Currently on sale XBLA. Heard good things. Tried out the demo. Liked it.

Not a big fan of SHMUPS. Don't care about high scores. But Ikaruga is a masterpiece.

So is it worth playing for the story? Atmosphere and music seem top notch. Heard there was alternative "true ending".

DON'T SPOIL THE STORY.

The story is a bit weird, but quite interesting. I haven't actually got the "true ending" though so can't speak about that, but the game is a really fun unique SHMUP with some unlockables and incredibly hard achievements that give it replay value.

I enjoyed the story for what it was and it was certainly the best SHMUP story I've seen. The story as a whole maybe isn't super compelling on its own, but I liked all of the different characters, the art style and the general atmosphere enough that it was a good experience as a whole. If it still seems a little steep for you at $7 (or whatever the MSP to real money conversion works out to be), it does go on sale on Green Man Gaming and Steam reasonably frequently (summer sale should also be soon) for about $2.50. The story mode ended up taking me about four and a half hours to complete, and I played for a total of seven or so.

I'm not normally much of a SHMUP guy, but I would've been happy with a purchase at around $10-$15.

It's a great side scrolling shooter. Story is decent but it's not worth it for the story alone in my opinion.

It's currently free on PS+ for Vita. Have yet to find the time to play it though. Good to hear it's worthwhile.

@seppli: @seppli: @tourgen: @winsord: @shadowvirus: Cheers for the comments. I will pick this up.

Only negative is that it doesn't really support arcade sticks properly. It was made for the 360s analog controller. Once again my HRAP EX Seimitsu goes unused. Bought it 3 years ago and have used it for all of 5 hours.