Caltrops - Gamerasutra - counter rebuttal

Forum Overview :: Gamerasutra

by FABIO 05/09/2003, 8:28pm PDT

cpct0 wrote:

I definitely do not agree with you on this. I guess you haven't played the game at all.
Unlimited continues ... In Trial Mode, for the first level, yes.
It took me nearly 5 hours to be able to finish the 3 first level at Normal. That's quite difficult if you want my opinion... Unless you have unlimited continues, of course.

Yes, I must have hallucinated the entire thing. You receive unlimited continues once you've logged in 3-4 hours of playtime, happy? Time spent dying and restarting from the beginning over and over and over again is stretching the term "play time" in my book. But guess what, Ikaruga is still a tragically short shooter. The likes of Gradius and Life Force (Salamander) will last you 30-60 minutes playing straight through on unlimited continues as opposed to Ikaruga's 15-20. There are rythm games longer than that.

For me, it's the ultimate shooting game, that have only been surpassed in fun by two games so far: Einhander (PSX) and Super Darius (TG16).

There are plenty of NES and freeware shooters with more fun in them.

Feel free not to rent this game. I was eagerly anticipating this game and bought it and am very happy to have done so. It's the kind of game that is insanely rough but where you can get insanely good. It got good interaction when you play in 2-player mode. The features are just ok. The only thing I can think is wrong for that game is there are no vertical full screen mode... Unless I am ready to turn my TV sideways 90degrees.

That's a great review line, "BUY! Do not rent!". So you went out and bought this thing based solely on hearing that it was an autoscrolling shooter? Why are you even out reading and giving reviews then?

The only measure of skill in the game is how good you are at hitting the "change color" button. And as far as "it got good interaction" in 2-player mode, I say nay. 2 player mode does not allow you to pass freely through your partner's ship, they block and push each other. This gets extremely irritating especially since there will be only a tiny safe zone in any given area, causing one of you to push your partner into a wall and killing them. If by interaction you mean the one mid-game boss fight where one has to shoot the side while the other flies inside the weakspot, then yeah, this game is filled to the brim of got good interaction! Actually, you may be right since that one boss fight will constitute about 20% of your total play time.

The extras are shit. Unlock concept art that has nothing to do with the game! ROCK!