Cotton Reboot! (PS4)

The Cotton series of sidescrolling shooters featuring a magical witch and colorful environments is one that gets recommended a lot despite how hard it is to actually play the games. If you want to start at the beginning with Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams, the only official U.S. release of it was for the Turbografx-CD, an add-on for a console that wasn’t all that popular. The game itself would still cost an incredible amount after you got the hardware due to its limited quantities, so for most it was likely they’d be playing Cotton by less than legal means. However, after nearly 30 years, the first Cotton game would not only get a global rerelease but a graphical and gameplay update in the form of Cotton Reboot!.

 

Cotton Reboot! contains both a revamped approach to the game’s sidescrolling shooter mechanics and a full-on port of a version of the original game made for the Japanese Sharp X68000 home computer. The story remains the same between both of them right down to the scenes used for it, the heroine a small witch named Cotton who lives in a world completely subsumed by darkness. However, Cotton doesn’t seem to care too much about the never-ending night, her mind instead focused on acquiring her favorite candy called Willow. When a fairy named Silk crashes down in front of the witch, she begs Cotton for help in restoring light to the world, something Cotton only agrees to once Silk says there will be some Willow as a reward for doing so. The silly story checks in on the pair after each stage, Silk pretty much trying to keep Cotton on task as each boss enemy leaves behind a Willow candy that can be used to help restore the light so long as Cotton doesn’t scarf it down first.

 

The goofy and light framing to the adventure adds a little comedy between the shooter stages. Cotton Reboot!’s real strength though is in its Arrange Mode, this being the fully new reimagining of the original game’s gameplay. In Arrange Mode you’ll find yourself flying through the sky on Cotton’s broom, the witch able to fire little magic shots forward like a machine gun as long as you hold down the attack button. This magic attack can get more complex though, the player able to gain experience by killing the enemy monsters in their path and leveling up to stronger attacks. Your basic shot is decently powerful, but once you start growing in strength you see how powerful your attack can get and it becomes a lot more important to hang onto not because you’re useless without it, but because the power trip of having it is so strong and satisfying. A single hit from an enemy or attack can kill Cotton although she’s free to touch pieces of the environment without meeting her end and you will get kicked down in power after you get killed. However, with a powerful shot it becomes easier to stick in the action as you can clear the enemy forces faster, and with the clean movement its reasonable enough to weave through attacks that are possible to slip through.

Cotton’s normal shot isn’t her only means of facing down the magical monsters in her path. Silk accompanies Cotton during levels and you can even gain more fairy friends by shooting certain enemies just enough to make them deliver useful items. Each fairy adds a small shot of their own to your increasingly packed arsenal, but the fairies can also fly onto enemies who are near Cotton to start sapping health from them. Getting them to do so deliberately isn’t always the easiest, but since enemies do come in from behind Cotton as she flies to the right, these fairies can often clear away the ambushing foes quickly enough for you to realize you need to be careful about what’s coming up from the rear. However, there are certain levels like the underground cave where the game puts enemies behind you that are difficult to deal with effectively, mages, dwarves, and other magical creatures hard to angle your fairies towards here and not really feasible to shoot with your front-firing magic. Only in these tight-quarter moments does it really feel like Cotton isn’t equipped well for the foes she’s facing, but it does put a damper on the experience some to suddenly have foes boxing you in with no recourse.

 

You do still have a potential ace in the hole though. Cotton is able to collect crystals dropped by enemies to gain one-use spells, these crystals incredibly abundant and practically filling the screen at times. By shooting the crystals as they float in the air you can not only send your shot through a prism to spread it out more and power it up, but the more shots the crystals take, the more their value increases. Different colored crystals grant different spells and you can get different tiers of spells as well, the player able to store a good amount to unleash when they feel it necessary. Some of these like the falling rocks or screen-covering lightning could help with back attacks, but you have to use your magic in order so it might be better to just rely on the brief invincibility each one grants as you first cast it. Not every magic spell is the best, one has Cotton drop an explosion that has very limited range, but others like the fire dragon launch across the screen making them great for dealing heavy burst damage to an boss monster or huge enemy swarm.

 

The enemies in Cotton Reboot! are a cute and whimsical bunch for the most part. While many have a slightly monstrous look to them like flying eyeballs, even the dragons, manticores, and zombies are all cartoonish in appearance and help this game earn its reputation for being a “cute ’em up” where the charming aesthetic is part of the appeal. Some foes that stand out in particular are the lava puddles who form into attractive women when they want to attack but turn into a giant thumbs up when they die, little knives with wings and faces, and the flocks of adorable little harpies. New enemy types usually bring something new to the table too like the long flying worms that get shorter as they’re shot and spear throwing imps hurling long weapons that won’t disappear even when shot. Minibosses do crop up but their fights aren’t often too deep, the foe basically just taking more time to put down despite being fairly easy to dodge. Bosses on the other hand come with greater variety, some like Medusa visually impressive but packing in some solid tells to make for a fair fight while the odd armored Cyclops might get a kill in with their unusual movements. Even if you’re up against the fairly friendly looking version of Death though you can expect a fight that progresses more with new attacks from your foe as you deal more damage, some battles even getting to the point where you might have to treat it more like a bullet hell and focus on watching your character instead of the opposition so you can dodge properly.

