My thumbs hurt. Yes I've been playing this excellent game. It's a vertically scrolling shooter (actually you can make it horizontal without physically moving your telly!) with a nice twist.

If you change colours then you can absorb enemy fire. Actually that's the basis of the entire game: avoid the opposite colours' fire, whilst absorbing the same, and then change colour and wreck havoc!

Oh and chaining. Simple idea. Difficult to execute. You get more points if you shoot things of the same colour in threes. Break the chain and you have to start chaining all over again!

The reason I bought a Gamecube was for Pikmin. Ikaruga has proven to be another good reason. I'm glad that there are good gameplay games still being published. Well done Atari!