Ikaruga, the Japanese arcade vertical shooter from developer Treasure, hit the Xbox Live Arcade on April 9th and is available for 800 points. While many shooters are finding new life on the XBLA, Ikaruga stands out from its contemporaries with challenging gameplay and a unique twist to the genre.

In the game, you pilot either the Ikaruga or Ginkei, ships with multiple polarities, meaning they can be switched between black and white. The dual polarities of the Ikaruga allow you to fend off the unrelenting waves of black and white enemies through five intense levels. By switching polarities, you absorb bullets of the same color while inflicting double the amount of damage to an enemy ship of the opposite color.

Another bonus to absorbing your enemies’ bullets is in the release power feature. This allows the Ikaruga to launch multiple shots at once. You can achieve additional points are through chaining, which occurs when you shoot three of the same color ships down in a row. Players will quickly want to understand the tempo of the game and memorize the polarity of the ships during each level. Not only are Achievements attached to scores of A or better in each of the 5 levels, but credits (i.e. lives) are awarded after hitting specific point tiers. If you are going after the Achievements, chaining will be integral in obtaining that score of A or better.