Eachweek, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game.
This week on Points>Life we're giving you nothing! Well, actually what we're doing is going back and recapping the tips we've given you and added a little postmortem comment. After releasing each feature the X3F Army shared best practices on other methods to obtain similar achievements.
This week we go back to the last eight weeks of tips and tricks, so if you're new to Points>Life ... today is your day!
Eachweek, X3F tips gamers to the tricks of the trade of Achievement hording in Points>Life. Every week a new achievement is unlocked to help you continue your unhealthy obsession with the Xbox 360 meta-game.
This week marks our first venture into the XBLA points business with a tip that covers the recently released Ikaruga. Well, maybe tip is the wrong word. This week we're showing you the pattern to memorize that will help you get an A grade on the first level of the shoot-em-up.
This one isn't easy to get, but watch the tutorial and you should be chaining enemies in no time.
Music: "Mercy" by OURS
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This is the one everyone has been waiting for. Ikaruga has finally landed on Xbox Live Arcade. We took the game for a test drive and put together our usual video tour. Is Ikaruga worth the wait? You bet your bottom it is. If you like the bullet hell shoot-em-up genre, you need to play Ikaruga. Watch the video and find out why.
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This is it, the final chance to win Ikaruga if you haven't already entered. Remember, unlike our typical giveaways, you can only enter once. If you've already entered, you're covered. Those of you who haven't entered, get to it (you have one hour as of this post). We don't know why you haven't already, honestly. Maybe you were away on business. Maybe you were tied up in the basement and have only now reached a computer, desperate to reach out for somebody, anybody who can help. We say wait just one minute before contacting the authorities and enter our giveaway first. Remember fanboys: swag first, rescue second.
You there! Stop what you're doing right now because we've got something to say. Ahem, please don't forget to enter our latest giveaway. We're giving away two download codes for Ikaruga, the latest and greatest release on Xbox Live Arcade. All you have to do to win is visit our official giveaway page and follow the directions. As if that weren't enough, Joystiq is joining in on the fun and giving away three codes for the game. If you enter both giveaways, your chances more than double! Go for it. Live the dream.
Ah, the sweet taste of free. Granted, it's not always sweet. After all, people give away lots of crappy free stuff. A free coaster, a free button, free Yaris. None of that really seems to satisfy. Free Ikaruga, on the other hand, now that hits the spot. Here's your chance to snag a free download code for Ikaruga (valued at 800 Microsoft Points / $10). Simply do the following.
To enter this giveaway, leave a comment with the name of your favorite Treasure-developed game.
You must be 18 years or older and a resident of the US or Canada (excluding Quebec).
Limit 1 entry per person.
This entry period ends at 12:00pm EST on Friday, April 11th. We'll randomly select 2 winners at that time (please check your email!).
For a list of complete rules, click here.
For another chance to win (well, three to be precise), head over to Joystiq.
Ikaruga, the Japanese arcade shooter that a few of our fellow fanboys have been salivating over, is now available for download off of the Xbox Live Arcade for a cool 800 Microsoft points. That means that the Dreamcast diehards among us no longer have any reason to track down an elusive Japanese copy of the game. Ikaruga supports two player co-op locally or over Live, video replays and (of course) the oh so unique and completely color coded polarity gameplay that we've all come to embrace. Go ahead and give Ikaruga a download already. Your inner vertical scroller will appreciate it.
Treasure told us last week, but today Microsoft made it officially official. The highly anticipated arcade shooter Ikaruga will make its way to the Xbox Live Arcade this Wednesday, April 9th for 800 Microsoft points. Ikaruga will feature five levels of shooter action, two player co-op gaming locally or over Xbox Live and include a video replay mode to watch all the destruction over, and over again. It's Ikaruga! It's releasing this Wednesday! It's Ikaruga!
Long rumored, and even leaked, this week's big Live Arcade release is now officially Treasure's fan favorite shooter Ikaruga. Despite the fact that the official xbox.com page still says "TBA," Treasure's website has been updated with the game's release date, and if the developers are not to be trusted, who is? The screen scrolling shoot 'em up that made its original debut in the days of the Dreamcast is designed around avoiding geometric patterns of bullets while shooting enemies. Ikaruga changes things up by adding the ability to change your ship's polarity to become invulnerable to certain bullet types. This looks to be the next really big game on the XBLA horizon, we just have to hope that the netcode holds up to the craziness that is Xbox Live.
