Now that it's so easy to boot up Ikaruga again to be enjoyed at my whim thanks to its release on the Personal Computer via Steam, well, it looks like the only real way to savor this game is... to commit to it with an intense daily training regiment? I had this conversation many years ago with an acquaintance on the X-Box 360 who was an avid shoot-'em-up fan himself. We both agreed that when it comes to shmup, one just doesn't retain one's mastery over a game in that genre so easily when one doesn't revisit it often enough. It's very shocking how horrible I am with this game now that I am playing it again after removing myself from it for such a long time. My brain could recall the little pieces of my strategy as I was playing and sometimes things made sense but for the most part, it's like I am learning to play it all over again. When I was pretty good with Ikaruga back then, I pretty much played the game almost every day and that commitment yielded serious results. I remember that I could always, and I mean without fail, manage to get to the last stage without continuing - surviving the last section was still very tricky for me - but now, the best I could do is hit the third chapter. This is pretty cool however if I look at the situation as a replay value booster. I will have to play this game for many hours to be able to fully taste its deliciousness again.
I used to move around pretty good inside that deadly circle but now it feels claustrophobic!
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