Mini Review: Cotton Reboot! (PS4) - Spooky Cute-'Em-Up's an Elaborate and Accessible 2D Shooter

I'm going to check in on the comments here for a little bit, because I always like to hear what Push Square's community thinks about retro games and remakes like Cotton Reboot!, but I'm heading out to visit family for a few days, so I won't be as active as normal discussing the comments about my review.

I'm especially curious to hear what people think about the Japanese composers who worked on the remixed music, though, as to me Cotton Reboot!'s soundtrack represents a long history of game music talent.

Also, I'm interested in other people's thoughts about the intricacies of Cotton Reboot!'s shmup mechanics. For example, just as a quick list, this includes aspects like: bomb levels, collecting black crystals for points, different coloured crystals as sources of magic, EXP gauge, fairy attack special move, magic levels increasing, middle bosses, shots through crystals diffusing to become more powerful, six support fairies, and your score rising by avoiding hits with a level counter on the lower left.

I'll post comments over the next few hours, but I'll also check back here to read people's thoughts when I get home on Sunday.
Cheers everyone.

As I've mentioned, I love the upbeat and chirpy remixed soundtrack in Cotton Reboot!, so here's a list of the Japanese composers who I reference as being an all-star group in this Mini Review. Also, note that the original composer of 1991's Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams was Kenichi Hirata.

• Stage 1 music by Kenichi Arakawa: There's a cute-'em-up Jaleco game called Game Tengoku: The Game Paradise!, and it's my understanding that Kenichi Arakawa composed for this shmup, as well as Success' Psyvariar Delta, just like Tetsuro Sato and Daisuke Matsumoto below.
• Stage 2 music by Hiroyuki Kawada: The music that stood out for me when researching about Hiroyuki Kawada was his Namco work, which included funky and alien sounding tunes in arcade Galaga '88, and he's also listed as one of the composers of the PS1's music for Tekken 3.
• Stage 3 music by Tetsuro Sato: Like Daisuke Matsumoto below, Tetsuro Sato has experience writing shmup tunes, having worked on shoot-'em-ups like Raiden IV: OverKill, Psyvariar 2 and Psyvariar Delta. There are chunky and wailing guitar riffs aplenty in Cotton Reboot!'s Stage 3 music.
• Stage 4 music by Daisuke Matsumoto: Matsumoto fits well with Cotton Reboot! to arrange shooter tunes, like Tetsuro Sato above, as Matsumoto not only works with Success, but also composed for CAVE, so he made music for games like Psyvariar Delta and Pink Sweets.
• Stage 5 music by Shinji Hosoe: A notable contributor to me, because Shinji Hosoe composed music for arcade Ridge Racer, although Hosoe also has a large list of games that he's worked on from Dragon Spirit to Cyber Sled, through to Street Fighter EX, and many more. Hosoe's Stage 5 music is fast, melodic and catchy!
• Stage 6 music by Koichi Namiki: In my eyes it was Koichi Namiki's music for the arcade racer Super Hang-On that was a highlight, although Namiki also worked on other SEGA arcade games, like Thunder Blade. Stage 6 is another rockin', guitar wailing, solo shreddin' track, like in Stage 3.
• Stage 7 (Final Boss Stage) music by Hisayoshi Ogura: From working at Taito, Hisayoshi Ogura stands out to me for writing the 'Daddy Mulk' track for the arcade game The Ninja Warriors. He was part of Zuntata, Taito's house band, and Ogura fits well with Cotton Reboot! to be remixing a shmup's music, because he also worked on tunes for the Darius series.

One other point I'd like to discuss before I head off is how retro games often have a number of different developers and publishers involved to get them to market nowadays, and how release dates vary between digital and limited physical versions. More companies working together hopefully means more money to invest in development and promotion, so quality retro games get more exposure, but finding a game at launch can be a bit confusing as a result.

Obviously, the main developer of the Cotton games is Success, but a Japanese video game store called BEEP was also an important part of the release of Cotton Reboot!. BEEP also worked with a developer called Rocket Engine, who I believe was involved in the 1993 X68000 Cotton port.

I had my eye on the October release of the physical version of Cotton Reboot! from Strictly Limited Games for a while, but I missed the PS Store's PS4 digital release of Cotton Reboot!, which is listed as coming out a month ago for £34.99 on Friday 25th June 2021, under the publisher name United Games Entertainment GmbH.

