Cotton

~ COTTON ~

Success / Hudson Soft

Super CD-ROM

1993

A few years had passed since I last played through Cotton, and when I finally revisited it for this review, I could recall pretty much nothing about it. I guess that isn't really a good sign, but at least everything seemed fresh during this go.

Cotton doesn't have the fast feel of a Thunder Force nor the memorization requirements of an R-Type. I suppose it's comparable to Air Zonk, since it has "chunky" sprites and leans towards the cute/cartoony side of things. There's nothing challenging about it aside from initial encounters with a boss or two, but there's plenty to shoot at.

The music is pretty nice, really catchy at times (Stage 2's theme is the best), and Success did some cool things with the visuals (such as the shaking terrain at the end of Stage 1 and the wavy background during the graveyard boss fight).

There are also some amusing scenes (I'm hesitant to call them cinemas) between stages. The witch is a real nut. It's funny to watch her going crazy one minute and then sobering up and apologizing to a defeated boss the next. And by the way, in the Japanese version, you can indeed view the text that accompanies these scenes in English.

Well, I probably won't remember anything about the game in two weeks' time, but it was fun while it lasted; and I think it'll be enjoyable again when I revisit it a few years from now. Don't expect good value per your buck if you spend a lot on the US version, but if you're thinking about buying the affordable JPN release, then I say go for it.