A ground breaking “cute ‘em up” shooter classic - restored, reimagined, and rebooted for today.
Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams is a ‘cute ‘em up’ originally released by Japanese developer Success in arcades (on Sega System-16 boa4rds in 1991), later ported to the X68000 home PC (a platform which is worthy of an article in and of itself), and even the Playstation 1 in 1999.
This collection includes a “rebooted” version of the classic game with new art, backgrounds, music, and large tweaks to the original gameplay. Also included is the X68000 home version, and a pure score attack “caravan” mode.
These are objective facts about the game. Another objective fact about Cotton: it is a fantastic shooter deserving of all the sequels, spin-offs, and now a reboot (not re-make) that it inspired. No matter your level of interest in “shmups” as a genre, Cotton REBOOT is worth a look as it laid foundations for many gameplay devices still in use today, has enchanting graphics, and multiple gameplay styles that make this a solid collection.
To talk about Cotton first let’s look at a few key terms. “Shmups” or “Shoot ‘em ups” is simply a classic game genre where you are traveling horizontally or vertically through a playfield, shooting at enemies, collecting power-ups, usually fighting a boss at the end of each stage. A “cute em up” is a shooter that eschews the classic grim-dark, ‘lonely space ship against endless alien hordes’ trope to add some color and character (Fantasy Zone or Parodius being great early examples). And finally ‘bullet hell shooters’ are an intense slant of the shmup genre generally placing you at the mercy of extreme waves of enemy fire (Undertale and Enter the Gungeon are recent examples).
Lets first talk about the new “Arranged” (as they call it) or “rebooted” version. The visuals are nothing jaw-dropping but are clean and expressive - you can clearly see the call backs to the original level and character designs.
Enemies generally have the same designs, placements and patterns - while the bosses retain the same mechanics and patterns as well. Where the reboot clearly breaks from its predecessors is how your character attacks which flips the game on its head. Instead of you of being underpowered and terrified at endless waves of enemies: you are the one unleashing bullet hell in an amazingly satisfying fashion on them.
Instead of desperately clinging to lives and continues: the game unlocks lives to become a great loop of score attacks with short levels and “I know I could have done better, let me try one more time!” gameplay.
In the original enemies drop crystals to collect which will increase your firepower. Shooting the crystals will change their color thereby giving you different power ups. The reboot version keeps this basic mechanic but makes a couple important changes. Firstly the crystals no longer fall to the ground - making them much easier to obtain.
Secondly in the reboot you can now fire into the floating crystals, splitting your beam, and creating a wave of bullet hell for your enemies. In contrast the original X68000 version is a bit more of what you would expect from a classic shooter. You are more on your heels evading enemy fire, and collecting drops to power up your weapon.
However there are things to take note of where this game was groundbreaking in 1991, and thus worth re-releasing on different platforms for literally the last 30 years.
First this is not a horizontal or vertical only shooter. There are sections of both styles, and even diagonal scrolling parts of levels which was quite uncommon for the time (and even today). The falling crystals from enemies can be collected for points and / or weapon power-ups, and present a great risk / reward proposition. Finally along with the expressive heroine’s cut scenes the developers tweaked a very important feature present in both versions of the game here: the hitbox.
Instead of Cotton’s entire sprite being vulnerable to attack: only the heart can be hit by enemy fire. This subtle but important change allows for a much more expressive game, with large beautiful sprites which can still be maneuvered through waves of enemy fire, and is a mechanic still in use for most shooters today. Personally as a long time shmup fan: I had an absolute blast with Cotton Reboot. Both the original and new Arranged versions have their own charm in presentation and gameplay styles. The level design is never so long that you feel bogged down, the enemies and bosses are fair and controls are tight. It offers a great risk / reward gameplay loop and encourages you to keep coming back.
What’s not to love?
Well actually there is one thing....
The price.
The list price is $40 USD on PS4 and Switch, and at this price point it is a hard bargain that only devoted fans of the series would likely jump at.
With the depth of options and modes, as well as basically two wholly different games: it is a fantastic collection that will be enjoyable to hardened veterans as well as offering inviting gameplay to shmup rookies as well. My advice: put it on your wish list, find it on sale, and enjoy a delightful and genre defining “cute ‘em up” with enough challenge and variety for anyone.
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