Cotton Fantasy Nintendo Switch Review

The west has seen releases of a few Cotton Games over the past twelve months. It no surprise that that we have another now. Cotton Fantasy is the latest in the franchise and like all previous titles the graphics are cute and colourful. Being released 30 years after the first Cotton game released this sees some modern-day touches added to give an experience for the 21^st Century. Let us see if it lives up to expectations.

Publisher: InIn Games
Developer: Success Corporation
Release Date: 20 May 2022

Thanks to the publisher for the review code.

It’s a Kind of Magic

You take control of Cotton, who is a witch who loves sweets called Willows. Willows are not your normal sweets as they contain magic and even can grants wishes. Cotton is happy until one day she is informed that all her favourite sweets are disappearing from her home and it is up to Cotton to save the day by going on the hunt for the mystical ones. Without delay she is on her broom and off to save the sweets.

Story Time

The story is played out using cutscenes, but instead of animation they are static. There is also a narrator telling the story, but this is not in English and it is translated with English Dub. The story itself is told from the perspective of Cotton which is the same no matter which character you decide to choose. The cut scenes can be disabled if you have no interest in the story and just want to get into the action.

Shoot’em Up for the Win

The gameplay is your basic horizontal shooter with eight stages. There is 8-direction control scheme with a fire button for special ammo and regular bullets. There is nothing to complex here and the game will be easy to pick up and play whatever age you are. You have six different characters to choose from as well as a secret unlockable character which I won’t spoil for anyone. Each of the characters have their own scoring abilities and different playstyles which give different special abilities.

Not Too Hard Please

There are three different difficulty settings which are Normal, Hard and Extra. You also have your score uploaded to a online scoreboard, which are different for each character so this is good to have a target to aim which gives a good replayability. There is a handy training mode so you can learn all about the game, including patterns and scoring points.

Looks Matter

While the graphics are cute and colourful, unfortunately the 3d models lack any details like cel-shading to make the characters standout. It looks good but could have looked better. The soundtrack is brilliant and adds to the atmosphere of the game nicely.

Final Thoughts

Cotton Fantasy is the latest in the franchise. It does offer a great gaming experience and the gameplay is fun. The story is fun, but the biggest draw is the horizontal shooting. If you enjoyed the previous Cotton games then this is a worthy purchase, especially here in the west.