"The Gameplay is were it counts, not the poor translation."

Castle Shikigami 2, it is not a game that everyone knows about, but I was looking for this game release for some time now. This game was release in the USA by XS Games, the infamous game publisher XS Games that release other shoot 'em ups in the USA and make them turn into crap. XS Games was the one who make that infamous art work of Mobile Light Force 2 (with three woman shooting at something, but the girls weren't in the game at all.), Mobile Light Force 2 was really Castle Shikigami 1. Castle Shikigami 2 by all means a good game. With Great gameplay, high replay valves, and a easy shooting system. Some problems with the game was the poor text in the game, and the poor voice acting. Then again, these problems didn't effect the game that much at all. In the end, this is one good game.

Gameplay: The game is using the NAOMI 3D arcade board from Sega, so the whole game is in 3D. But the 2D gameplay is still the game. The game works like this, you got a rapid shot button, a normal shot button, and a bomb. If you whole down the normal shot button, you do a Shikigami attack (a special attack). When playing the game, if you get close to a enemy bullet, your fire power is 2x more powerful. When you destroy a enemy, a coin drops, pick it up for points. I forgot to say that there is no flying ships in the game, but flying humans. Your "ship" are humans with magic powers and they can fly, funny huh? They are 7 people you can choose from, so pick one. During the game, you are going to hear your person (the person who you chooses in the pick a person menu) speaks about what is going on, it also gives you about the storyline of the game. The problem with the people speaking is, the voice acting sucks. The voice acting is very bad, some of the voices is very ugly and out of line. When the people talk, they talk in phases, not in one shot, which can be very bad as well. The good news in the game that you can shut off the voice acting. During the game, you are going to hear your person or the boss of the level talking Japanese, they only talk English in the cut scene!!!

Sound: The music is alright, there is noting bad in the music. Before you start playing the game, you can pick normal music or semix music (I think semix music is from Castle Shikigami 1) . The music is alright with this type of game. I use the semix music because I like it better. The SE is good too, there is noting much to say about SE.

Controller: The Controller is good, with the left analog , much better. The PS2 controller is a great arcade controller.

Other problems: The game case and the booklet that came with the game. I'm telling you, XS Games make the worst game case and booket. On the back of the game case, it say: "The Time: 2006, the distant future.", really? Also when it said how much room it take in the memory card for high scores, it said 8 MB!!!! Yeah right, the game only takes 300 KBs. Ok, in the booket, when they are talking about the people in the game, they don't know what they are talking about. When they are using Japanese phase, they just mess up. Sometimes I feel that the bootet and the game are two different things, in the booket, the Bomb is called special attack. In the booket, the Shikigami attack in the game is called Moble Light Force 3 attack. In the end, XS games did a bad job with the booket, and the back of the Game Case. The only good thing about the game case was the front of the case, the good anime cover.

In the End: The gameplay is really good, but the text in the game, game case and booket is very bad. Also the voice acting is very bad as well.

Buy: Well, if you like arcade games or love shoot 'em ups, get it. If you what a game that is going to be rare in a few years, get this game. XS Games is not making much copy's of this game because the shoot 'em ups are not popular anymore in the USA :( . I herd that XS games stop making copy's of this game about 7 days after it release on 11/17/2004. The best part about buying this game is, the game only cost $10.00 . Good Luck on getting this game. I went to the nearest EB games and I got the game, it was the store's last copy of the game. I was luckily. But come on, $10.00, very good price.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 12/28/04