Ikaruga

Treasure created Ikaruga, a shoot 'em up. It is the spiritual successor to Radiant Silvergun (1998), and it was first published in Japanese arcades in December 2001. The plot follows a rebel pilot named Shinra as he fights an enemy nation with the use of a specially built fighter called the Ikaruga, which can switch between two polarities, black and white. This polarity principle is important to the game and serves as the foundation for level and opponent creation. In the game, all adversaries and bullets are either black or white. Bullets of the same color as the player are absorbed, whilst others kill the player. There are both single-player and cooperative modes in the game.

Ikaruga development began during director Hiroshi Iuchi's spare time when Treasure was working on Sin and Punishment (2000). The game originated as a successor to Radiant Silvergun, and it draws many aspects from it, including the polarity mechanic from Treasure's Silhouette Mirage (1997). The player's ammunition was limited throughout the game's development stages. The bullet absorption system was employed to reload ammo, but it was discovered to be weak because it caused too many breaks in the motion. In keeping with Treasure's game design philosophy, Ikaruga was created with the purpose of challenging normal game design norms and developing a new form of shooting game. Ikaruga was worked on by five Treasure staff members and three G.rev support personnel.

Platforms: PC game, Xbox 360, PlayStation 4, Microsoft Windows, GameCube

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