The Cotton series began with Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams back in 1991 and has seen numerous entries since then, such as Cotton 100% and Panorama Cotton among others. After a successful revival with Cotton Reboot, a new entry known as Cotton Fantasy (Cotton Rock n Roll in Japan) has been released on modern systems to bring the series fully into the modern era. But is this a good game, or does it stumble in the process?
Right from the start, it becomes apparent that a lot of work was put into the visuals of Cotton Fantasy, with the game boasting the best art and graphics of the series so far. The game looks like an animated movie that can be played and the attacks and enemies just pop off the screen at times. It should be noted though that the game may not be the best for those with photosensitivity since the flashing can be a bit intense, so that is something to keep in mind.
Cotton Fantasy has a story and cutscenes, but these are not a major part of the game, as they merely serve to get to the gameplay sections, and this is fine. Cotton Fantasy continues the trend of having multiple playable characters such as Appli, with appearances by characters inspired by Success’s other series Starfighter Sanvein and Psyvariar. There are also appearances by Umihara Kawase from her self-titled series and Luffie from Doki Doki Poyacchio.
Selecting a different character does not really change the plot at all, and each character does follow the method of having a shot button, a special button and an auto shot button. Where the characters differ is in their shot style since some function drastically different from Cotton herself. Using a different character will require you to change up your strategy as you play in order to accommodate the different styles, but the different styles can be handy for some of the different modes
The game has multiple difficulty settings, as would be expected from a shmup, and one, in particular, stands out. Extra mode raises the difficulty by essentially turning the game into a bullet hell shmup and forces a change in how you play. Some characters like Saiva Ria actually have a scoring system based around bullet hell concepts, such as cutting close to the bullets to level up, so it all works out there.
All of these combined makes for a game with great replayability, and the inclusion of leaderboards serves as a good enticement to get better. Those needing a hand with that will find great use of the training mode that lets you select a level and get better at it and the game in general. And on top of that, the main game has a world map that lets you select the different levels you want to play in the order you want to play them.
Cotton Fantasy runs excellently even on the Switch in handheld mode, with no real slowdown or framerate issues. The music is some of the best in the series so far, and in general Cotton Fantasy is arguably the best of the Cotton series in general. The game even brings into the screen view from Panorama Cotton and Rainbow Cotton for some levels and they function perfectly here.
Cotton Fantasy is an easy game to recommend. It has something for both veteran shmup players and newcomers to shmups alike. With an amazing art style and music, and well-thought-out gameplay designed to keep players coming back, Cotton Fantasy does almost everything right. Just take care that the effects are not too intense for you, and you will be fine.
Disclaimer: A review key was provided