Castle of Shikigami

Castle of Shikigami is an important piece of shoot-'em-up history, but at this point it's more of a relic. Its own sequels stepped up the unique character loadouts and gave us more interesting bullet patterns and bosses, so this one is best left for the hardcore crowd to munch on.

Castle of Shikigami is a decent port of a fun but difficult bullet hell SHMUP. With some nightmarish enemy designs and plenty of replay value it's a solid package let down by a dated appearance and its lack of extras.

Castle of Shikigami is shoot-em-up comfort food. Though it does not reinvent the wheel, it provides enough unique setpieces and mechanics to warrant at least one playthough. It might not reach the heights of Cave's offerings, but diehard fans of the genre may enjoy their time with this game.