English Title: Mahō Tsukai Kurohime
Japanese Title: 魔砲使い黒姫
Publisher: Tomy
Developer: Astroll
Genre: Action
Released: Mar. 30, 2006
Product Codes: SLPM-66164 / JAN 4904810725558


Oh, dear me. Take a C-list manga franchise, a D-list publisher, a Z-list developer, and an extremely rushed development schedule, and try not to run screaming when this little bundle of joy pops out. Ugly graphics, anemic content, terrible balance, poor design, stylistic inconsistency, stolen music, and the gall to ask you to beat the game *repeatedly* to unlock things. This isn't the bottom of the barrel, it's the scum that leaks out of the barrel, onto the ground and down into the sewers. And even that might be overselling it.

But the best part is that despite all these problems, the game is still an almost playable Virtual On clone once you get used to its quirks. You get used to having to continuously spam the infinite special moves in order to survive, laugh every time the menu music lifted straight from Chrono Trigger plays, and find a perverse joy in being able to complete the game without a single death. Or maybe that's just me.

Yeah, probably just me. Never, ever play this godawful mess of a game. One commenter on 2ch had this to say: "If you want a Kurohime game, just play Bayonetta and pretend."