Cotton Reboot!

Cotton Reboot! is a very pretty and highly enjoyable remake of one of the shmup genre’s most pioneering cute ’em ups — as endearing today as it has ever been while featuring surprisingly deep mechanics for score attack fanatics. It’s a shame a threadbare package, a subjectively high price, and distracting visual issues frequently threaten to spoil the party. For dedicated shmup heads, however, Cotton Reboot is an enjoyable blast from the past that comfortably paves the way for the sweet series’ incoming revival.

Pleasingly, developer Rocket Engine also included the 1993 X68000 Japanese computer port of the original 1991 Cotton coin-op for retro and pixel art fans who want to return to the classic game by Success. The spellbinding arranged soundtrack is also a truly Fantastic Night Dreams collection of talented all-star Japanese composers, and you can unlock listening to the altered tunes and a demo of the story in the Visual & Sound menu option. Even if Fantasy Zone was released earlier than Cotton, and if Parodius is arguably better known in the cute-'em-up subgenre, Cotton Reboot! is a Success-ful retro remake to bewitch you into being sweet on the Cotton series.

Bewitching in both incarnations, Cotton's Reboot! is a fanfare of zany ghouls and ghosts, inventive and inimitable bosses, and a superbly catchy soundtrack in both original and remixed forms. Never being released in the west and prohibitively expensive today, it's something of a blessing for retro gamers to be able to dip their toes in Cotton's enduringly impressive X68000 outing. Of all the "cute 'em ups" out there, it remains one of the best, while the new Arrange mode – with its impressive overhauls and remixed ideas – has cast a rare spell of resurrection.

Cotton Reboot! is a fantastic re-imagining of a classic side-scrolling shooter.

While Cotton Reboot! may not make much sense for those that aren’t appreciative of shoot-em-ups, it’s a good blast from the past when it comes to revisiting the series. The new Arrange mode is awesome and really shows off some great detail; the bonus goodies are worth unlocking; and the presentation is pretty cool for a game of this type. Even if you’ve never heard of Cotton before, you owe it to yourself to give it a look. Who knows, she just might win you over. Or maybe Silk will. Or maybe they both will…?

With fresh, detailed graphics, easily approachable gameplay, and a stellar arranged soundtrack, this is certainly a good place to start for players wanting to experience a historic piece of the genre. Although extra content is lacking, the game remains true to the original and offers an updated experience that will please both series veterans and newcomers alike.

If you've never heard of Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams, that's no reason to ignore Cotton Reboot! You need not be a retro gamer to appreciate this shoot 'em up's excellent arcade/action gameplay, you just need to be a fan of cute, upbeat fun.

The only flaws are the length of the game and price. It’s short, but perfectly short. Cotton Reboot! features 6 stages and one final boss which is the normal length for an arcade game, especially from the early 90’s. I couldn’t put this game down for hours after I started playing.

I played through both options in Cotton Reboot, and was glad I did. I barely have any knowledge of the X68000 whatsoever, and this was an illuminating peek into that chapter of gaming history.

Cotton Reboot! revives the 90s cute ‘em up with a nice lick of HD paint but the steep price for the short amount of content can be hard to recommend. The new visual style can also make things hard to see when on-screen action gets busy which ends up leading to some cheap deaths. If you catch this one on sale though and enjoy shoot ‘em ups, being able to play the original version and the new HD one is worth it for fans of this genre.