Cotton Fantasy Review (Switch)

 

We’ve covered about 8000 Cotton games recently as the cult shoot’em up franchise has been meticulously ported and released on the Switch over the last few months. Now though there is a brand new one to play around with and it could well be the best of bunch.

Cotton Fantasy is a bright and colourful game that runs along at a great pace and rarely falters in terms of its performance. The levels are also highly distinctive in their look and enemy design and each time you complete the game you will unlock another level which can then be played in the story mode. In terms of looks this ticks all the boxes and the added longevity from the drip feed of new levels keeps the game fresh and gives players alternate routes to take through the game. In terms of other ways to play the game, progression is reduced to Normal or Hard difficulty and the Extra mode which has every enemy blasted turning into bullets.

The bosses a highlight and varied in style with a mixture of big bad screen fillers and smaller more agile foes to take on. Doing this also has to be achieved within an unknown time limit or the boss will fly away losing the player a ton of points. 3D bonus levels giving a nod to Panorama Cotton are another nice touch.

Another thing that greatly adds to the fun and longevity is the character roster. Each of the characters plays very differently. You have the standard approach of someone like Cotton herself who picks up crystals and powers up accordingly, but you also have a character who works by utilising the ‘buzz’ mechanic made popular by Psyvariar and another who runs on a timer with seconds being replenished each time you pick up a crystal. They all have different weapon load outs and special attacks as well. With 6 initial characters to pick it means there’s a lot of ways to play with the only downside being that some levels don’t quite gel as well as they could with certain character styles.

We aren’t hardcore shoot’em up players here at Retro 101 but we found that Cotton Fantasy walked the line between being approachable for newcomers and offering high score chasing for the pros well. Depending on your character there are numerous ways to start racking up huge scores while newcomers supported by having infinite continues and a level select training option to aid progress and practice their skills.

Overall, Cotton Fantasy is among the best the series has to offer. There’s very little more any fan of the franchise could really ask for. It’s just a whole load of fun with a decent amount of variety throughout and numerous extras that add longevity. A great return for a franchise that deserves a far bigger audience.

Overall 8/10

Cotton 100% (Switch Review)

 

Written by Dan Gill

Ratalaika is on a mission at the moment. It seems the publisher is determined to bring a load of 16-bit era shooters to modern platforms, and this can only be a good thing, even if some of the games themselves aren’t exactly classics, it’s nice to have some sense of preservation. Their recent releases of Cotton titles are appreciated, being the series never had a widespread release back in the 90s, and copies of the original carts fetch silly money these days.

Cotton 100% is the second game in the series about the eponymous witch. A side scrolling shooter with some light RPG elements, the game’s design is very much of the Parodius and Pop ‘n Twinbee camp, favouring bright, fantasy themed levels and cute character designs over the usual sci-fi fare that normally defines the genre. It looks good, too. The bright backgrounds and characters offer a refreshing change from the futuristic theme of most SCHMUPs, and even though things can get busy on screen, the backdrop never causes things in the fore to be missed. When things get really busy on screen, there is noticeable slowdown sadly, and it’s a shame this couldn’t have been fixed in the port.

The gameplay itself is pretty standard, but enjoyable enough. Cotton earns power ups (the type can be changed by shooting it repeatedly), and experience is earned through destroying enemies. If you manage to avoid losing lives, this ends up making Cotton death on broom. As such, the game can feel a little easy compared to other examples of the genre, and the power up system is a little simple when compared with Parodius’ Gradius-aping approach.

Along with the original game, there are some modern improvements as you’d expect of almost any reissue these days (screen filters, cheats, rewind and the like), but as with Panorama Cotton there’s no English script. Each level is preceded by a brief anime style intro relaying the story with Japanese text. It’s a shame an English translation is missing, as it would elevate the game from a decent port to something that feels more like a labour of love.

As it stands, with the removal of the usual barriers of the cost of an original copy of the game (or the moral dilemma of venturing down the emulation route), this is still a welcome release. The game - while different to most in the broader shoot ‘em up genre – isn't one that stands out than others in its niche field of cutesy shooters. It’s an enjoyable, pretty romp through what I’m sure is a fun story, and is worth a look, just expect to be charmed rather than challenged.

7/10

Panorama Cotton (Switch Review)

 

“Welcome to the fantasy zone. Get ready!” will elicit fond memories from many gamers from the mid to late 80s. Space Harrier was a refreshing take on the shoot-em-up genre back in 1985, and its port from arcade to home computer and console only bolstered its popularity. While the rail shooter enjoyed some popularity past the Yu Suzuki classic, it often felt like the genre was a bit gimmicky during the 16-bit era. The true sense of speeding towards the horizon was restricted by the hardware running the game - at least until the true 3D era of gaming came about. Panorama Cotton sits in this overlap of generations and suffers because of it.

The third game in the “cute-em-up" Cotton series, you control the eponymous Cotton, a witch on a broomstick whose aim is to get rid of all the burnt willow in the kingdom, as it’s believed this is causing Queen Velvet to behave erratically. Unfortunately, none of this comes across in Ratalaika’s port, as there’s no English translation of the script. This is most surprising, given their solid port of Gley Lancer.

The game itself is standard on rails fare, and hasn’t aged particularly well. To be fair to Panorama Cotton, not many rail shooters from the era do fare well, but being this was released a year after the SNES classic StarFox/Starwing, it was a step back, even then. It stands out from others by having branching paths throughout levels, which is a nice touch, and there are some really nice graphical flourishes here and there (in the first level Cotton heads over the cliff and through a waterfall, which is fairly effective for the then aging Mega Drive), but otherwise it’s much like Space Harrier or Afterburner II – a horizon and some rocks hurtling towards you.

Things get busy on screen throughout, and at some points there’s noticeable slowdown. Power ups can get lost among the chaos, and it’s often tough to see what you’re picking up. You can change what benefit a pick up provides by shooting it, so it’s often a case of blasting away and hoping for the best.

As with many ports, there are some tweaks here and there (rewind mode, save states, cheats) alongside the original game, which is always appreciated. This is also the cheapest way to buy the game too, as the original MD release apparently only had 4000 copies printed, so you’re saving at least £500 going by today’s eBay prices. The lack of an English script translation is a little disappointing, and the game is a product of its time, but if you like your curios this may be worth picking up. However, if you’re more interested in gameplay there are better rail shooters out there to spend your money on.

5/10