Thank you ININ Games for sending us a review code!

The original Cotton game released in 1991 and has spawned many sequels. This Shoot ‘em Up series was recently made available on the Nintendo Switch and I enjoyed reviewing them. My only complaint about the ports I have played recently is that some of them have not been localized and I have no idea what happens story-wise with the Japanese only voice acting and subtitles. I’m happy to report that Cotton Fantasy has English text.

Cotton Fantasy was released in Japan in 2021 with the title Cotton Rock ‘n’ Roll. When you first start the game, you’ll have to select your difficulty (Normal, Hard, Extra). Although you have a limited number of lives, you can continue after depleting them, but your score will be reset in the process. If you want your name to be on the leaderboard, you’ll have to “git gud’.

After selecting your difficulty, your next task will be choosing your playable character. Along with Cotton are other notable characters from other video game series and they all have different shooting patterns and special abilities. The available characters are:

Cotton – Straight shot that varies with different crystals, her special ability is to throw bombs
Appli – One to three bullet-wide shooting pattern that changes with crystals, her unique ability is to catch and throw enemies
Kawase – She can shoot multiple fish-shaped bullets that vary with crystals, her special ability allows her to catch and hook enemies with a lure
Ria – She has a spread shot and can use bombs like Cotton
Fine – She is a timer-based character with no lives! Crystals need to be collected to increase her lifespan/time.
Luffee – She shoots thin lasers which can be charged up. Luffee also has the ability to throw bombs.

Like other Cotton games, the world’s supply of Willow candies is diminishing due to a nemesis taking them all. Due to previous misadventures, Cotton has no interest in assisting Silk the fairy who has once again requested her assistance. However, once Cotton realizes that her beloved willow candy has vanished from their planet, she’s willing to lend a helping hand.

New to Cotton Fantasy is the ability to play the sixteen stages in any order you wish. Most of the levels have a boss waiting for you at the end so stay on your guard. Many of the enemies are brought back from the previous games, but with more detailed visuals! The levels vary between sky and cavern types. After defeating a boss, Cotton gets to collect falling tea and in the cavern levels, you have a chance to grab tea from the ground, but in the sky levels they’ll keep on falling and you’ll miss your chance to grab them for good. There are some third-person tea collecting levels that pay homage to the Panorama Cotton game.

The same moral issues from the previous Cotton games are present in Cotton Fantasy. Silk, the fairy has an aversion to modest clothing and flies around in a bikini. Fairy tale magic is used when attacking enemies. No blood or gore is present, but there is cartoon violence.

Cotton Fantasy captures all of the charm of the previous games in the series and I have no doubt that its fans will be pleased with this entry. Newcomers will appreciate the cute visuals and fun gameplay. Although a complete run-through may take less than an hour, there’s plenty of replay value with multiple characters, difficulty levels, and global leaderboard to compete for. The asking price of $40 is a bit high, but Cotton Fantasy is certainly worth checking out when it goes on sale!