Cotton Fantasy Reviews
Cotton Fantasy is a beautiful love-letter to the best parts of an iconic, decades-old shoot-em-up franchise. The characters are cuter than ever, the shooting is funner than ever, and the wide variety of play styles and bonus stages to master makes this a game worth returning to plenty of times over.
The game's best design choice is how its variety of playable characters significantly alters the gameplay mechanics. Cotton Fantasy's Producer, Shinya Nagatomo, told Issue 231 of Retro Gamer magazine that "It's an all-star game with not only characters from other games, but also new systems from other Success games". This means controlling Ria incorporates the risk/reward Buzz System from Psyvariar, and you can unlock playing as the final boss character, Tacoot, with wand flinging abilities. It's these deeper systems, and unlockable stages that make Cotton Fantasy an intricate cute-'em-up that core shoot-'em-up fans will relish mastering and replaying.
While staying true to the series that it extends, Cotton Rock 'n' Roll / Fantasy brings so many different experiences in a single shmup that it may as well be a compilation release - and unlike the arcade versions, it is all presented in English language. The more time you give it, the more the replay value snowballs. The faults to be found are few and far between, while sharp level design and a joyful, even mischievous personality define Success' latest. Simply put, Cotton Fantasy has a lot of fun to give.
Overall Cotton Fantasy may be a short game with average playthroughs lasting about 30-40 minutes. But with 7 characters to play as and added difficulty it definitely adds a lot of replayability and if this a taste of what the Cotton franchise will continue as then fans of this series have every right to be excited to see what comes next.
Cotton Fantasy: Superlative Night Dreams is a bit pricey for the time it takes to get to the end. However, it's a shoot-em-up. It's not about getting through a story, it's about shooting baddies and getting a high score. Fans of shmups (and of the recently revitalized Cotton in particular) will have some fun with this one.
Cotton Fantasy nicely follows up on the reboot while also sticking too close to the formula, feeling like an extension of what the reboot was visually and in terms of gameplay.
Cotton Fantasy: Superlative Night Dreams is a super fun and adorable shoot 'em up with tons of crazy action, a variety of unique characters and beautiful-looking 2D stages to challenge, and is sure to keep you busy attempting to get on the leaderboard!
Cotton Fantasy is a great new entry in this classic shoot ‘em up franchise that should please any fan of the genre. It’s colorful, fun, and offers up a range of different playstyles thanks to the varied playable characters. My biggest gripes against it are that it just doesn’t have much for extra modes or gameplay features which could be a tough pill to swallow for those who see the current asking price. Whether you play it now or sometime in the future though, Cotton Fantasy is a great time and I hope we see further new entries in the franchise moving forward.
Cotton Fantasy is a typical shmup at its core and follows the good old "shoot first, ask questions later" rule. It does not reinvent anything, it uses the best models of everything that came before in the genre and adds it all to the instant charisma of its protagonist and all the characters that surround her in a simple story about sweets.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
If you’re after a shoot ’em up that’s bold, colourful and offers plenty of replayability, you can’t really go wrong with Cotton Fantasy. For those new to the genre it will simply be fun working your way through its stages, doing your best to survive. But for veterans out there, there’s a high skill ceiling and a robust scoring system, presenting hours of fun to be had.
After over 20 years, Cotton Fantasy was worth the wait as it's bursting with enjoyable shmup gameplay set in a bubbly and very silly world. Plus, the fact that it features such a diverse-playing cast of characters is sweeter than a bowl full of Willow.
There’s no doubt that the Switch has been a system blessed with some very strong retro representation, and a specific genre that has seen a lot of great titles come out of the woodwork has been shooters...
Cotton Fantasy remains a game that is fairly consistent in style and comfortable to its origins, perhaps even too much so. The experience is challenging and the introduction of new styles of gameplay bring a fresh look to the series, but it still lacks more, especially for a 30-year legacy.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Cotton Fantasy is a shoot-em-up title celebrating the thirty-year anniversary of the Cotton franchise. With multiple playable characters and sixteen stages, I was excited to see whether I ended up enjoying my first experience in the franchise. Find out if I did in this Rapid Review.
"Hard and expensive candy."
Review in Finnish | Read full review
I was hoping for more content in Cotton Fantasy but I am excited to see the franchise be given new life through ports, remakes, and whole new games.
All in all, Cotton Fantasy keeps the series tradition of providing plenty of eye candy and a pushover level of challenge that should please newcomers to the genre even though veterans might find themselves somewhat bored by the straight ahead approach that the franchise is known for and it kept intact in this new entry. Regardless of where you stand, there’s no denying Cotton Fantasy is one heck of a charming little game any way you look at it.
Cotton Fantasy is a great choice for any shmup fan or anyone new to the genre: the carefully balanced difficulty modes and option for unlimited continues mean that anyone can enjoy it, but there's also ample scope for would-be experts to hone their graft and gain their bragging rights. It's also a game testimony to the Nintendo Switch as the ultimate platform for the genre. These games may have been born in the arcade, but given their pick-up-and-play nature, they were made for a system like this.
Cotton Fantasy is an excellent tribute to the series and a beautiful gift for its 30 years anniversary, keeping all the magic of its legacy. A classic that continues to please both lovers of the genre and those who just like to play it casually.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
It’s a fun time, and it’s great to see Cotton back after so long. Trying to shove so many different gameplay styles for all of these guest characters was definitely ambitious and I applaud the developers for trying, but next time around I’d much rather they focus on moving this series forward and making the best Cotton game they can.