Well, I did my massive post, so let’s go back to what I’m used to writing: reviews. 

This time I’m gonna touch on a game that came out around 7 months ago on the Nintendo Wii, which was largely overlooked. That game is Castle of Shikigami 3. Though “hardcore” gamers on Wii complain a lot that the Wii lacks “hardcore” games, and with good reason, they always seem to disregard this one game which can only interest the “hardcore” gamer.

With its oldschool shoot ‘em up gameplay and intense challenge, is it one of those games that non-casuals should look into, or is it just a big flop? Click on the link to read on! (don’t worry, this definitely won’t be as long as my previous post )  

Graphics
This is a sequel of the 2 previous Castle of Shikigami arcade games, which were all ported to consoles one time or another. The 2 first were on the PS2, though the first was renamed to Mobile Light Force 2 for some odd reason. The graphics are definitely a step up from the previous entries, but not by much. The sprites for the characters look a bit better and the larger sprites during conversations are of slightly better quality, and overall the game is more colorful. But the same style as before is retained here, and there’s not much difference unless you really look for it.

Story
I could just write “LOL” and be done with this. Seriously. There’s barely any story in the game. The idea isn’t bad though. In single-player there’s a different story depending on the character, and in 2-player mode the story differs depending on the character combination, giving a lot of possibilities. But how did they manage screwing that up? Well, buy making the script completely stupid and non-sensical, of course. None of the dialogues make any sense, and the ones that almost make sense are just retarded. This is a shame though, considering the big bunch of anime cliches could potentially be interesting characters if the script wasn’t a big piece of crap. And considering each story goes through the same stages and same bosses in the same order…. it’s really hard to make any sense out of any of the stories. It’s so bad that it’s funny at times. So in conclusion…. LOL.

Sound
Well I was glad to see that the sound effects were pretty much the same as in the second one. The weapons and coins and such pretty much sound the same. Though some shots are sometimes a bit annoying when you fire rapidly, you quickly get used to it. And the music isn’t too bad either. But the really bad part here is the voice acting. Though some characters sound almost good, in general they just sound lame and emotionless. I’d think someone would have SOME kind of emotion while screaming “DIE”, but no. If the script was kinda good, I’d almost forgive the bad voice-work, but the bad script and voice acting put together…. I don’t know if I should call it funny or pitiful.

Gameplay
This is classic vertical-scrolling shoot ‘em up action at its purest. You control a character (this time not in a ship) who can fly and use other special powers. Each character(10 of them to choose from) has his own style of normal shot, and a special ability invoked used a Shikigami (I have no idea what this translates to), some kind of protector spirit or something. And each character has a different “bomb” attack which either clears all the screen or does massive damage to an area(while removing all bullets on the screen at the same time, of course). The basics are relatively simple.

The shikigami have various functions. Homing at enemies, shooting concentrated attacks, scattering bombs, forming a shield that also counters enemy attacks, high-powered close range attacks, amongst others. Each shikigami has 2 types you can choose from for different effects as well. This really helps the game get more varied and it can helps you devise different strategies against different enemies and bosses.

But this game is hard. Moreso if you want to get high ranks in each stage. Bullets come at you from every conceivable direction, with enemies popping up from multiple places on the screen. Or of course the always needed “blocks” level where blocks form various labyrinths and such for you to go through while the stage is moving. And if the normal stages are somehow not hard enough, the bosses should be challenging enough. Each boss and mid-boss have various forms and each form has a different attack pattern, so you always have to be on your guard while fighting them. Especially the “human” bosses. They usually have really weird patterns and attacks, and have no trouble hitting you with weird surprise attacks.

Scoring in the game is relatively simple: you get points by killing enemies. You get more points if you have a high multiplier when killing the enemies. This is the tricky part which makes the game a bigger challenge if you want to get high scores. To get higher multipliers, you need o stay dangerously close to enemy bullets. Yeah, sounds fun doesn’t it? By staying right next to a bullet, not only do you get a higher multiplier, but if you’re close enough your normal shot will power up and get new properties(they turn red in this case so you’ll know). There’s also some kind of “desparation” move where you normal shot will constantly be in that red mode and your multiplier will always be at 8 for a limited amount of time. It uses up a bomb and is activated by pressing both the bomb and shot buttons at the same time.

Overall
A wii owner looking for a challenging and fun oldschool/”hardcore” shoot ‘em up, look no further than Castle of Shikigami 3. If you never played a shmup before or aren’t familiar enough with them, you might want to rent it before spending anymore money on it because the game is really hard.
Overall though, if you look past the bad script and voice acting, you have a pretty high-quality game in your hands.

jobocan Games, Review