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Feature TNL Show and Tell: Ikaruga Sake Set 02/24/2004
Get lit and fly fast

Some promos come cheap, and some are readily available at every corner video game shop. Unfortunately for me (and moreso for just about everybody else), the Ikaruga sake set was neither. Distributed by Atari (Infogrames) early last year to promote the stateside release of Treasure's celebrated shooter, a limited number of sets were given out to employees, the press, and a number of game sites (including ours) as contest prizes. If not for fellow editor and forum member Paul Bistoff (thanks, PBMax!), I would not have had the opportunity to acquire this set.

The set comes packed in a translucent plastic box, cubic in shape and perhaps a touch bigger than GameCube tricked out with a GB Player. Affixed behind the front and back panels are white sheets of paper marked simply with the Ikaruga (with a changed font from the Japanese releases) and Atari logos. Opening the box from the top and digging through some black tissue paper, you find the wrapped bottle (emblazoned with the game's logo) nesting in some straw. I would assume this is the traditional way sake sets are stored, but I really have no idea. Beneath, a second layer of straw holds the pair of matching plain white porcelain cups.

Personally, I think a sake set is an odd gift to give away for a game I suck at stone sober. Plus, I don't even like sake, and there's no way this bottle's ever seeing the inside of a microwave. Still, it's a very elegant piece, and probably the best Ikaruga schwag anyone without inhuman shooter skills and a time machine is going to find.

Ikaruga sake set Ikaruga sake set Ikaruga sake set Ikaruga sake set

· · · Anthony Onyrscuk

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