I definitely wouldn't classify Ikaruga as easy, but I wouldn't claim it to be any harder than most shmups either.



I don't really get that train of thought. The gimmick is the whole point of the game; without that it's a standard shmup, or even sub-standard considering there aren't any upgrades.

They could've found a gimmick that isn't so annoying to deal with. Switch black, switch white, switch black, switch white...

Ultimately the positive aspects of the game overshadow the negative ones. Amazing music, graphics, theme.

[TmEE]

Music was the biggest letdown in the game for me, the other thing was that I would have to turn my TV sideways for it to be playable nicely.

[MaxWar]

I am moderately good at shooters but never managed to really adapter to the "color change" scheme in Ikaruga.

Talking of scrolling shooters, I was Playing UN Squadron yesterday and this game is much harder than I expected it would be!

[Bottino]

Blasphemy!
Ikaruga is an amazing game.

About shooters, i've been playing Raiden Trad on the MD and that game is balls hard. I can't get pass through the stage 5 end boss.
The music could've been a lot better though. On the Arcade version is pretty good, but on the MD it sounds kinda "small".

[Kollision]

Ikaruga isn't really a friendly one, even for hardcore players.
Plus it's overrated as hell.

However... Did it beat you hard?
Keep trying, make it your bitch, that's the beauty deeply hidden in any hard game.
And then come brag about it later.

[Kamahl]

Ikaruga was a major letdown after the greatest vertical shooter ever made...

[OverDrone]

I played it for 4 1/2 hours tonight, and have come to the conclusion that I A. Suck at video games

Wait till you realise shooting games have to be cleared on a single credit to be legit.

his reply was 'sorry dude...but thats an easy game. I've beaten it like 1,000,000 times and never died once....you're just terrible at games like that I guess...'

Be sure to let him know about the one credit thing, won't you.

[Yharnamresident]

Blasphemy!
Ikaruga is an amazing game.

About shooters, i've been playing Raiden Trad on the MD and that game is balls hard. I can't get pass through the stage 5 end boss.
The music could've been a lot better though. On the Arcade version is pretty good, but on the MD it sounds kinda "small".

I waste about 2 continues on that boss every time. You gotta kill him before he lets out his robot pods.

[BoostedGR33K]

Ive never seen him play the whole game, but when I couldnt get past the 2nd level, he beat it real quick and didnt die once....so that was my basis for believing that maybe he's right and really CAN play the game without dieing once.... The music, the graphics its all really great.....but idk I think my human reflexes are too slow or vision/brain not on par with being able to keep up with this game.... side note: on the same disk as the shooters collection as Ikaruga was on for the Dreamcast, I discovered Zero Gunner II....now thats a shooter game - classic, yet fresh.

[tomaitheous]

Ikaruga was a major letdown after the greatest vertical shooter ever made...