In this vertical scrolling spaceship shooter, you control a ship that can change its polarity at will. As blue/white, the ship can easily destroy red/black enemies, and visa versa. Bullets of your polarity can be collected to fuel your missile gauge, but those opposite will kill you. Destroying an enemy ship will make them drop points for you to pick up, but they are polarized, too. Different difficulties exist to change exactly how you interact with polarized points, or how they appear.

Ikaruga is a balls-hard shmup with lots of difficulty even at the easiest level, and lots of replay value for those willing to face the challenge.

Shoot! Dodge! and… Get Hit!?
is a vertical shoot ’em up that features an unique polarity-switching gameplay.
Switch the ship’s polarity and “get hit and absorb” enemy bullets!
Achieve High Score with the chain bonus!
Features
Player’s polarity can be switched at will.
Filled energy goes to fire powerful homing lasers! (Release Power)
Building up high scores feels like a puzzle game?
Double Play Mode: You can play 2 Players game with one controller.
Change your tactics depending on the difficulty.
You can also download them from the Leaderboards.
You can also play the game like a side-scrolling shooter by rotating only the game screen.

Ikaruga Key Features:
1, The player ship, all enemies and bullets are black or white.
2, Your ship can absorb enemy bullets of the same polarity.
3, Defeat 3 enemies in a row of the same polarity and get the chain bonus!
4, Spectacular 3D graphics. Fast and smooth game play.
5, 2 Players game (Local) and
6, 5 levels. Tactical level design and boss battles.
7, 3 difficulty levels: EASY, NORMAL, HARD.
8, 2 Game modes: ARCADE, PROTOTYPE (not hidden).
9, Replay data save is available.
10, Vertical screen mode support.
11, Xbox360 controller, Keyboard and Mouse support.