Nintendo Wii Reviews

Celebrity Sports Showdown

Celebrity Sports Showdown is the ultimate party game to play with people of all ages. Play as your favorite celebrity to determine who will be the ultimate celebrity athlete. Get off the couch and get into the action with fun and easy-to-play controls designed specifically for the Wii. It features 12 outdoor sports games (Beach Volleyball, Inner-Tubing, Wild Water Canoeing, Hurdle Derby, Slalom Showdown, Cliff Hangers, Smash Badminton, Rapid Fire Archery, Joust Duel, Curling, Arena Dodgeball, an Air Racers) and 10 celebrities (Fergie, Avril Lavigne, LeAnn Rimes, Keith Urban, Nelly Furtado, Paul Pierce, Mia Hamm, Kristi Yamaguchi, Reggie Bush, and Sugar Ray Leonard). It is designed for people of all ages to play as celebrities and ultimately, to determine the greatest celebrity athlete.

User Ratings and Reviews

3 Stars I thought it would be similar to Wii Sports
I got this game because the reviews on Amazon suggested that it was similar to Wii Sports. Whereas Wii Sports is STILL fun to play after a couple years, this game has lost its luster after only a couple hours. Whereas the controls for Wii Sports are intuitive and easily picked up even for your mom or grandparents, the controls for Celebrity Sports Showdown are harder to pick up and definitely requires some time to get used to. Whereas Wii Sports you can use your Mii avatar, in this game, you have to use either the group of celebrities or unknown avatars which they call “wannabes”. The list goes on and on how this game doesn’t quite match up to Wii Sports. The game isn’t terrible but it isn’t anything to write home about either.

5 Stars Lot’s of fun with Grandma
We had so much fun playing this game. Everytime the Grandkids come, we play this game first.

3 Stars Fun, but who are these people?
This is a pretty fun party game, and it’s fun to pick a celeb to represent you in these crazy challenges, but seriously — Reggie who? It seems like it’s going to have a short shelf life.

5 Stars Celebrity Sports Showdown SUPERFUN
This game was tonz of fun! There was a very large selection of games to play and compete in. The teams tournament is super fun and was really exciting. The whole family was totally in to this game and the only thing that stopped our marathon playing was one of the remotes died. Totally recommend this game for ALL ages.

1 Star The movement of the players is very limited and not accurate.
– The controlling scheme is very bad. The movement of the players is very limited and not accurate. It makes all of the 12 games boring. Another game with the same theme, MARIO & SONIC at the OLYMPIC GAMES is more fun to play. Its graphic is also more beautiful.

- I traded it in after playing for 3 days.

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Castle of Shikigami III

Castle Shikigami 3 continues the popular game series, and resembles past entries of the character-driven scrolling shooter, with its vertical display and anime cut-ins. You can select from 10 warriors and directly navigate your chosen character. This game includes five stages of blasting action, each cumulating in a major boss fight. Dramatic Change Mode lets you change between two characters on the fly. As a result of this new mode, you can now enjoy the two-player exclusive scenarios from the arcade version even when playing by yourself.

User Ratings and Reviews

4 Stars Hilarious story
If you are a fan of bullet hell shoot ‘em ups, you’ll definately like this game. Even if you’re only a mild fan of them, you’ll love the hilarious, poorly translated story. There are a total of ten characters, each with their own story. You can play in two player mode and the storylines will interact! There are 55 storylines in all.

3 Stars Pretty much Touhou-style danmaku with incredibly cheesy storylines.
I play Touhou, so taken that I’m used to impeccably high standards, I didn’t expect Castle of Shikigami III to be on the same level. And really, it’s not. However, it does have that same feel of good bullet hell mixed with anime-esque characters. The difference here is that the plot of Castle of Shikigami III is to silly self-referencing comedy anime as Touhou is to psychological masterpieces. That said, it is funny. Just TURN OFF THE ENGLISH VOICES. THEY WILL CAUSE YOUR EARS TO BLEED. The game feels a lot more like something you’d play in an arcade, and it makes sense; Castle of Shikigami is in fact an arcade series. There’s lots of sub-par 3D renders in the background and stuff like that. The only other problem I have with it is the ridiculously steep learning curve…the first few stages are easy but then it hits a huge wall (literally, with the inclusion of a crazy amount of walls in the third stage) and gets quite frustrating.

Overall, though, if you like danmaku/curtain fire/bullet hell games, and you have a Wii, and you’re bored of it because it little to no games you want on it, go buy Castle of Shikigami III. It’s definitely worth the price and will give you a good bullet hell fix.

Plus, the comedy’s so cheesy it really is entertaining.

5 Stars Fun!
New school coolness! The other reviews mostly covered it, but I have to put my 2 cents in and recommend Castle Shikigami 3…..

5 stars, and my highest recommendation!

Viva Shooters!

4 Stars Curtain fire fun!
Let’s face it, no other category of games has earned more respect and a greater following by hardcore gamers than the shoot-em-up genre. With the lack of vertical and horizontal shooters that are released each year it is a relief that the third Shikigami title finally found its way to console overseas.

In classic arcade-style fashion, the game is played vertically with your goal to literally annihilate everything in sight while dodging enemy fire. I won’t go into detail with how the game works because there is a very brief tutorial telling you everything you need to know. No one should have any problem with the controls since anyone can pick this one up and play. You can choose to use the Wii Remote, Classic Controller, or GameCube Controller and all of them are easily interchangeable. The visuals are smooth and colorful with some very neat bullet patterns while the upbeat soundtrack keeps the excitement alive. With different characters and their own storylines and attacks, you will find yourself replaying through the stages more than once.

Although it is a short game, it can still be notoriously tough and intense for some gamers even on normal mode, which especially holds true in the later stages. But whether or not you play it single player or cooperatively with a friend, this game is perfect for those who want to play for around an hour or so, thus making the Wii an excellent choice to port this game to. Shoot-em-up fans and fans of the previous Shikigami games shouldn’t be disappointed. With the Wii becoming a dumping ground for more and more shovelware aimed primarily at non-gamers, I feel very fortunate that this game exists even though not many people know about it. It’s bullet crazy madness and offers a good challenge. Do yourself a favor and give it a try.

Buy/More Info