@connrrr Little known fact: Ikaruga is a Japanese word meaning “buyer's remorse.”
“Capcom’s Bionic Commando (the NES version) is perhaps the most genius platformer ever made, primarily because it removed your ability to jump. Without one of the most primary gaming functions, you need to approach every single situation from a different angle, all while relearning its most basic functions. Ikaruga is a bit similar in that respect – nearly every single other shooter out there has taught us to dodge bullets, yet Ikaruga teaches you to run head first into enemy fire. Certain enemies shoot out hugely powerful lasers beams, but if you’re the same color, you merely get pushed to the side and harmlessly absorb its strength. The practice of having years of video gaming experience deprogrammed and reinitialized takes several stages – first confusion, then perhaps anger and frustration, before moving onto acceptance, and then, perhaps, acknowledgment of its brilliance. Much like a certain small segment of the hardcore shooter base complained that Radiant Silvergun was too slow and over complicated – the very things that made it incredible – Ikaruga tends to get criticized because it feels less like a shooter and more like a puzzle game. And yet this ability to break boundaries is precisely why Ikaruga sits high above the rest of its genre, transcending from simply being a fantastic shooter, to a fantastic video game.”
[http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ikaruga/](http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/ikaruga/)
IMO, basically always. Like, anything older than current generation, guilt free. Go nuts. I mean at this point if they‘re still available at all they’re probably cheap enough on steam to not necessarily be worth the hassle, but whatever. Anything from like 6th gen and back, odds are pretty good your only options for playing it legally are buying a repackaged rom, an oftentimes-dodgy remaster (looking at you, Square Enix), or paying absurdly inflated used prices. The experience you're going to get from pirating it is most likely going to be straight up better, and the people who actually made the game have probably moved on anyway.
If they announce a digital store is getting shut down, that's basically a green light. Buying a game from the 3DS eShop at this point is absolutely crazy to me. Nintendo has probably the worst track record on these things of anyone and they basically never lower prices. You're basically buying a license key that's going to be completely useless in a handful of years.
With current releases, I'm a little bit more ambivalent. If you can't afford it, I don't think it's unreasonable to pirate it regardless of circumstance. Being broke sucks. The big thing for me is *eventually* throwing them some money if you played the game and had a good time. If you've got the money, it's more complicated. Is it a small studio (or a single person)? Is this a series that needs all the support it can get? Something that's totally unknown and underplayed? Weird and niche? For me, I don't feel right about pirating those. Big companies, you're not going to put a dent in 'em. If it's a situation where the rights are all messed up or the studio is run by some psycho, I think you're probably better off not giving them your money at all. Like I would absolutely not give money to Nicalis. Or David Cage.
Basically if you want to support the developers, support the developers. If you can't, don't. If you shouldn't, definitely don't. But if you can and you should, you probably should.