In the arcade era (80’s), my major in gaming was shoot’em up (Raiden and all other variations, etc.) One time (maybe 1986-7) I was playing this game, Darwin 4078, with awesome bat power and everything. I finished whole round and continuously playing the second round (or third). Kids were surrounding me with jaws dropped. It must have been about an hour or more playing the game (with one quarter). Suddenly the owner of arcade came to the cabinet and reset the machine. I was shocked and looked at him. He just tossed me a quarter and walked away. He didn’t say a word but his eyes were clearly saying ‘get a life’. Yes. I was that good.
Fast forward to 2001. There was a game called Ikaruga. It was very good game but too hard for me. I was good at shoot’em up if it is mostly based on reflexes and twitch game play. However Ikaruga requires enormous strategic playing to get a high score.
First, the ship can change color black-white to absorb same-colored-enemy-bullets and double-damage opposite color enemies.
Second, in order to achieve ‘chain’ killing, you have to kill same color enemies three at a time.
I simply couldn’t excel in this game with this much of thinking involved. Enjoyed game though. One day I saw this video, a guy, called ‘VTF-INO’ from ikaruga.co.uk, playing two ships, one hand each.
This is beyond human. Not only he is controlling two ships to handle two types of color attacks, he does not miss ANY CHAIN for each ship. The first video is Chapter 5, the last chapter. The second video is Chapter 4, which considered as the hardest chapter in the game. Whenever I see other game videos I can tell myself, “hmm, if I practice really hard, I am sure I can do that.” However, this one is beyond that, as if his brain is wired completely differently. Even if I were 25 years younger, I do not think I can play like that even if I practice like crazy. This guy is certainly a Newtype (old Gundam reference.) Yes. I am old.
