The second installment in the Cotton series comes untouched to the West for the first time.
Cotton 100% is a 1994 Super Famicom sequel to the original Cotton arcade game. It preserves the same (mostly) horizontal shooter acton of the original, slightly expanding on the options by giving a choice of bullet / bomb styles when starting the game, and has 7 pretty bite-sized levels, each with a mid and end boss. For the Switch release you are also given the usual range of graphics options, a "Challenge Mode", rewind available at any time, and "Cheats" options once you have completed the game once.
Recently I reviewed the 1994 Mega Drive "Cotton Panorama" and utterly marveled at its technical prowess of the developers - but wished I was playing a more traditional side scrolling 16-bit Cotton. "Imagine what that would be on SNES with that amazing sound chip and expanded color palette." Well: wish granted. While what I was asking for does technically exist, you can tell that this is the first game made by developer Success for the Super Famicom.
The second installment in the Cotton series comes untouched to the West for the first time.
Cotton 100% is a 1994 Super Famicom sequel to the original Cotton arcade game. It preserves the same (mostly) horizontal shooter acton of the original, slightly expanding on the options by giving a choice of bullet / bomb styles when starting the game, and has 7 pretty bite-sized levels, each with a mid and end boss. For the Switch release you are also given the usual range of graphics options, a "Challenge Mode", rewind available at any time, and "Cheats" options once you have completed the game once. Recently I reviewed the 1994 Mega Drive "Cotton Panorama" and utterly marveled at its technical prowess of the developers - but wished I was playing a more traditional side scrolling 16-bit Cotton. "Imagine what that would be on SNES with that amazing sound chip and expanded color palette." Well: wish granted. While what I was asking for does technically exist, you can tell that this is the first game made by developer Success for the Super Famicom.
The music sounds better than the Mega Drive version - but the music itself isn't all that good and doesn't really push the SFC sound chip. The Super Famicom version has so many more on screen colors - but to the point where it hinders playability. Foreground and background layers aren't differentiated enough with the color palette - so end up feeling flat and at times visually confusing.
The hardware was there for a better game, but this seems to be a stepping stone to the great heights the Cotton franchise would eventually reach. I started with the Sega Saturn versions, which by the 32-bit era, had figured everything out. Gameplay was horizontal / diagonal scrolling and tight. The art was brilliantly colorful and imaginative without getting in the way. In reviewing these 16-bit versions it is an interesting look at the evolution of a series, a developer taking chances and finding their footing to reach a peak a few years later.
Cotton 100% is a good 16-bit shooter. It isn't an insane experiment like Cotton Panorama, nor it is the finely polished games that would come in the 32-bit era. It plays, looks, and sounds like Cotton, just not as well in any area as the series would eventually reach. For fans of the series and 16-bit shooters in general: the first sequel to Cottons is worth a look as an evolutionary step that was mostly locked away on the Super Famicom until now.
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