I've been gaming for over 30 years. I spend all my spare time on gaming websites reading reviews, news, forums or documentaries. I like to think I have a great general knowledge about videogames old and new, even niche ones. Yet until last year I'd never heard of Cotton. To find out the series has like 8 games since 1991 that had passed me by was truly a pleasant revelation.
Many of them have now been ported as well as new games so figured I'd dive in with one at random, I chose Cotton 100% which is the second game in the series, originally released on Playstation and the SNES apparently. I'm not sure what version is supplied here but I'm guessing it's the SNES one. As far as ports go it's extremely barebones. It does have some quality of life features like rewind, cheats and save states but that's literally it. The challenge mode is literally the game without these as it was originally released and even has two identical sets of trophies for the standard and challenge modes but that's it.
The game is pretty fun though, a horizontal side scrolling shoot 'em up or 'cute 'em up' as I have vomit inducingly heard it called. That naming convention aside it genuinely was a nice change for something so colourful and whimsical instead of all the sci-fi shooters like Gradius, Arrow Flash, Musha and Eliminate Down I've played this year. The game attempts a story and while the early 90's scenes and art have their charm it's otherwise utter nonsense about Willows and Candy. This version just stapled some subtitles below without even removing the Japanese is how budget the release is but it's fine, not a single person cares about the story anyway. Literally not one. Even the original writers.
Gameplay wise this game is a pretty easy affair but I've had a crap week at work so it was a perfect chill experience. Cotton picks up crystals and kills enemies to level up powering her main attack. She collects fairy comrades to bolster her fire power and has a range of magic spells to choose from.
In addition. These spells can be selected in sets at the start of each level a bit like in Gradius and depending on the selected spell type the fairy minions will change attack formation around you.
That's pretty much it. There are 7 levels, each with two bosses, an easier mid boss and an end level boss. You can beat it in under an hour but if you go for the platinum it will take 2 or 3 playthroughs.The visuals are pretty cure though nothing spectacular, ok sprites mostly kept pleasant by colour and art. It's got a pretty great upbeat soundtrack with some really good songs but the quality here is crackly and sometimes pops. Port issue or like it in the original? I really don't know.
Will definitely try some of the other games after enjoying this. I hear Panarama Cotton plays like Space Harrier, pretty crazy change.
+ Short relaxing fun.
+ Easy to pick up and just play.
+ Cute art and great music.
- The sound quality is poor.
- Barebones content.
Many of them have now been ported as well as new games so figured I'd dive in with one at random, I chose Cotton 100% which is the second game in the series, originally released on Playstation and the SNES apparently. I'm not sure what version is supplied here but I'm guessing it's the SNES one. As far as ports go it's extremely barebones. It does have some quality of life features like rewind, cheats and save states but that's literally it. The challenge mode is literally the game without these as it was originally released and even has two identical sets of trophies for the standard and challenge modes but that's it.
The game is pretty fun though, a horizontal side scrolling shoot 'em up or 'cute 'em up' as I have vomit inducingly heard it called. That naming convention aside it genuinely was a nice change for something so colourful and whimsical instead of all the sci-fi shooters like Gradius, Arrow Flash, Musha and Eliminate Down I've played this year. The game attempts a story and while the early 90's scenes and art have their charm it's otherwise utter nonsense about Willows and Candy. This version just stapled some subtitles below without even removing the Japanese is how budget the release is but it's fine, not a single person cares about the story anyway. Literally not one. Even the original writers.
Gameplay wise this game is a pretty easy affair but I've had a crap week at work so it was a perfect chill experience. Cotton picks up crystals and kills enemies to level up powering her main attack. She collects fairy comrades to bolster her fire power and has a range of magic spells to choose from.
In addition. These spells can be selected in sets at the start of each level a bit like in Gradius and depending on the selected spell type the fairy minions will change attack formation around you.
