斑鳩

Tuesday, May 13, 2003 » gaming thought

Tonight I got to chapter 4 of Ikaruga for the first time, largely due to having finally earned several extra credits through accumulating play time. (The first few hours I played I didn't know the autosave was disabled by default. Grr.) Ikaruga is one of those games you don't play for fun. You play it because it taunts you in the back of your mind until you go mad. I don't know why I bought the thing in the first place. But anyway, things begin to get impossible right away. If you're not familiar with Ikaruga's premise, I will explain: The game is basically a vertical shooter. Your ship has a black side and a white side, and you are able to switch between them at will. Your laser changes color depending on which side is up, and you can absorb bullets of the same color without taking damage. Most of the time there will be black and white enemies onscreen simultaneously, each firing their own respective color bullets, so much of the game is an exercise in screening out all the bullets of one color while you dodge the rest of them. Anyway. Here is my GIFtastic depiction of the chapter 3 boss. Despite the low quality of the rendering, the basic idea is actually frighteningly accurate. Just imagine you are a tiny ship trapped somewhere within the ring. It is FUN. The first time I reached this boss, my brain overloaded and shut down and I had to leave the room.

I CANNOT EVEN IMAGINE HOW CHAPTER 4 CAN BE BEATEN. THE ENTIRE LEVEL IS LIKE THE CHAPTER 3 BOSS. HAHAHAHAHAHAH.

Matrix tomorrow!