While Cotton Reboot!’s Arranged mode can put up a fight if you’re angling for keeping your power or going for a run through with only your starting set of 3 lives, it might be a little too easy because you can always continue right where you left off in a stage after losing those lives. Losing all your power does mean a game over stings still and the game’s incredible amount of bullet output from the player is balanced somewhat by their fragility, but cranking up the difficulty doesn’t feel like as much of a trial to overcome when you know it can be pushed through with just enough devotion. The actual action is still enjoyable so long as you don’t slip too deep into the mindset that you can’t be beat, and there are other ways to experience Cotton Reboot! like the Time Attack mode where you’re trying to blast enemies both as quickly as possible and while earning as many points as you can in either 2 or 5 minutes. You can unlock a new character to play as as well, and while there were two additional characters added in an update to play as, I couldn’t seem to play as them using the physical version of Cotton Reboot!.

 

The extra content isn’t really substantial enough to add to the game’s longevity though, although it does say something for how enjoyable it is that I wanted to go right back in and attempt a no continues run since it felt achievable with both the power level and the knowledge I had from playing through it once. However, Cotton Reboot! does at least have one more way to play beyond going for high scores, that being the Sharp X68000 version from 1993. While similar enough that it doesn’t feel like a truly different game, the cutscenes don’t even look much worse in their pixelated versions thanks to the game having that commitment to appearances even back then, it does have a distinct feel over the Arrange Mode. First of all, Cotton’s power is heavily reined in, your shots never getting to the screen covering absurdity that makes for such a thrilling sense of strength in the modern mode. As such, enemies are placed to be somewhat threatening individually rather than relying heavily on numbers or attacks that can slip through the chaos. If you do play this version on a higher difficulty though every foe will also fire a red shot when they appear which feels like a sloppy yet technically effective of making things harder, but the more leisurely approach to the action is still distinct from Arrange Mode while providing its own challenge, especially since the crystals now will fall to the ground or even off screen instead of float in place so getting the already more subdued versions of the attack spells is harder too.

 

While Cotton Reboot! also has a good mix of darker energetic tunes for its more serious locations and peppy tracks for its lighter moments and stages, Cotton Reboot! does still feel a little light on content. The answer to this feels like it is staring us in the face though, since the Sharp X68000 version already shows how the game can be presented in a different yet enjoyable way. Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams received many ports that mostly only appeared in Japan, and while it seems the Sharp X68000 version is considered the definitive version, there were differences found in how it played on systems like the PlayStation, TurboGrafx-CD, and even Neo Geo Pocket Color. Throwing in these as bonuses or even having some way to trigger the different bosses or areas featured in the other versions could have been a nifty way to add to Arrange Mode’s replayability, but at least the game doesn’t deny the player any content by forcing them to play near perfectly to see something special like some shoot ’em ups do.

THE VERDICT: Cotton Reboot! delivers both on its sparkly cute coat of paint for a classic while bringing a new gameplay style to the familiar elements. The Arrange Mode is a satisfying power trip where you can reach incredible heights but that strength can be taken away in an instant without throwing you down to something too weak to be enjoyed. If you do prefer the less explosive and over the top action of the game it’s remaking though, it’s included as part of the package as well. Unlimited continues do make it a bit harder to genuinely appreciate the difficulty but also smooths over problems like placing so many enemies in hard to reach spots behind Cotton. An exciting and adorable scrolling shooter that achieves a good balance of danger despite how powerful the player can get, Cotton Reboot! is a blast to play even if you can see most of what it offers rather quickly.

 

And so, I give Cotton Reboot! for PlayStation 4…

A GOOD rating. Cotton Reboot! is an excellent reimagining of the original’s gameplay into something that both gives the player room to become incredibly powerful but doesn’t become a cakewalk for it. Your magical shots and spells will help you mow through a lot of the simpler foes, but special enemy attacks, bosses, or devious monster placement will still let the game put up a fight, even if it undermines it a little by being kind enough to make continuing so easy. If the high-octane screen filling shots of Arrange Mode aren’t your cup of tea though, the Sharp X68000 version is a much calmer but still engaging experience that even avoids a flaw or two in the new version despite being less exciting. Being a short experience doesn’t mean it’s a bad one either and the levels you fly through and foes you fight fill the quick adventure well, but it does feel like the game could have done more to make it the definitive version of the title. Even if the various different ports of Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams couldn’t have been squeezed in, throwing in some variety by adding in their unique parts as extra content would give the player more reasons to dive back into the adventure than just the enjoyment of a well-designed shooter.

 

Cotton Reboot! certainly has its quirks like some imperfect translations, but it also has unusual fun touches like a manual where Willow and Silk will actually have a discussion to explain the game’s basics. It has nice ideas like making the new version and included X68000 version distinct in how they play but still faithful to the same area and enemy designs, but that also means it didn’t try to grow into something bigger and meatier. It is definitely a fun and more accessible way to play a game that’s been hard to get legitimately for years though and its name isn’t just referring to bringing back the classic Cotton adventure. After a PS2 Pachinko game in 2003 the series had gone quiet until this return, but the first new game for the series since then called Cotton Rock ‘n’ Roll: Superlative Night Dreams will keep the series moving after this reboot by way of a remake. If that game continues the gameplay style seen here but with new ideas to keep feeding into the thrilling yet cutesy action, Cotton really might be on her way to a successful franchise reboot.