Developed/Published by: Pixel / Nicalis
Released: January 31st, 2013 (original PC version: June 23rd, 2000)
Completed: 11th January, 2014
Completion: Completed it!
Trophies / Achievements: N/A
Version Played: 3DS

Ikachan is mostly notable as one of the games Cave Story developer Pixel (Daisuke Amaya) created before, uh, Cave Story. No, wait. I probably mean particularly notable at that, because Ikachan does feel in some ways a dry-run for Cave Story. It’s got exploration, some story, an exp./upgrade system, amnesiac hero who wakes up in a cave system… it most likely uses an earlier version of the same engine, too.

But, um, just because it’s notable doesn’t really mean it’s that interesting. Ikachan is—literally—about an hour’s worth of content. You play a wee squid and your main interaction is to aim left or right and tap “A” to make him float about. It’s mostly an avoid-em-up (you know, carefully tap just fast enough to stay above spikes, but not go into the ones above you, etc.) and unlike Cave Story, where (and it’s been years since I played it, so I might be over-estimating it) everything comes together, in Ikachan I was struck by how… unnecessary most of the play additions beyond that feel. You can collect exp. and level up, but all it does is add some hearts (that could have been there in the first place.) You “Metroid style” unlock some abilities that allow you to open new areas… twice (each area you visit… once.) You run some VERY simple fetch quests and talk to sea urchins repeatedly in that classic “I don’t know what to do so I guess I’ll talk to all the villagers again” way.

Oh, and there are two boss encounters (sorta) which are rubbish.

Ikachan is probably most interesting in that it’s a short, direct example of the type of game that’s got an acceptably fun mechanic (you know, the floating thing) that it fails to exploit at all in the name of a lot of other nonsense. Indeed, after an hour (and potentially $5, though I picked this up for $3 in a sale) you’ll feel dissatisfied simply on the basis that you feel that you could have spent more time doing squid stuff (floating about) than talking to villagers and collecting fish to level up.

This should probably have stayed a freeware game, or they should have added more squid stuff. Notice I’m not saying “make it longer.” This isn’t a time spent equals value thing. This is a “time spent doing fun core game mechanics is better than time spent doing non-essential game twaddle” thing. But look, I’m not going to tell Pixel what to do with his back catalogue. The guy developed Cave Story!

Will I ever play it again? No.

Final Thought: Yes yes going to see a film costs $12 and it’s an hour and a half and a coffee costs $3 and it’s done in fifteen minutes but those are totally different value propositions so I’m totally allowed to feel like the $3 I spent on this was unwise.