Here we have yet another exceptional post from the Sarcastic Gamer Community, this time courtesy of member Jia Xu. If you want to see your work on the front page, then just create a forum account and start your own SGC blog. Or, just bribe one of the staff members with booze or candy.

Browsing through the Xbox Live marketplace at about 2 A.M., I noticed that this week’s download special was Ikaruga for 50% off. On a whim, I bought it.

A bit of preface before I explain why the title is worth the cash.

Lately, I’ve become bored with gaming on the 360. It’s become a lot of the same old, same old to me. Nothing has been able to grab me and keep me enthralled through the entire ride. Prototype – a fun, but shallow game – was the latest offender in this regard. The action was all murder, all the time; to beat bosses all you had to do was run away, throw stuff at it, and repeat until victorious.

Back to Ikaruga.

I flicked over to the Arcade to check out the deal. It turned out that 50% off was 400 MS Points, making Ikaruga $6.25 after tax. I had a vague familiarity with the game from it’s GameCube days, but it seemed like a pretty sweet deal. The rest, they say, is history.

Ikaruga is basically a flashy omg-the-screen-is-full-of-bullets shooter, which is, strangely, its biggest draw and its harshest flaw.

Ikaruga is mercilessly difficult. You get three lives, no continues, and one hit or collision kills you. Naturally, there is a catch. Bullets are one of two polarities: Light or Dark. Same for your ship. You can switch at will with the press of a button. This is how you stay alive. When you’re in dark polarity, you absorb dark shots; ditto with light polarity.

But wait, there’s more! Your shots match your polarity, so you shoot dark when in dark, and same, once more, with light. However, shots of the opposite polarity do double damage to enemies. So, an enemy of light polarity takes more damage from dark shots. However, this leaves you extremely vulnerable to the hoard of light shots headed your way…

The bosses are where the game gets super-charged. Massive metal monstrosity that take up one-third of the screen, spamming dozens and even hundreds of bullets on the screen at once, which leaves you weaving and polarity-swapping like gambling addict hammering the button at the slot machine.

Such a simple premise and yet it’s a rush unlike any other. It’s been quite a while since I’ve gotten such an adrenaline charge out of a game. And I don’t even like shooters.

Do yourself a favor and at the very least, go try the trial version of Ikaruga.