Castle Shikigami 2: War of the Worlds

PlayStation 2 (Japan: Taito 2004, US: XS Games 2004, EU: Play It! 2005)

The big G-S-G-S-G

General opinion: Very addictive, and fun too
Story: Ahem. What?
Graphics: Pretty
Sound: Not the most memorable soundtrack, but ok
Gameplay: Fast and challenging, like a shooter should be

Total:

The Review

Although a genre with a long history, I've only recently gotten acquainted with scrolling 'shoot 'em up' games. Like fighting games, I used to feel they were incredibly monotonous, unoriginal games. How much can you expect from a game which only consists of blasting away at enemies and avoiding they're bullets through a few short stages, all pretty much the same? Especially since there are probably hundreds of such games out there, all with pretty much the same basics? But, there is always a but... At their best these games can be darn addictive, exciting to play, not to mention visually impressive.

Castle Shikigami 2 is one of the best shooters available for modern consoles. Although it must be said that there aren't a great many of them available, not in Europe, at least (I daresay there are many more over in Japan where these games are very popular). Like many such games, it is a port of an arcade game. It is both visually pleasing, and fun to play. Not to mention incredibly addicting, which is probably the most important feature in a shooter.

According to the manual, a huge floating fortress has appeared over Tokyo, and a few remaining Warrior Magicians must face the 'Gods' controlling it. And that's about all the story there is. The original Japanese version had some dialogue scenes between the characters and bosses, and the American release is infamous for its bad translation of these (although I'd guess the dialogue was not incredibly serious in the original, either). However, these have apparently been removed from the European release, which is a pity. However, this game, unlike many of the games I play, is all about gameplay, so it's not exactly a huge deal.

As for gameplay, Castle Shikigami follows closely in the tradition of vertical scrolling shooters. You fly steadily forward, blasting anything in sight while trying to avoid enemy fire. And that's it, more or less, although there is much more depth beyond the surface. Like many more recent Japanese shooters, this is a so called 'manic shooter', meaning there'll often be huge amounts of enemy bullets on the screen, often in pretty, colourful patterns. There are no power-ups. Instead, your main attack is boosted if you get very close to a bullet or enemy. You'll also score more points this way.

There are a total of seven characters to choose from. And each of these not only has a different main attack, but also two unique 'shikigami' attacks (of which you must choose one when starting a game), plus a unique 'bomb' attack, which makes the character invulnerable for a short time. Apart from being powerful (although often limited in range or some other fashion), the shikigami attacks usually score more points than the normal attack, so learning to use them effectively, while keeping close to bullets, is very important in making high scores. All in all, the number of characters with very unique attacks, and the interesting scoring system gives this game a lot of variety and depth that might not be immediately apparent to a newbie, and should also increase its interest to veteran shooter players.

Visually the game is quite pretty. Although the game plays like a 2D game, the graphics are all 3D. The backgrounds aren't particularly complex, but they're still pretty to look at. I wasn't incredibly impressed by the soundtrack, which is mostly rather monotonous techno stuff. There are two alternative soundtracks available, though, which adds a little variety. One minor complaint, however, is the fact that since many arcade shooters of this kind use a vertical screen, the game screen on a TV is very small, with large bars on both sides (as seen in the screenshots). If you happen to have a vertical monitor, there is an option to use full screen graphics, but few of us do.

There are five stages, although each is divided into two sections, with a boss at the end of each section. And since the stages are quite challenging, at least to a newbie like me, that's plenty. It takes a lot of skill to beat this game. However, you have multiple 'credits' available, four at the beginning, but the number increases as you play the game, until you have unlimited continues after playing for half a dozen or so hours. This means you can experience the whole game, if you wish to, and see the beautiful bullet patterns of the last bosses etc. High scores, however, won't be recorded, nor will stages be unlocked for practise mode if you use more than one credit.

All in all, due to its many characters and interesting gameplay features, challenging stages and pretty graphics, Castle Shikigami 2 is fun to play and very addictive. Obviously, not a serious game to spend hours playing at a time, but just right to kill half an hour, and a game you can come back to time after time to make that new high score or reach that next stage. If you only buy one shooter for a modern console, this is a good one to consider, and might even make a newcomer to the genre a big fan...

Ben B. Bainton, 1 December 2006