Rant for the night...

[BoostedGR33K]

Yeah what was the greatest shooter of all time?? 0.o

[Kamahl]

Yeah what was the greatest shooter of all time?? 0.o

Vertical shooter . Radiant Silvergun of course. Perfect mix of regular shooter and bullet hell shooter, genius weapon mechanic, awesome levels and bosses, kickass soundtrack/graphics and a ridiculously weird story... I have absolutely 0 complaints about it. One of the very few games I can say that about.

Ikaruga's color gimmick isn't very fun to begin with and the game is pretty much a pure bullet hell shooter which I'm not a big fan of. Since it's so focused on the mechanic it doesn't even have cool powerups... really not for me.

[Yharnamresident]

Vertical shooter . Radiant Silvergun of course. Perfect mix of regular shooter and bullet hell shooter, genius weapon mechanic, awesome levels and bosses, kickass soundtrack/graphics and a ridiculously weird story... I have absolutely 0 complaints about it. One of the very few games I can say that about.

Ikaruga's color gimmick isn't very fun to begin with and the game is pretty much a pure bullet hell shooter which I'm not a big fan of. Since it's so focused on the mechanic it doesn't even have cool powerups... really not for me.

Yea I say either Radiant Silvergun or Sōkyūgurentai.

The best shooter ever, is on the Saturn regardless.

[Kamahl]

Yea I say either Radiant Silvergun or Sōkyūgurentai.

The best shooter ever, is on the Saturn regardless.

Sōkyūgurentai does come pretty darn close gameplay wise, but it lacks that weird epicness of RS.

EDIT: One notable thing about Sokyu is that as far as enemy formations are concerned it's actually better (the game gets them oh so right...), but that's not enough. The weapon mechanic in RS is much better, the scoring system in RS is better, the graphics are better and the design is better (last boss in RS? best ever in a shooter, nearly every level in Sokyu is bland design wise).

[Yharnamresident]

Sōkyūgurentai does come pretty darn close gameplay wise, but it lacks that weird epicness of RS.

EDIT: One notable thing about Sokyu is that as far as enemy formations are concerned it's actually better (the game gets them oh so right...), but that's not enough. The weapon mechanic in RS is much better, the scoring system in RS is better, the graphics are better and the design is better (last boss in RS? best ever in a shooter, nearly every level in Sokyu is bland design wise).

What about music? I represent the best of Sōkyūgurentai:

[The Coop]

Ikaruga is an amazing game, made more interesting by a gimmick.

Fixed that for ya

[A Black Falcon]

Ikaruga is probably Treasure's best game. It deserves every bit of praise it gets.

[Yharnamresident]

Ikaruga should've been Radiant Silvergun Enhanced-Definition.

[A Black Falcon]

Also, if Ikaruga's polarity switching is a "gimmick" (it's not really, it's the focus of the entire game), Radiant Silvergun's "gimmick", that is that the game has six different weapons each mapped to a different button, is MUCH harder to get used to. Polarity switching? It has a learning curve, but it's not too bad, and the concept is simple enough. But six weapons, each on a different button? What were they thinking?

[Yharnamresident]

Alright they both have gimmicks, but some gimmicks work, some don't.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, Ikaruga's works, and RS's doesn't quite as much.

[old man]

Also, if Ikaruga's polarity switching is a "gimmick" (it's not really, it's the focus of the entire game), Radiant Silvergun's "gimmick", that is that the game has six different weapons each mapped to a different button, is MUCH harder to get used to. Polarity switching? It has a learning curve, but it's not too bad, and the concept is simple enough. But six weapons, each on a different button? What were they thinking?

With Thunder Force V you could select a controller option to have all the weapons mapped to different buttons. I played the game this way on hard. It gets really intuitive after a while.

[The Coop]

With Thunder Force V you could select a controller option to have all the weapons mapped to different buttons. I played the game this way on hard. It gets really intuitive after a while.

Indeed. Once you get used to it, it's hard to go back to using a button to cycle through all the weapons with that game.

[Knuckle Duster]

Speaking of Ikaruga

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfile.../?id=183195387

[Kamahl]

Polarity switching? It has a learning curve, but it's not too bad, and the concept is simple enough. But six weapons, each on a different button? What were they thinking?

They were thinking that the controller has 6 buttons so why not use them? Having every weapon available from the start mixed in with the level up system not only solves the "I died now I'm weak" problem shooters have (while at the same time not making you overpowered for the first levels) but it also requires a lot of planning and learning (what weapons do I level up and when).

The game is designed so that there's always a better weapon for every case, but at the same time you can get by with another. All that plus the awesome sword. It's not hard to pickup, but it's a freaking challenge to master. Due to the nature of the powerup system, figuring out the best weapons to use requires a ton of replaying, replayability is through the roof.

Ikaruga is: White, Black, White, Black, White, Black, Bomb (those PD style beams), White, Black, White, Black, Bomb...
It's all reflexes, pure bullet hell lameness.