Ikachan

Genre: Metroidvania

Players: 1

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Review:

Ikachan is a Metroidvania released as a Japanese-language freeware game in 2000 on PC, and then ported to the Nintendo 3DS eShop in 2013. This game has players taking the role of a squid-like creature who awakens deep in the ocean and looks for a way to escape the realm they find themselves in, apparently under the thumb (fin?) of a fish called Ironhead. This game is noteworthy for being one of the early works of Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya, better known for being the creator of the game Cave Story.

One of Ikachan’s greatest strengths is how adorable it is. Not only does this game use some very endearing pixel art for its visuals (with seemingly every creature having big googly eyes), but the writing for these creatures and the adorable little culture they have in their undersea enclave is really quite endearing too. This is all backed by a chiptune soundtrack that is catchy, but also gets repetitive very quickly.

Apart from the cute story, this game is fairly unique in being a Metroidvania with a freely-swimming protagonist. However, while this holds interesting potential, it also comes with its fair share of issues. For one thing, your squid takes a lot of work to get moving at any decent speed, and then his momentum carries him farther than you may want. As a result, controlling him takes some getting used to.

In addition, this game’s structure is highly frustrating, as your progress is blocked at multiple points until you speak with a specific character, but the game doesn’t tell you who you need to speak with, meaning you may well find yourself having to talk to every speaking character again after you’ve been stuck a while.

Finally, the other issue here is that this game can be beaten within the span of an hour or so. Even for a $5 game, that’s pretty absurdly short.

Ultimately, some may still want to check out Ikachan both for its cute factor and to see the early work of the creator of Cave Story. However, most will find there are far better Metroidvanias on Nintendo 3DS.

tl;dr – Ikachan is a Metroidvania where players control a squid-like creature. This game’s story and presentation are adorable, but progression is unnecessarily frustrating and the game only lasts an hour. Even at a low price of $5, this game will probably only interest those who want to seek out the early works of creator Daisuke “Pixel” Amaya, because it doesn’t have enough to offer on its own merits to justify a purchase.

Grade: C+

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