Criminal Girls is a double-whammy of goodness. So good it should be illegal.

Seriously, almost all games like these would separate the products: sell the "OST" (disc 1) as one product, and the "character vocal collection" (disc 2) as another. Make more money, and frustrate consumers. Now that I think about it, this seems the more "criminal" option. Perhaps these girls were properly reformed?

The OST is a surprisingly strong set of pop, rock, and dance tunes, all sufficiently synthesized to a high degree. The three composers for this "standard RPG" BGM are Chuji Nagaoka, Junzo Yagami, and Junichi Yoshida. None of these names are familiar to me, but they seem to have the same quality to them as those who have come before them in games like these: Tenpei Sato, Takeshi Abo, Minako Adachi, Takashi Okamoto, and others. Just, totally solid BGM. The trio of BGM composers operate as a unit, known as "CUBE," and their most recent game before this was Konami's adventure title "Time Hollow" for DS.

The second disc has vocals composed and arranged by a variety of big-name VGM stars, including Nobuyoshi Sano, Yuzo Koshiro, Basiscape's Azusa Chiba and Yoshimi Kudo, as well as the aforementioned Takeshi Abo. These vocal tracks are, for the most part, very strong. It beats anything I heard from Growlanser or, more recently, Death Connection. I haven't heard a good collection of "character" vocal themes in awhile. It was a refreshing listen.

Most importers will ignore this soundtrack, since this game really doesn't have a chance of coming to North America. The premise is humorous, but the audio should be taken a little more seriously. I will be watching the continued careers of the folks who worked on the first disc. If you're willing to take a risk on something new, check out the Criminal Girls. They have some mighty fine music accompanying them.

Reviewed by: Patrick Gann