If a hardcore game falls on the Wii but nobody's around to play it, does it cramp a finger? [Castle of Shikigami III REVIEW]

Posted by Gary Hodges at 9:31 PM Jun 05, 2008

Protip: Everything you see here is moving and can kill you… Good luck!

John Edwards might see Two Americas, but as a simpleminded little game enthusiast I’m more preoccupied with America’s Two Wii Owners. One is the Nintendo fan, the same cat that bought a GameCube, the Nintendo 64, every incarnation of the Gameboy – in short, the gamer who buys any console Nintendo releases and sports a Mario or Zelda title. The other Wii owner is the so-called “casual” or “non-gamer”: the fad-chaser, the dabbler; girlfriends, grandparents and soccer moms who snatched a Wii because of the novelty, and only really use it to play Wii Sports, Wii Play, and Wii Fit. They’re most Wii owners, the “Wiijority”.

I know Castle of Shikigami III is not for the Wiijority; unfortunately I’m not sure it’s for the Nintendo fans either. The Wii just isn’t the right home for it, thus it seems destined to vanish from store shelves and not in the good way.

It’s a shame, because it’s actually a fun little game.

Castle of Shikigami III is a vertically-scrolling shmup (shoot ‘em up) of the “manic” variety: a subgenre of shooter where the playfield is regularly filled with enemies and bullets; the player’s burden, more than even shooting down enemies, is merely navigating the onslaught. To create a mental picture: it’s the virtual equivalent of flying a hang glider through the middle of a Fourth of July grand finale, finding millimeter-wide paths in the fog of pyrotechnics to slip through and survive.

As far as this sort of game goes, Shikigami is pretty solid, albeit unremarkable. The visuals get the job done with DayGlo clouds of bullets standing out against the more muted backgrounds (this is for the best, since it’s the enemy fire you have to concentrate on), but none of the visuals are memorable. It does offer an interesting gimmick that dovetails perfectly with the gameplay: the “High Tension” effect that makes your attacks more powerful when you’re close (very close) to enemies or enemy fire. This makes for a simple yet ingenious risk/reward scenario where barely brushing up against the things that kill you gives you a power boost, but obviously increases the chance of crashing and burning due to a microscopic error.

Unlike most shooters, you don’t pick up new weapons during play – instead, your offensive armament is determined by which character you select at the start, much like a martial arts fighting game. This is also a sort of de facto difficulty slider, as some characters are more overtly powerful than others. These characters even have some dialogue in the game, forgettable but for a few exceptions: namely wapanese ninja Roger Sasuke, an American who enthusiastically speaks an “Engrish” dialect patterned after every poorly-translated anime he’s ever seen.

Shikigami also offers two player simultaneous play, and though it’s disappointing the “High Tension” concept wasn’t extended to it as well (imagine if maintaining close proximity to your partner added some tactical benefit), it makes the game’s difficulty a little more manageable. And if it’s still too tough, a free play mode becomes available so even mediocre (i.e., non cracked-out) players can eventually see the end.

But it all comes back to whether this sort of narrow, extreme game type has a chance of success on the broad, mainstream Wii, even among the more traditional Nintendo fans (who are likely to note the lack of “Nintendo” or “Mario” on the box and move along). Certainly there are a few people out there (the old-school folk who use their Wii to download obscure, super-difficult Virtual Console titles) who might want to hunt Shikigami down. But most others will find this a strange – and infuriatingly difficult – curiosity.

Castle of Shikigami III
Publisher: Aksys Games
Platform: Nintendo Wii
Price: $29.99
ESRB Rating: T (for Teen)
Score: 7 (out of 10)

Gary's Addendum: Recommended Shmupping

Ikaruga (XBLA) is hard to beat when it comes to shooters playable on the current round of consoles (if you're any sort of fan of the genre at all, it's hard not to at least be impressed by the game's concept and ingenious level design), though fans who recall Forgotten Worlds might want to check out Omega 5, which is similar, and similarly good.

On the PlayStation 3, Everyday Shooter is charming and unique, even if you're growing a little tired of twin stick, Robotron-type shooters. Then of course there's all the excellent backwards-compatible PS2 shooters, Gradius V being a standout.

If you're focused on making the Wii work for you as a shmupbox, though, you've still got tons solid options via the Virtual Console. The best in my mind, though, are both from the Turbografx-16's library: Super Star Soldier and Lords of Thunder.

But if you really, really love shmups... buy a Sega Saturn and mod it to play Japanese titles. You'll never go hungry again.