Castle of Shikagami III on Wii in the spring 2008
Saturday, December 15th, 2007 at 12:16am by Press Release
Torrance, CA (December 14, 2007) - Aksys Games, a publisher of interactive entertainment products, is set to release Castle of Shikigami III, a vertical scrolling shoot’em-up on the Wii in the spring of 2008.
“Caste of Shikigami is known in Japan for its lively characters and challenging difficulty. There’s just something to be said when a game paints the screen with enemy gunfire and rewards you for living life on the edge,” said Michael Manzanares, Project Lead, Aksys Games. “I’ve always been a fan of the Shikigami series, and I’m glad we had the opportunity to bring this latest installment to the States.”
Castle of Shikigami III Features:
• Tension Bonus System! Your proximity to enemy units and gunfire determines your score and firepower!
• 10 memorable characters! Each character has their own specialized weapons and powers, anything from chain lightning to psychic blades!
• 55 possible story combinations! Experience a wide variety of scenarios with fully voiced dialogue!
• 2 Player Co-op Mode! Dodge a never-ending barrage of bullets alone or with a friend!
• Exclusive console-only Dramatic Change Mode! Switch between two characters in the middle of the fight to improve your chances for survival!
Castle of Shikigami III has not yet been rated by the ESRB. More information about Aksys Games and Castle of Shikigami III can be found at www.aksysgames.com.
December 15th, 2007 at 1:05 am
I would be loving this if I was one of those assholes that writes “FIRST!!!” all the time….
December 15th, 2007 at 3:30 am
Actually looks enticing to me. I’m a HUGE fan of these type of games even though it’s never apparent even to myself until I play.
December 15th, 2007 at 4:14 am
Yay! I love top down shmups! They’re probably my favorite kind of game, really.
December 15th, 2007 at 7:28 am
I have really high expectations for this. Shik 2 is one of my favorite shooters.
December 15th, 2007 at 11:13 am
Wow, this looks just like esp.ra.de!!
December 15th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Aksys is my new best friend.
December 15th, 2007 at 11:49 am
MewLover34 is my new best friend.
This looks like it could be as hard as Ikaruga. I mean, where the hell is the ship even at?? Granted, I’ve seen all of one screenshot.
December 15th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
Looks cool BUT this is coming on Wii Ware… right? At a low price?
Because the graphics seem pretty poor for a system that can technically out perform the original X-box and the old school gameplay, fun as it is, looks to have NOTHING to do with motion control.
Don’t get me wrong here , old school style top down shooters are usually , very VERY fun. But his seem like yet ANOTHER third party making no effort to actually utilise the Wii as a different way of playing games. You know, why most people actually own a wii.
So what Wii specific , motion controled, original gameplay aspects will there be to make this aged old game play fresh and new for the Wii ? After all ,that’s what makes the Wii so cool, so fresh, so different. The motion controls and social aspect of playing together.
This game seems to do none of that, and has poor visuals to boot…. Yet again, more 3rd party games on the Wii that do nothing to build on the Wii strengths and just don’t deserve my money.
No wonder the Wii is not my main course for gaming…to bad.
December 15th, 2007 at 1:00 pm
I for one am excited for this wither or not it’s Wii Ware or a retail game. I’m glad to see the Wii library growing in various ways. First Baroque remake announced for Wii andthen this. I for one am glad that the Wii is my primary system. I don’t much care if the motion sensing is used or not. Just because a system has a feature doesn’t mean it needs to be shoehorned into every game for it.
I personally feel that we will see this 3rd party momentum increase further into 2008 when newer games will be announced that have just been in development until now. 2008 looks to be great for games!
December 15th, 2007 at 1:40 pm
“PLAYING IS BELIEVING.”
Remember that great slogan at the Wii’s into back at E3? Remember how gamers RAN to the Nintendo booth? To PLAY the new, innovative Wii? To get a new, fresh, and exciting way of PLAYING games, that the other systems just don’t have? And what an amazing slogan that was. Perfect for this new, innovative , “revolution”. Or so we thought.