Therefore, I was chuffed Push Square contacted me about this Mini Review, because I think there was an impetus for ININ Games to promote the widespread 20th July 2021 release date of the PS4 physical version of Cotton Reboot!, and the western release on Switch. I think it's cool if retro games get more publicity through releases being shared between different publishers and limited editions — especially when indie games don't always appear in PS Store sales, or when quality, but niche digital releases disappear amongst the PS Store's plethora of cheap retro-style games in its constantly updating storefront — so physical versions can result in a game getting more promotion.

It's a shame when retro releases become lost, though, for example Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Ghoul Patrol has released on Switch, but the planned PS4 release of this collection is nowhere to be found on the PS Store.

I'll check back here on Sunday. Thanks again, everyone.

@Dan_ozzzy189 I remember looking at Jamestown+ when I saw it on the PS Store, but I haven't bought it yet.

I've just read Push Square's Jamestown+ review by Ryan Oehrli, and I watched its trailer again, so I like its visual style – which has an imaginative sci-fi setting of historical figures fighting a war on a New World colony on Mars — plus it looks like it has the possibility of four player co-op, which is an interesting mix for a shoot-'em-up.

Cheers!

@SoulChimera Thanks right back at you!

I've been fortunate with my Push Square reviews this year, because just like with the Cotton Reboot! OST, I've been able to review retro games that involve legendary composers.

For example, Turrican Flashback had really cracking tunes by Chris Huelsbeck, and Battle Axe had an ace soundtrack by Manami Matsumae, who composed music for retro Capcom games.
Lucky me, eh!

I hope you enjoy Cotton Reboot!, and that you got the chance to play Cotton 2 this weekend, like you mentioned.

@Robocod Yet again you have a reply with quality retro knowledge, which I always appreciate, bud!

A mystery is a good way to describe the lack of Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Ghoul Patrol on the PS4's PS Store. As you've suggested, I think that a digital version of this collection will still turn up on PS4 eventually.

I've pre-ordered a transparent green cartridge of the Genesis version of Zombies Ate My Neighbors from Limited Run Games – some people prefer the SNES version, but I quite like always being able to clearly look at things like health, ammo and the radar on the side of the screen in the Genesis/Mega Drive game, even if it necessitates a black border at the side of the screen.

I wonder if I'll be playing my Genesis version before it turns up on PS4.

@Flaming_Kaiser I like the Japanese voices, and I'm fine with Cotton Reboot! being limited to single player, especially since both of these things are rooted in its origins as a Japanese game, and link to Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams being a one player only arcade game in 1991.

I try to think about what readers may expect when they spend their money on games, so I aim to provide the information they'll need before a purchase, but everyone has such individual tastes that I have to consider Cons that don't particularly niggle me personally.

I actually had extra points in this review, where I explained that it was nit-picking to discourage people from trying Cotton Reboot! just because it doesn't have English voices, or for only being 35 minutes long, but I cut those sentences out to keep my Mini Review more concise and snappy.

I would've preferred Cotton Reboot! to have included save states or an unlockable stage select, though, because I really enjoy practicing specific stages in a shmup, and learning enemy patterns in later levels, one stage at a time.

Also, I love retro games getting a physical release on PS4, as well — so I enjoyed the 'LRG3 2021: Announcing Thirty Physical Games' presentation as a part of E3 this year – and I've ordered a physical version of Zombies Ate My Neighbors and Ghoul Patrol from Limited Run Games, too.

@Arnna I'm pleased that you asked this question, because you've highlighted an interesting transition in the development of the Cotton series in the 1990s.

Cotton Reboot! is not the same game as Panorama Cotton.

Cotton Reboot! contains two horizontal scrolling shoot-'em-up games, which are both based upon Success' original, single player 1991 Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams coin-op. The first is an Arrange Mode game that is a remake of the original, and the second is the X68000 Mode game, which was a 1993 conversion of the original arcade machine on a Japanese home computer called the Sharp X68000. These are strictly side-scrolling shmups.

Panorama Cotton, however, was a 1994 Japanese Mega Drive game, which was still developed by Success. It's interesting, because it's a pseudo-3D, on-rails shooter, in a similar vein to SEGA's Space Harrier. Panorama Cotton was praised for its use of sprite-scaling and 3D effects on SEGA's 16-bit console.