Ikaruga (PC) - 20.944.970 - Normal mode - ALL

[@mazstg8844]

Again, congrats for the run! And very nice handling of Tageri and the TLB!

[@Despatche]

Congrats!
The "criticism" is pretty dumb. You really only hear it in the US. Most of it comes from getting annoyed that Ikaruga is the game that "casuals" rave about. I get being annoyed about something like Sine Mora, but Ikaruga is a masterpiece. At least in Japan, this game is an unqualified classic and noone questions it. When the "arcade crisis" at the turn of the millenium happened, at least one major STG developer was afraid to even try to keep going because they thought Ikaruga was good enough to be the game that marks the end of the genre. There was an interview with CAVE where they basically said this, and I bet Psikyo or Raizing employees would have said the same thing.

[@mazstg8844]

Very nice topic! Would be nice to know if that was written in an official interview or if it was only a rumour

[@infirex7985]

Thanks! What I also hear about the game is 1. "it's a puzzle game, not a shmup", 2. "unappealing aesthetics" and 3. "too hard, even on easy mode".
The latter is often said by people with little to no experience with the genre, which makes sense.