Playing DIFFERENTLY is what makes the Wii so much better than the other game systems out there. Better than My 360 elite and the PS3. That’s what makes it so fun, so great. But the fact that 3rd party developers are , for the most part, very lazy in using the motion control capabilities is VERY frustrating. Add on TOP of that , an equally LAZY non effort to make Wii games visually appealing .
Nintendo THEMSELVES emphasised, back at the Wii’s world wide introduction, that PLAYING is believing. To bad the lazy A$$ed third party developers were not listing.
I am not attacking anyone here’s love for old school top down shooters, I like then myself very much.
And I am not attacking Nintendo, who have created some BEAUTIFUL and great motion control PLAYING games for the Wii.
I am “attacking” the lazy assed 3rd party developers .Making lazy N64, or in this case, SNES looking old school ,non innovative games for a unique, innovative console that was supposed to be, taken RIGHT from Nintendo’s own original words, a new way to PLAY games.
I hope this game comes out on Wii ware, and at a low price. or ir will be yet again, another reason to not buy a third party title for my Wii.
I love my Wii, it just frustrates me that I don’t have enough great PLAYING games for it to make it my # 1 console this gen. I bought it because, as Nintendo said, playing IS believing. I did NOT buy it for rehashed, old school, crap looking and Playing , lazy assed 3rd party non efforts.
That was a mouth full =)
December 15th, 2007 at 1:52 pm
At first look i thought WiiWare, but “fully voiced dialogue” says to me that this game is coming on a disc.
and well done to the press release for spelling dialogue in English and not American… oh come on chaps don’t all look at me like that
Scott ‘Limey’ Clements
December 15th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
Oh god.
Bullet Hell games on the Wii.
It’s only so long until we start getting Touhou.
December 15th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
Having a diverse library of games is why the Wii is my main course for gaming. I have innovative games that can only be done on the Wii plus games from more traditional genres, making another console unnecessary. I welcome shmups, fighters, platformers and arcade games of all types to my library.
December 15th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
I only hope it gets released in europe too!
December 15th, 2007 at 9:52 pm
wii wii. Motion controls have no place in games like this. They just aren’t precise enough, In this game you’re avoiding bullets by mere pixels, hopefully it has support for the classic controller, but jesus christ if it has waggle the shmup fans would blow a head gasket with good reason. As for graphics, yeah they aren’t that great, but you won’t have much chance to look at them anyways, the screen will be covered by neon blobs most of the time. And if it’s anything like shikigami no shiro 2 they’ll release it on every platform possible, I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see it on ps2 or xbl.
December 15th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
Every installment of this series has been released in the states. It’s nothing new. Mobile Light Force (PS1) and Mobile Light Force 2 (PS2) then later it was finally repackaged as Castle of Shikagami II also on PS2, all were budget titles. These games are OK “bullet curtain” games. They are certainly not on the same level as Ikaruga. However in my opinion this is a good sign for the Wii. Regardless of how good a game is, the sheer number of titles released on a system is a strength to that particular console. Obviously, the more the better. As Nintendo fanboys, we need to see (and support) more of this stuff on the Wii. They are the impulse buys of the videogame world.
December 16th, 2007 at 6:20 am
Wait, is this the insanely hard shooter in all those youtube videos that actually make you gauge the size of the game’s hitboxes?
December 16th, 2007 at 5:23 pm
Oh shump me baby… right there!
December 16th, 2007 at 10:41 pm
peshue pretty much stated what I was going to. There’s no place for waggle in top-down shooters. Period.
As for the whole innovation thing goes, no, there aren’t enough developers that are working on truly innovative games. Right now the Wii is a cash-in console, pure and simple. When the hype eventually dies down and people stop buying the Wii in droves like it’s tickle-me-elmo, developers will be forced to start making some quality games.
And on the motion control aspect, it is not that important overall. A good game that has good controls, no matter what they are, is the goal. That’s why I want developers to keep making games that have different control options. Because for some people motion control will work, and for some traditional schemes will.