Update: It seems the xbox.com page has been taken down ... whatever could that mean? Date moved? Date confirmed? We'll have to wait and see.
The screen scrolling shoot-em is a genre that's looking to more fully cement itself on XBLA soon, and Ikaruga will be one of the games that will allow it to do that. With a release date of 04/09/2008, April 9th 2008, fans of the incredibly hardcore co-op shooter will should be be happy, as thats the release date leaked onto the Japanese xbox.com site earlier today. We haven't heard much about this game so far, and with this info showing up on the Japanese version of xbox.com, it's possible that the English localization of the XBLA version isn't ready. We'll find out soon either way, now all we need is the game's price point, and since this isn't an original creation hopefully its not as expensive as another approaching-release XBLA game.
Oh, Ikaruga. What can we say about you that we haven't said in the past? We've dropped rumor after rumor in the wake of your pending announcement. Lamented about the wait for your upcoming HD upgrade. We've even been teased by advertisements while we awaited your arrival. Today the teasing continues as your achievements have been revealed. From simple scenarios like beating bosses to unimaginable feats like completing your campaign on one continue - your achievements are no joke. Well Ikaruga, it seems we know everything about you that we can. So would you please hurry up and release already? These 800 MS Points are burning a hole in our pockets!
It seems the April issue of Official Xbox Magazine has some information about the highly anticipated XBLA release Ikaruga. Specifically, it sounds like the game will be coming out very soon, as the magazine notes the game is already available with a graphic that reads "Out Now." It doesn't get much clearer than that. Unfortunately, given the nature of magazine lead times (people get April issues in March, etc.) it's hard to say exactly when Ikaruga will show up, but it's probably safe to say it should be out before the end of April. Oh, and for what it's worth, OXM gave Ikaruga a 9 out of 10, so things are looking up.
Update: Upon closer inspection, the review appears to be in the UK Official Xbox Magazine.
After weeks of solid Xbox Live Arcade releases from such re-envisioned classics as RezHD to new-age addiction like Poker Smash, we can't help but wonder where one game in particular is. Ikaruga, from Treasure Video Games, has been at the top of our most wanted list since it was announced at the Tokyo Game Show in 2007 but it still hasn't found its way into our hard drives (currently it's the only XBLA title announced at TGS07 that has yet to be released.)
Visiting the official product page on Treasure's website (translated) we know that the game will ring in at 800 MS Points and that it's set for a winter '08 release. With March quickly approaching we can't help but wonder if Ikaruga will be hitting the Marketplace sometime in the next few weeks. Ikaruga's XBLA release checks off every major bullet-point for the service, such as: hi-resolution graphics and achievements, as well as added bonuses like 2 player co-op and support for both 16:9 and 16:10 widescreen.
Kotaku ran a story in early January confirming that Ikaruga had made its way to Partner Net, an industry-only beta release of Arcade titles in development, so we're optimistic the classic shooter will go live very soon.
In an interview with 1UP, Masato Maegawa, president of Treasure (shooter developer extraordinaire) talked about the company's current and future plans for Xbox 360. Firstly, Maegawa mentions that Ikaruga will have many new features on Xbox Live Arcade, including online co-op and the ability to record and share movies. Also, Maegawa spoke about the 360 shooter that was first announced back in January. Apparently, development for the unnamed shooter has been slow because of the resource-intensive nature of developing for 360. Also, it seems that part of the shooter team is also busy porting Ikaruga to Xbox Live Arcade. Finally, and perhaps most intriguingly, Maegawa notes the possibility that Radiant Silvergun may be headed to XBLA complete with high definition visuals. The sound you just heard was the jaws of millions of shooter fans hitting the floor.
Proving that the Tokyo Game Show is about more than just announcing Ninja Gaiden 2, several new (and notably Japanese) games have been announced for Xbox Live Arcade. First and foremost among these are Lumines creator Tetsuya Mizuguchi's Rez and Treasure's Ikaruga. While Ikaruga's appearance on XBLA shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who's been paying attention, Rez comes as a pretty big surprise. If you're not familiar with Rez, you're probably better off watching the video embedded after the break than having us attempt to explain it.
Microsoft also touted several other games for XBLA including EXIT (previously announced), Every Extend Extra Extreme (ditto), Omega Five (impressions), and Triggerheart Exelica (a shooter apparently). Things are looking up for XBLA, no?
Long rumored, and 
In an interview with 1UP, Masato Maegawa, president of 
