This cult-classic arcade-style shooter has a black and white polarity theme. Your ship can switch colors at any time; it absorbs energy of the same color, but is destroyed by energy of the opposite color. A monster even on "Easy" difficulty, Ikaruga has one of the most unforgiving learning curves ever, but benefits from a flawless control scheme and a gratifying, mastery-is-everything combo system that provides an incredible amount of depth. The 360 version is identical to the Dreamcast and Gamecube versions, with the addition of excellent Live support including a range of leaderboards and the ability to download a replay of anyone's high scoring run.

Unlike other games in the same genre, mastering Ikaruga requires blasting everything in a particular way, which some players might not enjoy. Two-player mode is supported, but not ideal. In addition, many of the achievements are very difficult to unlock: When trying to achieve an "A" rating on stage one, for example, there's nothing quite like chaining 50 unbroken combos through the whole stage without dying, defeating the boss in record time, and then scoring an ironic "B++".

Up: Flawless control, tight design, and a few unique gameplay mechanics. Down: Insane difficulty, basically no plot. Overall: B++ (A-)