You wait ages for a Cotton sport, after which six arrive on PS4 directly, celebrating the collection’ thirtieth anniversary in 2021. Welcome to the Fairyland, the place developer Studio Saizensen has within the cauldron boiled and baked Cotton Fantasy: Superlative Evening Desires (Cotton Rock ‘n’ Roll in Japan) as an all-star horizontal shmup. The witch Cotton swoops on her broomstick — alongside a fairy referred to as Silk offering protecting choice satellites — to whimsical tunes via 2.5D background visuals that stretch past the anticipated haunted forests, depicting citadel gardens, historical ruins, an Egyptian Cotton stage, and even outer house.
But, maybe this candy deal with of a model new Cotton sport ought to’ve been left longer within the oven, as some extras have been lower in comparison with Cotton Reboot!. Whereas Cotton Fantasy has on-line leaderboards, it misses out by not together with the reboot’s two- or five-minute Time Assault modes, or the higher worth of extras just like the X68000 port of the unique Cotton.
Moreover, it solely has a Coaching Mode for every unlocked stage, whereas the choice for save states or rewind options would’ve given the participant extra alternative over their ability development, because the eight foremost selectable levels take 45 minutes to finish together with anime cutscenes (35 minutes of gameplay). There’s additionally a missed alternative to have included multiplayer, or expanded the brand new Argentum Clavem Tea Time levels to undertake Panorama Cotton’s fashion of 3D shooter gameplay, past amassing bonuses. With a digital price ticket of £34.99/$39.99, Cotton Fantasy’s in direct competitors with a pricier bullet hell launch like PS4’s Deathsmiles I･II, too.
The sport’s finest design alternative is how its number of playable characters considerably alters the gameplay mechanics. Cotton Fantasy’s Producer, Shinya Nagatomo, advised Concern 231 of Retro Gamer journal that “It is an all-star sport with not solely characters from different video games, but in addition new techniques from different Success video games”. This implies controlling Ria incorporates the chance/reward Buzz System from Psyvariar, and you may unlock enjoying as the ultimate boss character, Tacoot, with wand flinging skills. It is these deeper techniques, and unlockable levels that make Cotton Fantasy an intricate cute-’em-up that core shoot-’em-up followers will relish mastering and replaying.
