4

5 /5

The basic plot revolves around the death of the antagonist from the first game, Aki, and his mother, Larsa, going insane and seeking revenge on Reco for allegedly killing him. Her younger son Palm goes in search of Reco to learn the truth about his brother on his own. Eventually Reco finds Palm lost far from home and the two become friends, with Palm learning what happened to Aki was not her fault. Together, they aim to travel back to Palm's home and stop the madness of Larsa. Larsa is the main antagonist of the story; she pilots Stage 5's boss, Dragon Emperion.

Mushihimesama Futari has selectable game modes include Original and Maniac, with unlockable Ultra mode, with each mode increasing in difficulty. The game features five stages, each with a boss and mid-boss. The players can select two characters - Reco and Palm, and choose normal or abnormal shot type for each. The main scoring system in this game involves collecting gems. In Original and Ultra mode, the gem counter switches colour from green to blue every 500 gems. the players collect more gems by killing enemies with the player's laser when the counter is blue, and with the player's shot when the counter is green. There is an overall gem counter and a stage counter, which resets to zero every level. In Maniac mode, when the chain bar is full and flashing red, killing enemies with A increases the number of gems acquired.

Black Label differs from the original Mushihime-sama Futari (ver 1.5) in a variety of ways, some subtle and some less so.

The placement and shot patterns of many enemies have been changed, sometimes dramatically. As a result, the stages can feel very different from the original game in some places. The player characters' shot types have changed as well; rather than offering a choice between Normal and Abnormal shot types as in the original game, each character now has a single shot type that combines certain elements from each of the previous variations. In addition, the player characters' shot power is significantly increased, allowing for bosses to be killed more quickly and some of their more dangerous patterns to be avoided entirely.

There are also some more minor, cosmetic changes: some of the stages have had their colors changed slightly, and the appearance of the golden score gems has been changed a bit.

Black Label also features more slowdown than the original game overall. Combined with the previously-mentioned shot type changes, this leads Black Label to be generally considered easier overall than the original game.