Customer Reviews

Castle of Shikigami III

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Let's face it, no other category of games has earned more respect and a greater following by hardcore gamers than the shoot-em-up genre. With the lack of vertical and horizontal shooters that are released each year it is a relief that the third Shikigami title finally found its way to console overseas.

In classic arcade-style fashion, the game is played vertically with your goal to literally annihilate everything in sight while dodging enemy fire. I won't go into detail with how the game works because there is a very brief tutorial telling you everything you need to know. No one should have any problem with the controls since anyone can pick this one up and play. You can choose to use the Wii Remote, Classic Controller, or GameCube Controller and all of them are easily interchangeable. The visuals are smooth and colorful with some very neat bullet patterns while the upbeat soundtrack keeps the excitement alive. With different characters and their own storylines and attacks, you will find yourself replaying through the stages more than once.

Although it is a short game, it can still be notoriously tough and intense for some gamers even on normal mode, which especially holds true in the later stages. But whether or not you play it single player or cooperatively with a friend, this game is perfect for those who want to play for around an hour or so, thus making the Wii an excellent choice to port this game to. Shoot-em-up fans and fans of the previous Shikigami games shouldn't be disappointed. With the Wii becoming a dumping ground for more and more shovelware aimed primarily at non-gamers, I feel very fortunate that this game exists even though not many people know about it. It's bullet crazy madness and offers a good challenge. Do yourself a favor and give it a try.

If you are a fan of bullet hell shoot 'em ups, you'll definately like this game. Even if you're only a mild fan of them, you'll love the hilarious, poorly translated story. There are a total of ten characters, each with their own story. You can play in two player mode and the storylines will interact! There are 55 storylines in all.

Many reviewers are too young to remember that the original shooter games were like this vertical scrollers before Castle Wolfenstein created the onslaught of First Person Shooters or FPS games as they are called today. People have retroactively re-named this type of game shmups an abreviated term meaning shoot-em ups not to be confused with light gun games which are referred to as on rails shooters if you cannot move independently and are moved a long a fixed path by the game. All of that History lesson being said Castle of Shikigami III is a great shmup but will only appeal to A) people who like that type of game B) Hardcore Shmup and old school gamers. This game has really great graphics even for the Wii, the plot and characters are worth ignoring because they are so silly and make no sense. Aksys is one of my favorite Japanese game development teams along with my own personal favorite shmup maker Psikyo, and the much venerated Treasure they all make top-notch games that are fun to play. The things I really like about Aksys games are 1) The hand drawn artwork 2) The slick and stylish anime graphics 3) The really Unique characters 4) and their games are just really fun to play. Aksys did a wonderful job with the Blazblue games, and Contra Hard Corps. Uprising (which I plan on purchasing sometime soon on Xbox Live Arcade), and to a lesser extent the Guilty Gears Series which while good I have never really been into. I Think the person that gave this game one star failed to recognize that while this game is may seem boring it is really fun. Castle of Shikigami III harkens back to they old days in the arcades when games did not need cutscenes that cost millions of dollars or a deep involved plot they just had to be fun and have decent graphics and this game accomplishes both things. I realize this review is overly long already but I have to say that I highly recommend this game to people who are hardcore shmup fans, people who play games on Mame, and people who want the nostalgia of playing games back in the day at the arcades.

Great game, good graphics. I really like the fact that 1 player can be playing and a second can come along and join at anytime. As you play it fills up an anime gallery of some pretty nice pictures, also has a gallery of user submitted photos. I like the fact that you can control players by turning wii remote sideways and it's like old time gaming, my daughter took a few to get the hang of it but I found it fun and easy to control right away. Also if you like some feel to your game in the settings menu you can turn on rumble so that the it is more realistic.

New school coolness! The other reviews mostly covered it, but I have to put my 2 cents in and recommend Castle Shikigami 3.....

5 stars, and my highest recommendation!

Viva Shooters!

I play Touhou, so taken that I'm used to impeccably high standards, I didn't expect Castle of Shikigami III to be on the same level. And really, it's not. However, it does have that same feel of good bullet hell mixed with anime-esque characters. The difference here is that the plot of Castle of Shikigami III is to silly self-referencing comedy anime as Touhou is to psychological masterpieces. That said, it is funny. Just TURN OFF THE ENGLISH VOICES. THEY WILL CAUSE YOUR EARS TO BLEED. The game feels a lot more like something you'd play in an arcade, and it makes sense; Castle of Shikigami is in fact an arcade series. There's lots of sub-par 3D renders in the background and stuff like that. The only other problem I have with it is the ridiculously steep learning curve...the first few stages are easy but then it hits a huge wall (literally, with the inclusion of a crazy amount of walls in the third stage) and gets quite frustrating.

Overall, though, if you like danmaku/curtain fire/bullet hell games, and you have a Wii, and you're bored of it because it little to no games you want on it, go buy Castle of Shikigami III. It's definitely worth the price and will give you a good bullet hell fix.

Plus, the comedy's so cheesy it really is entertaining.

This game is boring. It's exactly like the little game Space Invasion. Your the guy at the bottom of the screen, shooting objects coming at you, flying back and forth. That's it. Don't buy it unless you like doing the same thing over and over and over again.