It’s a beautiful system of risk and reward integrated into the very core of the action. You can switch polarities at anytime, of course, and determining which color is best for which situation is completely up to the player. The opposite is true of course too – while your ship is white, you’re practically invincible to white attacks, and can heavily damage black foes. However, your attack strength is doubled against white foes. (The title of the game, as well as the ship, is named after a specimen of mottled dove, which is both black and white.) If your ship is black, then it can absorb all bullets fired by black enemies, but can still be killed by white projectiles. Your ship, as well as all enemies, falls into two classifications: black or white. The primary mechanic borrows a bit from Treasure’s side scrolling platformer, Silhouette Mirage. Plus, Radiant Silvergun was a bit slow paced and deliberate, but Ikaruga kicks up the speed considerably. There are no real story sequences, no RPG elements at all. Your main weapon cannot be powered up at all, although your homing attacks are made more powerful depending on your power gauge. Your primary weapon is a standard, rapid firing laser, as well as a special homing attack limited by your power gauge, but that’s it. It also cuts out the weapons down to two. It’s approximately a third of the length, but in reducing the scope, it’s created a much more focused and engrossing experience. There are only five real bosses, compared to the twenty or so in Silvergun. Ikaruga has only five stages, and can be completed in roughly twenty minutes. However, Ikaruga is a much more concentrated game that Silvergun ever was. And they both focus on hugely epic, intricate boss battles. It also features chaining mechanics similar to Silvergun, with each enemy having a unique color. It features a similar graphic style, although the upgrade to the Naomi from the ST-V puts out substantially prettier 3D graphics. From this perspective, Ikaruga is very much the successor to Radiant Silvergun. The sequels are not mere extensions of the original games, but a drastic evolution of game mechanics, with very different attitudes towards pacing and freedom. In the following years, Treasure created a couple of sequels which greatly changed up the game mechanics, such as the jump from Guardian Heroes to Guardian Heroes Advance, or Bangai-O to Bangai-O Spirits. At the time of its release, that may have seemed true – although its work-in-progress name was “Project RS2”, the final product was a significantly different game from the Saturn/arcade classic. Some people will try to tell you that Ikaruga is not “Radiant Silvergun 2”.
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