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Ikaruga is out on Android (for Japan only I think)

"How would you change color, move and shoot at the same time?"

Phone shmups generally have autofire enabled...which would be a bit of a problem with Ikaruga as you obviously don't *always* want to shoot whatever is in front of you.
 
well I am not the best at vertical- shmups, but hot damn if I dont love them. will be waiting on the ikaruga port to the west (hopefully) until then I might have to get Raiden and any other great android shooters, speaking of which, GAF suggest me some good Shooters on the android. I have an SII I prefer vertical shooters

cheers in advance :)
 
I haven't tried Ikaruga on Android, but here's how I would make the controls if I was a in charge :

1/ gyro controls for a true next gen experience
2/ flip the phone like a crepe to change color
3/ auto fire but you can touch the screen to not shoot
4/...
5/ profit!
 
SmokyDave said:
I can only assume you're playing some low-rent stuff on a janky phone because the Cave shooters on iOS are fucking great.
Click to expand...

I've played all the lite versions on an iPhone 4. The Cave shooters are low res, cropped, and your thumb can still get in the way. Also you have to either slow down the enemies or speed up the controls and since Cave's stuff on iOS are ports they made the movement faster. Not to mention all the auto stuff put in. Actually, I'm not sure it's being cropped but it's blurry so it's that or they are upscaling.

My Android phone is a year old now but the shooters I've played on there never had a problem running.
 
Peru said:
Shmups on touch screens done right can be super-precise and arguably the one hardcore genre that perfectly translates to it. Lots of ignorant people here.
Click to expand...

i have played them all and i own a arcade cab with tons of shmups and no they really don't. sorry.
 
When porting an STG to a phone, you have two options: maintain the original difficulty and make it control like garbage, or throw the original difficulty out the window and make the touch controls work.

Devs obviously go with the latter, and the controls absolutely do work. It just results in a completely different game. I'd never say that they "perfectly translate" to phone, but there's nothing at all functionally busted about most of these smartphone STGs.

I haven't played any STGs on Android, but I've also honestly never played a responsive and perfectly smooth game on Android. I have no clue what's going on with Android games.
 
Teknopathetic said:
"How would you change color, move and shoot at the same time?"

Phone shmups generally have autofire enabled...which would be a bit of a problem with Ikaruga as you obviously don't *always* want to shoot whatever is in front of you.
Click to expand...

Yeah, Ikaruga is a bit different from a Cave shooter (which works heavenly on an iPad). Auto-fire would make it impossible to get chains.
 
I can't believe there's no more talk about this or videos from it. It's a premier shooter, one of the best of all time.
Nothing on youtube, nothing in gaming news.

Misterinenja said:
Never played a SHMUP on a phone.
How would you change color, move and shoot at the same time?
Click to expand...
Like in Cave shooters,
- you could have constant auto fire and press virtual button to change color (for casual play)
- or you could have two buttons next to each other, hold one to shoot, press one to toggle color.

In both cases movement would be controlled by sliding your other thumb across the screen, which works great in Cave shooters and gives you so much precision and speed that it feels like cheating almost to play their games like that.
 
la_briola said:
On Android they are made by G-Gee, I guess its the same deal on iOS?!
Click to expand...

Probably just a distributor...I think they are made in-house at Cave, the iOS games. I can't imagine any other company making (or even porting) a game as masterful as DDP:MBS other than Cave themselves.
 
Lord Error said:
I can't believe there's no more talk about this or videos from it. It's a premier shooter, one of the best of all time.
Nothing on youtube, nothing in gaming news.


Like in Cave shooters,
- you could have constant auto fire and press virtual button to change color (for causal play)
- or you could have two buttons next to each other, hold one to shoot, press one to toggle color.

In both cases movement would be controlled by sliding your other thumb across the screen, which works great in Cave shooters and gives you so much precision and speed that it feels like cheating almost to play their games like that.
Click to expand...

Auto fire would ruin the chaining system of Ikaruga
 
At first I was excited, I was finally going to be able to play Ikaruga, then I remembered my awful experience with Robot Unicorn Attack and a touchscreen, which is a game far more forgiving than Ikaruga, I can only imagine the frustration of a shmup with a touchscreen, no thanks.
 
ZiggyRoXx said:
Lol..if you'd told me 10yrs ago whilst playing this on my DC, one day it would be on a phone,looking pretty much identical, I'd have driven you to the local insane asylum.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I said the same thing about Crazy Taxi. Crazy how technology evolves.
 
The game is good... But its hard to play the game on the portrait orientation. :\ Plus changing the controls is hard on the phone.
 
I love me some Ikaruga but on a mobile device I don't think it's going to be so awesome especially if autoshoot is enabled. Anybody who has played the game obviously knows why.
 
Fugu said:
I am beyond skeptical of this but I'll give it a shot for $10. Has anyone tried it?
Click to expand...

I just did. There is an optional autofire.

You can move ikarugascreen from the top screen and there are buttons on the bottom of the screen.

There is definitely need for a larger screen for the game... I think it could work well on a pad.

PS: Used my AT&T Galaxy S2.
 
I hope the controls are closer to the cave games than the horrible Raiden games. They really dropped the ball on the controls for Raiden.
 
If this can be played on a controller OH MY GOOOOOOOOD.gif

Just needs to be made Playstation Mobile certifiable and HNNNNG.
 
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