Game: Rainbow Cotton
Genre: Action, Arcade
System: Nintendo Switch (also available on Steam (Windows), PS4 and Xbox)
Developer|Publisher: Success | ININ games
Age Rating: EU 7 | US Everyone 10+
Price: US $19.99 | UK £17.99 | EU €19,99
Release Date: May 9th, 2024
A review code was provided, with many thanks to PR Hound.
Rainbow Cotton Retro Reborn
The friendly witch Cotton returns once again, this time in a 3D shooting adventure. For those who are new, the Cotton games are mostly 2D scrolling shooters. Only they have a friendly and charming look to them, putting them into the niche category of cute em up.
Since writing for Ladies Gamers, I have been grateful to have played through most of the series. Just when I thought we had our fill of Cotton releases, we got Rainbow Cotton. The revival of an old Dreamcast game which was exclusive to Japan. It’s very rare to see any Dreamcast game get a re-release to a modern system, so this will certainly appeal to retro enthusiasts. But for everyone else, I’m not sure Rainbow Cotton is the best entry in this series.
Willow Addict
If you have played any of the Cotton games, you can probably predict the plot of this game. You play as a witch called Cotton, who has an unhealthy obsession with a sweet (or candy) called a willow. To take advantage of this, the local fairies manipulate Cotton to fly around the kingdom to defeat the invading monsters, promising great willow rewards.
It’s a predictable plot that won’t deliver anything deep or meaningful, but it’s unlikely this will bother the series’ fans. Rainbow Cotton includes anime-style cutscenes with Japanese voice acting and subtitles in multiple languages. The cutscenes do look good, and the translation is appreciated, but they do go on a tad too long. Fortunately, they can be skipped.
Flying and Shooting
The gameplay is fairly straightforward. You fly around levels on your broom, defeating enemies and taking down a boss or two. The level will automatically scroll while you move Cotton around the screen, avoiding enemy fire and hazards. You can shoot a standard spell shot, which can be upgraded if you release fairies trapped throughout the level. If you value your sanity, I would recommend heading into the options and selecting ‘no’ for fairy voices. Otherwise, you’ll spend many levels listening to high-pitched chatter, which almost induced a migraine or three for me.
You can also collect coloured crystals, which will allow you to unleash a powerful spell that will cause significant damage to anything that gets in its path. These mechanics will all feel very familiar to fans of the series. Controls are easy to pick up, but Rainbow Cotton provides absolutely no tutorials nor even shows the controls in the options menu, which seems a bit harsh for fans new to the series. On replaying some of the levels on different playthroughs, I noticed you could take alternative paths through the levels, giving an incentive to replay the game, though I wasn’t entirely sure how I achieved this.
Niggles
Initially, I was taken in by the arcade vibes. But the more I played the game, the more the niggles began to sink in. Cotton’s movement on the broom is pretty slow, making it hard to evade hazards and enemy fire at times. The difficulty can spike quite harshly in some of the boss fights. Shooting just doesn’t feel as satisfying as the 2D games. It lacks a certain punch to it, and the spells you cast felt quite underpowered. One of my biggest niggles is if you die before reaching the boss, you will have to restart from the very beginning of the level, which felt incredibly tedious for an arcade game.
What’s New Compared to the Original
Compared to the original game, enhancements made to this game include a lock-on feature when shooting enemies. Essentially, a helpful yellow reticle will highlight the enemy you are locked onto, making it easier to see what you are targeting. Graphics, of course, have been smoothed out to work on modern systems. Rainbow Cotton also features a local co-op mode so you can head through the campaign with a friend. Lastly, you can run through the original game in its authentic form without tweaking the gameplay or using a CRT filter. The game feels like it could have done with many more additions, such as save states, rewind features or providing some additional gameplay tweaks.
Colourful Nostalgia in Rainbow Cotton
Graphically, the game looks beautiful. Rainbow Cotton is colourful and vibrant; even with its low poly feel, it still looks great today. The game has an upbeat soundtrack to go with its positive vibes. As someone who used to own a Dreamcast, it really touched the nostalgia for me. Performance is also good in TV and handheld modes.
Conclusion: Somewhere Over The Rainbow
Rainbow Cotton is okay but not great. The developers have had a valiant crack at bringing the game to Nintendo Switch and adding a few modern touches. Unfortunately, some core problems with the game still persist. Like many games that started strong in 2D, the transition to 3D hasn’t worked great for Cotton. Shooting doesn’t feel that satisfying; movement is sluggish, and difficulty is very unbalanced in places. The game does shine with its presentation and graphics.
Overall, I settled on liking the game myself. But I would say this is really only for the retro and die-hard Cotton fans. If you’re starting your Cotton adventure, I would suggest trying Cotton Reboot and circling back to this if the series clicks with you.
Final Verdict: I Like it
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