Cotton Reboot!

The Japanese arcade scene…hoo boy, and I thought American video games were creative. No, Japanese games blow our games out of the water in terms of crazy and insane character designs and stories. But one thing they never skimp on is fun. And for the first time, we Americans get to experience one of those insane arcade shooters. With the Cotton Reboot, you can see what we missed on this side of the pond, and a whole lot.

Developer: Rocket-Engine Co.,Ltd.

Publishers: United Games Entertainment GmbH, Beep

Genres: Shoot 'em up, Side-scrolling

Platforms: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4

Written by: Danny K

This reboot includes a rebooted version of the game with spruced-up graphics and sound and made a little more accessible for newcomers, the original, and a time attack mode. There are options to adjust the difficulty, how many lives you get, and etc, so whether you’re a noob who needs a hand or a total bad dude or dudette who eats tough as nails games for breakfast, the game can be made accessible to you.

Let’s start with the reboot mode. The story of the game is that the Fairy and Human realms have been plunged into eternal darkness. And our brave heroine Cotton…isn’t too concerned by it. That is until she’s informed by a fairy that gathering the seven Willow candies will make a giant Willow candy for her to eat. The story is beyond silly, but the art that accompanies it is very well drawn and so cute. And the cuteness doesn’t stop there.

For gameplay, we have a Cute ‘em up. A Cute ‘em up, for those not in the know, is a shoot ‘em up that is made to look cute rather than cool. This game’s art is something else, let me tell you, but I’m getting ahead of myself. We have a horizontal scrolling shooter, where Cotton needs to defeat her enemies, collect crystals, and destroy bosses to get her candy. While shooting, she collects gems to level up and make herself stronger. Enemies litter the screen and Cotton can be shot down in a single hit, but she has a few things to help her out. First off, she has her witch powers, secondary attacks and even a screen nuking move that can really help in a pinch. And a meter on the bottom left fills up as you fight. When full, a quick tap of the X button will have her shooting even stronger shots until the meter is drained. Watch out, though, because if she is shot down while this is active, it’s gone when she respawns and it has to be refilled again.

The controls are very responsive and I never felt like the game was fighting me back. I got shot down plenty of times, don’t get me wrong, but it always felt like my fault and nothing that I couldn’t get better at with practice. There are about seven levels, which only take a few minutes to beat, so you could beat this story in one sitting. Each level has a midway boss and an end boss. The levels start easy and gradually get harder, but I had the difficulty turned down low and the lives set to max so it was a breeze despite all the deaths. Though messing with the settings will not allow you to get ranked online, which is a fair compromise in my opinion. The ending is beyond silly, but the journey is the reward here. Finishing this mode unlocks more characters, and I’m sure there’s still more to unlock for me.

Time attack mode gives you infinite lives and is really just for seeing how big of a score you can rack up in a set amount of time. Not really my cup of tea but could be fun with friends, or for bragging rights. And then we have the rom of the original game, which is quite a bit harder, but it being an old arcade game, that’s understandable. It’s great that it’s here, though, the difference between the old and new is night and day!

Presentation-wise, this game is gorgeous! The character models look so cute, and the backgrounds are so well made. If you take time to look at them while playing, you can see the blood, sweat, and tears the artists shed to make this happen, and you never stay in one area too long so the levels never have time to get stale. The music is total ear candy, and I would totally understand if you wanted this soundtrack on your music player of choice. The cutscenes are adorable and short. There are English subtitles as well. They…well they help somewhat in making sense of the story but there’s no number of explanations that will make this make sense…and I love it for that. While I would have preferred English dubbing, that’s just a personal preference and by no means a knock against the game.

Ultimately, I had a great time with the Cotton Reboot. I am far from a skilled Shoot ‘em Up Player but that did not get in the way of this game being awesome. It’s worth it to play through multiple times for the gameplay alone, always trying to better your score and show the world who the real Cotton Champion is! With its beautiful art, adorable characters, and addicting gameplay, you’ll be glued to your chair as you shoot down adorable enemies in the way of your candy. Buy this game!

Author: Danny K

Published: 01/09/2021