Ikaruga, one of the Gamecube's best forgotten games, is coming to the Nintendo Switch, bringing its unique brand of bullet-hell, color-switching gameplay to bear on the portable home console. You have a few weeks left to wait if you want to play it, but May 29 isn't that far away.
Ikaruga made its first appearance in Japanese arcades in 2001. Developed by Treasure, the company behind console classics like Gunstar Heroes and Dynamite Headdy, Ikaruga was a top-down, bullet hell shooter with a unique twist. Enemies could come in black or white flavors and you can too, though it's entirely switchable. If you use the opposite color you could do double damage, but if you use the same color you get additional points -- leading to extra lives -- and have the chance to collect extra blobs for your super weapon.
That means that throughout the game you not only have to dodge many of your enemies projectiles but switch polarity too, so that you are the correct color at the right time. If you are the same as your enemy's projecties, great, you can absorb them. If you're the opposite though, you die in one hit. That means you need to blend your mind into a weird mix of going after the bullets coming your way, and at the same time think to avoid them when necessary.
It makes the game pretty damn hard, but then bullet hell games are never easy, are they?
The Nintendo Switch version of the game brings all that to the table, alongside the classic cooperative mode and three difficulty levels. There are also two gameplay modes, as Eurogamer explains: Arcade and Prototype. The former is the classic game, while the latter sees you limited to the number of shots you have based on the projectiles you absorb.
The game will debut on the Switch on May 29 with a price tag of $15.
