After screaming at the TV due to dying for the N'th time - It's still one hell of a great game.
Ikaruga is one of those games where no matter how many time's you die, no matter how many profanities you scream at the XBox, you'll still want to go back to it.
It's another of those classic vertical scrolling shooters that you see a lot ofd on the XBox arcade, but this is just so much better!
You have the ability to switch polarity's between black and white. This allows you to absorb enemy bullets that are the same colour as you (filling up a power bar to release a smart bomb) and allowing you to do double damage to the opposite coloured ships.
The game becomes a frantic desperation to switch polarity's every second to basicaly fly through incoming fire that is virtualy impossible to avoid otherwise.
The 5 levels are rather challenging, with the end bosses looking great andf very enjoyable to fight.
The 12 achievements are great fun to go after to, and make you feel like you've earned them.
You get one for finishing each level, and one for finishing the game without using a continue (damned hard!) there's also one for getting through a level without firing, just absorbing your way through. Theres 5 for completing each mission with an A or above rank - which is just damned-right impossible!
An A rank means chaining (hitting 3 ships of the same colour) repeatedly and not getting hit at all.
The leaderboard allows you to download peoples replays (show off!),. and when you watch these people who have spent hours memorizing where everything will come you see just how much time people devote to this.
If you have 800 points to spare, and a few weeks of spare time, then get this game!!!