Ikaruga | Treasure Co. | 2002

Here we go, the most famous arcade shooter probably ever was the ported from Sega NAOMI boards to GD-ROMs in Japan and then imported everywhere, made a small stop on the Gamecube and finally rounded out on XBLA. Ikaruga is a masochistic shooting icon and deservedly so. Unlike its prequel, Radiant Silvergun, copies of Ikaruga are actually obtainable and affordable. Offering up intensely frantic action that forced players to play for seven in game hours before they could flip on the infinite credits switch, Ikaruga caused a lot of arcade sticks and controllers alike to become busted piles of plastic.

Ikaruga’s gameplay mainly centered on its use of ship polarities which allowed you to absorb enemy fire, filling up a gauge that when full would allow a burst of fire to wreck havoc on your target. Not having the correct color on when you got hit by enemy fire cost you a ship. Further cementing Ikaruga in the annuals of shooter fame was the eye melting graphics and soundtrack. Even today on the Dreamcast, the game still can stand up to a lot of good looking games of now, hell, the XBLA version’s upscaling doesn’t do much other than sharpen it up a bit.

Actually in its heyday, Ikaruga players were so hardcore that they would find whatever means to exchange high score replays, even official replays were recorded and sold on discs. Now however, with the XBLA leaderboards, competing for world ranking has become a much easier and has insured that Ikaruga can live on for years.  

Trigger Heart Exelica | Warashi | 2007

Trigger Heart Exelica mainly gets a nod because it was the last Dreamcast game ever printed. Like many late Dreamcast games, the print run was very limited and was confined to only Japan, even though it had English menus, however in 2008 it was (shockingly) brought over to the XBLA for everyone to enjoy. The game features anthropomorphic anime girls that battle through five stages of colorful bullet hell. Each of the girls’ have their own method of shooting be it wide ranged or straight up front.  That’s really all you need to know about this one, so if you like anthropo-whatever anime girls, download it now!

Under Defeat |G.Rev | 2006

Under Defeat is particularly interesting because of its setting, an alternate World War II where players play as anime German officers that strongly resemble Nazi soldiers. Noting the controversial subject matter, players take control of helicopters complete with eight way shooting directions, a setup similar to fellow Dreamcast shooter, Zero Gunner 2. If that setup sounds hard, that’s probably because it is hard, frustratingly so. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll more than enjoy it. One of the more neat features is the ability to change the screen tilt in-game. With the press of the R button, players can adjust the screen to their own liking which I’m guessing if you are a shooter fan and still play the Dreamcast is TATE. The game also makes good use of 3-D graphics to create a more up-to-date look. The problem with this game is… the fact that even though it only came out a few years ago, it’s out of print and damn hard to find, even on eBay.