Cotton had a difficult transition to 3D. I mean, technically, it destroyed the franchise forever that's it game over bye bye. The last Cotton game is a somewhat decent rail shooter that has some problems. For example the difficulty of seeing what you have ahead due to the annoying position of your character on the screen makes the game a not so pleasant experience. Also this new format makes you miss the great spectacle, fluidity and speed of previous Cotton games. Even if it still looks pretty good, it is incomparable with its predecessors. This is a shame because the presentation with all those anime cutscenes is pretty cute and this is a great and fun series after all... Fuck, they just should have left it in 2D.
If only I could see past that little witch who resides in the middle of the screen, I would enjoy this title ever-so slightly more.
How is this shit worse than Panorama Cotton even though this is on a fucking Dreamcast?
Can't tell how far shots are from me. Game moves so slow. They should stick to 2D cause they don't do this style right how Panzer Dragoon did.
Good music though.
Can't tell how far shots are from me. Game moves so slow. They should stick to 2D cause they don't do this style right how Panzer Dragoon did.
Good music though.
This review contains spoilers
What's with these Windows Movie Maker-ass transitions? The game is beautiful otherwise. I highly advise playing with headphones unless you want to hear your poor Dreamcast's disc reader try to kill itself. Huge props to the folks responsible for the English patch. I find it unfortunate that the subtitles had a hard time getting out of overscan.
That aside this game kinda sorta sucks. I'm not gonna rate it because I just don't have the suitable experience to critique a game in this genre but by god is this game boring. The devs seemed to take cues from the Devil May Cry 2 book so they could make the most deliberately flaccid way to hit things in a video game. This is a shmup where shooting enemies is lame. That says it all right there. I have no problem with this game wanting to be a more theme park-ey take on Cotton where you ogle at beautiful scenery as you mindlessly destroy everything in your path. Thankfully, they did get the big mood you need for this kind of game right. Rainbow Cotton delivers on the visual and auditory pedigree of previous entries while adapting it to a laid-back 3D game flawlessly. It's just a shame that they didn't figure to put that same amount of effort into the game itself.
Also that ending sure was avant-garde. The way it explores the concept of candy and the lengths one may truly go to satiate their appetite and the false belief that these innocent treats will save us. We naturally associate candies with a simpler time, when we didn't have to face the struggles of hunger. It excellently demonstrates how manipulative candy manufactures are. I wasn't expecting such a thoughtful commentary on consumerism in a game that seemed so innocent.
That aside this game kinda sorta sucks. I'm not gonna rate it because I just don't have the suitable experience to critique a game in this genre but by god is this game boring. The devs seemed to take cues from the Devil May Cry 2 book so they could make the most deliberately flaccid way to hit things in a video game. This is a shmup where shooting enemies is lame. That says it all right there. I have no problem with this game wanting to be a more theme park-ey take on Cotton where you ogle at beautiful scenery as you mindlessly destroy everything in your path. Thankfully, they did get the big mood you need for this kind of game right. Rainbow Cotton delivers on the visual and auditory pedigree of previous entries while adapting it to a laid-back 3D game flawlessly. It's just a shame that they didn't figure to put that same amount of effort into the game itself.
Also that ending sure was avant-garde. The way it explores the concept of candy and the lengths one may truly go to satiate their appetite and the false belief that these innocent treats will save us. We naturally associate candies with a simpler time, when we didn't have to face the struggles of hunger. It excellently demonstrates how manipulative candy manufactures are. I wasn't expecting such a thoughtful commentary on consumerism in a game that seemed so innocent.
Rainbow Cotton is a 3D shmup with a forward perspective akin to Panzer Dragoon or Star Fox, but it is unfortunately very clumsy in design. Cotton's model takes up far too much of the screen, obscuring the enemies and crosshair, which loves to snap to the centre. On top of spongy enemies and a finicky EXP system to power up your beam, it's shockingly difficult to kill anyone in your path, let alone know you're even hitting them. The pathing is weird, too; you can just bounce and clip around the track haphazardly because the camera tracking is nigh impossible to predict. The experience is honestly so grating it's insane.
The saving grace is that this is imo the best looking Cotton game - charming anime FMV cutscenes, and low poly pastel coloured models and environments that are so kawaii in that Spyro PS1 way.
A curiosity is all this ever amounts to, if ever you want to experience a game that is bad enough to bury a franchise in the ground for twenty-one years - you can with the newly-released English fan translation!
( https://github.com/DerekPascarella/RainbowCotton-EnglishPatchDreamcast )
The saving grace is that this is imo the best looking Cotton game - charming anime FMV cutscenes, and low poly pastel coloured models and environments that are so kawaii in that Spyro PS1 way.
A curiosity is all this ever amounts to, if ever you want to experience a game that is bad enough to bury a franchise in the ground for twenty-one years - you can with the newly-released English fan translation!
( https://github.com/DerekPascarella/RainbowCotton-EnglishPatchDreamcast )
Panorama Cotton but slow and mind-numbing
This could've had the makings of a real cult classic with a bit more time in the oven. At least low-poly Cotton is adorable.
I feel like this probably one of the few games I wanna joke about this game being underrated because Cotton fans hate this one and......................................
I see why, they hate this one
I guess the only saving grace is the Cutscenes which is more entertaining than the game itself.
But if you want a game like this just Play Panorama or Cotton 2 + Boomerang or hell play games that came out around the time like Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact which was released on the same system and came out the past year(1999) or even Sin and Punishment which came out months and months after this game In the same year (2000).
I see why, they hate this one
I guess the only saving grace is the Cutscenes which is more entertaining than the game itself.
But if you want a game like this just Play Panorama or Cotton 2 + Boomerang or hell play games that came out around the time like Godzilla Generations: Maximum Impact which was released on the same system and came out the past year(1999) or even Sin and Punishment which came out months and months after this game In the same year (2000).
This game is really charming and has so much effort put into it's presentation like the full anime cut scenes between each level but the difficulty of this game is way too unforgiving.
This is probably the cutest but most unfun thing I've ever played. I got to the stage 3 boss before giving up; the aiming is just way too jank and finicky, plus with Cotton always obscuring my view and the constant gravitation pull towards the screen's center, it's just not worth the struggle. It's next-to-impossible to figure out exactly where you're aiming and if you're even hitting what you're attempting to aim at.
It's a shame this game is so riddled with issues, because it's probably the cutest game in the series; I love the anime FMVs and how adorable the in-game models look.
It's a shame this game is so riddled with issues, because it's probably the cutest game in the series; I love the anime FMVs and how adorable the in-game models look.
Imagine Panorama Cotton but shit. That's what Rainbow Cotton is. The presentation is nice enough at least, with the anime FMVs (probably the closest we're gonna get to an Cotton anime tbh), the graphics being decent enough for the Dreamcast (if suffering from quite a bit of asset reuse), and the OST being real nice (that stage 1 track is a perfect winter stage track). But the actual game itself is terrible. It's too slow, Cotton is too big to where you can't see your targets most of the time, and a fair amount of enemies are bullet sponges, so you have to struggle to even kill them at all. Not to mention the controls are complete ass, where Cotton feels very slippery to control and adds to the difficulty of the game by extension. This game is potentially a huge reason why the Cotton series was dead for a while, and even then, it took BEEP and other companies besides Success for her to come back into the limelight. Hard pass unless you like torturing yourself and/or you have morbid curiosity.