despite not being tremendously good it at it (can't beat it without continues), i've sunk a lot of time into Ikaruga and it fascinates me
it and a few other games from this era (Panzer Dragoon is one I can think of, off the top of my head) give me the vibe of people who cut their teeth making arcade games really pushing to see what they can do within the medium of an arcade game without really adding much else
like thematically I don't know too much about the nitty-gritty bits of Ikaruga, but when i play it it makes me FEEL a certain way and I think that counts for something. That's what fascinates me about it
it's a very messy thought really, but I'm trying to tie together this vibe I get from some of these games
NiGHTS into dreams is another one, actually. It's a game where a lot of interesting ideas meet and are put with what is at it's heart a score attack game.
Although in the case of NiGHTS it's a score attack game with jungian psychology and funky tech elements like A-Life thrown in. At it's heart though, it still feels like an arcade game that's pushing the boat out on what an arcade game can try to say/do