That's pretty much it. There are 7 levels, each with two bosses, an easier mid boss and an end level boss. You can beat it in under an hour but if you go for the platinum it will take 2 or 3 playthroughs.The visuals are pretty cure though nothing spectacular, ok sprites mostly kept pleasant by colour and art. It's got a pretty great upbeat soundtrack with some really good songs but the quality here is crackly and sometimes pops. Port issue or like it in the original? I really don't know.
Will definitely try some of the other games after enjoying this. I hear Panarama Cotton plays like Space Harrier, pretty crazy change.
+ Short relaxing fun.
+ Easy to pick up and just play.
+ Cute art and great music.
- The sound quality is poor.
- Barebones content.
7 Comments
oh my god the cover art being as it is means someone uploaded it Like That on the IGDB page, that's so funny
this is a lot like the original Cotton, I'm pretty sure it began development as a port of that game. It lacks a lot of the cool artistic flair and direction of the original, along with that DAMN MUSIC but it is much easier and more accessible. Anyways it's my understanding that you own one of those weirdo "Sega saturn" things so you should definitely check out Cotton 2 sometime.
@NoHobino_Hank is it because they're short? The argument of "this game is too short to be full price!" is absurd to me and I don't get why that's even a factor when it's a game that's been to be replayed so much. I'd get where you're coming from more if these were like super quickly-made lazy games but they feel plenty refined and complete. Maybe it's just a me thing I dunno
@NoHobino_Hank is it because they're short? The argument of "this game is too short to be full price!" is absurd to me and I don't get why that's even a factor when it's a game that's been to be replayed so much. I'd get where you're coming from more if these were like super quickly-made lazy games but they feel plenty refined and complete. Maybe it's just a me thing I dunno
@NoHobino_Hank -Totally with you there. This is a very Barebones port with extremely basic features. It doesn't even have filters that I could see and the sound quality is awful. I bought it in a sale for £9 and I still think I paid too much considering the many arcade archive releases are half that price for the same type of release.
@BlazingWaters - I almost didn't bother reviewing it due to the stupid cover but I'm not a member of IGDB and have no idea how to change it. The cover here is as low effort as the port lol
@HylianBran - Cotton 2 got a PlayStation release recently too so saves digging it out, I'll definitely give that, Panorama, Reboot and the others a go at some point.
I get what you're saying about length and all and I would normally agree but this didn't have a lot of replayability as it is one linear path and fairly easy (not an insult, I think it's a good gateway game for shoot 'em ups) but more importantly as a 30 year old port it didn't feel like there was huge effort into it. Considering you can get whole collections for a quarter of the price with art galleries, interviews, filters etc. I don't feel this was great value for its price in this case personally even if I did enjoy it.
@BlazingWaters - I almost didn't bother reviewing it due to the stupid cover but I'm not a member of IGDB and have no idea how to change it. The cover here is as low effort as the port lol
@HylianBran - Cotton 2 got a PlayStation release recently too so saves digging it out, I'll definitely give that, Panorama, Reboot and the others a go at some point.
I get what you're saying about length and all and I would normally agree but this didn't have a lot of replayability as it is one linear path and fairly easy (not an insult, I think it's a good gateway game for shoot 'em ups) but more importantly as a 30 year old port it didn't feel like there was huge effort into it. Considering you can get whole collections for a quarter of the price with art galleries, interviews, filters etc. I don't feel this was great value for its price in this case personally even if I did enjoy it.
@FallenGrace the modern Cotton 2 port has awful input lag. If you play the game at all, please just like burn a copy for your Saturn or something. There's even a fan translation while the rerelease in in Japanese. Er, I think it is? But yeah I wouldn't buy it if I were you, especially if you still have a Saturn with the ability to play burned games or an ODE. I'm pretty sure it's the same price as this rerelease and also doesn't come with new features.
you just need a twitch account to use igdb and then submit your cover
I appreciate whoever has a twitch/IGDB account and got the cover corrected, as amusing as it was lol.
Weatherby
1 year ago
Also, what is up with the cover art they're using for the game on backloggd. It's just a picture of the damn box lol