GameOn - Shmups - Castle of Shikigami 3

On the last day of this week's GameOn series of Shoot-em-ups (Shmups), I'll be talking about Castle of Shikigami 3 and the sub-genre Danmaku.

Source: Youtube Channel jedikevin20

I could've talked about Touhou, but I seem to talk about Touhou whenever it's about Shmups now (and so does many other Shmups gamers), so I chose a non-obvious choice.  Castle of Shikigami 3 is a vertical shmup danmaku (or more commonly known in English terms as Bullet Hell) where the levels consist mainly of enemy bullets.  There aren't that many Bullet Hell shooters in the United States (as far as I know) and the ones that are brought over are extremely rare (argh, still can't find Ikaruga!).  I first tried Shikigami no Shiro 3 (Japanese name for it) through a demo on PC and really enjoyed the unique characters, the music, the spectacular 3D-like graphics and effects, and the challenge of the "extreme" difficulty.  So when I heard that it was being translated and brought over to the States for the Wii, I really wanted it.  The voice acting is atrociously bad, but it's bad in a way to be considered humorous and laughable.  It added to the light hearted vibe the story gave considering its insane difficulty.  From the video above, it doesn't seem much.  This video here is closer to what a Bullet Hell usually looks like:

Source: Youtube Channel YannBer16

That excitement and thrill you get from barely escaping through enemy fire in such a chaotic moment is the charm of most Danmaku/Bullet Hell games.  It gets even crazier with a 2nd player joining in.  For Castle of Shikigami 3, the story/dialogue of the characters changes depending on who the player chooses and who they're paired up with.  Bullet Hell and even just shooters in general aren't as popular anymore (at least in the Western Market), but those that get brought over or are made are usually of the Bullet Hell style sub-genre.  The most recent one I bought and played is indie developed Jamestown.  I actually still play Castle of Shikigami 3 and see how little continues I need to use before beating the game each time and because I find the dialogues to be hilarious between the characters.  I hope you enjoyed this week's GameOn and I encourage everyone to try out all these sorts of Shoot-em-ups in the future.