Wow, now that’s a mouthful of a title!  But what does all that mean?  Well, “Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid” is a popular Japanese comic book manga series and anime cartoon.  It’s about an ordinary office lady who one day stumbles on a dragon from another world.  This dragon magically transforms into a maid lady and offers to clean her house in return for room and board.  But when you’ve got a dragon in your house, nothing is ever ordinary and Miss Kobayashi and her dragon girl friends have lots of adventures and escapades together.  And now they’re in their own video game!  Here they are trapped inside a computer and the only way to get out is to play a 2-D vertically scrolling bullet hell shooter!  It’s available on PS4 and Switch, but reviewed on PS4 here.

There is the main story mode as well as a boss rush and a mode where you can tackle each stage separately.  To play you just move around with the control stick and fire your weapon with the R1 button.  You can switch out between three different dragon girls, and each one has their own type of firepower.  One shoots straight forward, one has a spread shot, and one has homing missiles.  You can also use a screen clearing bomb attack where the girls transform into dragons, but you only get a limited number of uses of this move.  And you can also dash into enemies, but be careful as this is one of those ‘bullet hell’ shooters where dodging projectiles is your main priority.  Each character has her own HP bar that goes down when hit, and when the HP bar is empty you won’t be able to switch to that character.  When all three characters are gone, it’s Game Over.

Even though the game is 2-D, the graphics are in 3-D and remind me of an older shooter called Castle of Shikigami.  The stages are colorful and creative, and I especially like the one level that looks like you’re flying over a race track that looks like it’s made out of candy!  As you play you can collect treasure chests that unlock pieces of artwork and character bios in the gallery.  My only main problem with this game is that it’s way too hard, even on the easiest difficulty.  But if you like the anime and 2-D shooters, this one’s for you!

Kid Factor:

Miss Kobayashi’s Dragon Maid: Burst Forth!! Choro-gon Breath is rated T for Teen with ESRB descriptors of Fantasy Violence and Partial Nudity.  You shoot down cartoony enemies with lasers and dragon breath, but that’s about as violent as it gets.  Some of the characters wear revealing outfits and have rather provocative proportions, as these types of anime tend to be.  Because of this and the high difficulty, this one’s best for older players.

Tags: Game Reviews, Television