Developer Success’s flagship franchise since 1991, Cotton‘s enigmatic Halloween world and cutesy-witchy theme struck a chord with followers of the shoot-’em-up style. Its zany premise of broomsticking throughout badlands in quest of scrumptious sweet, coupled with a magical combine of colored gem grabbing, weapon power-ups, flashy bomb assaults, and mouthy fairies, have been staples in each instalment because the starting.
Bar one pachinko outlier, most Cotton video games observe the identical 2D horizontal taking pictures format, together with 2021’s Cotton Fantasy: Superlative Night time Desires. However with Panorama Cotton, a 1994 Mega Drive unique and one of many system’s most technically spectacular titles, Success switched the motion to a 3D perspective, plotting the digital camera behind Cotton’s again. It delivered a House Harrier-style dynamic throughout eye-bleedingly vibrant levels, often with various paths. Regardless of being a graphical showcase for the system, it wasn’t as critically well-received as its predecessors, by no means appeared abroad (till 2021), and had a famously low print run.
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Nonetheless, Success needed yet another try on the 3D rail-shooter format, conceptualising a brand new sport for Sega’s Dreamcast. A comparatively new staff labored across the clock for months earlier than launching Rainbow Cotton in 2000. Now, ININ Video games has pinched it from the again catalogue and given it a full HD makeover. As vibrant as ever and impressively crisp, it is now tailored for widescreen and options a number of key gameplay enhancements.
All of the animated cutscenes at the moment are subtitled in English, however the in-game fairy chatter stays untranslated and is truthfully somewhat intrusive. Fortunately, it may be turned off within the choices. Elsewhere, a two-player co-op mode has been added, though that is extra a novelty the place a second participant can management Cotton’s fairy possibility, Silk, by homing in on varied targets. The untampered unique can also be current, sitting underneath the ‘Retro Mode’ possibility – a properly emulated bonus for lovers.
When the Cotton sequence is at its peak, it is a enjoyable, wacky, however well-considered affair providing a weapon enhancement ladder and an financial system of magic assaults obtainable by biking gem colors. Rainbow Cotton has the identical allure and far the identical construction, however because of its perspective shift, much less of the readability. This can be a completely different sort of sport, one which depends on motion, set items, and arcade chaos.
![Rainbow Cotton Review - Screenshot 3 of 5](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/147717/900x.jpg)
What Rainbow Cotton does scream from the rooftops, nevertheless, is an unbelievable quantity of ambition. Success’s staff, regardless of being largely newcomers, went all-in to make a blinding affair filled with fantasy spectacle and spectacular boss encounters. The place Panorama Cotton did a superb job scaling flat objects on the Mega Drive, Rainbow Cotton has the benefit of absolutely realised 3D worlds coupled with the Dreamcast’s scrumptious polygon engine. And it positively pops with its excessive definition, widescreen scrub-up. The night-lit Christmas-themed opening stage, peppered with little homes and breakable barrels in regards to the cobblestone path, actually hits the suitable atmospheric notes. The rail soars you above an infinite pink ocean and underwater right into a misplaced, sunken metropolis. It emerges from dank, lava-pooled caves into sun-bathed fields and villages.
It solely has 5 levels and an prolonged ultimate boss encounter, however these levels are lengthy and plagued by attention-grabbing options and secrets and techniques. The boss fights are nicely thought out, for essentially the most half, and there are completely different paths to take, too, permitting the marketing campaign to be performed a number of other ways. Arrows spotlight moments the place you possibly can go left or proper, up or down, or shoot indicators to ship you down fully new routes and up in opposition to new mid-bosses. The primary stage’s break up path happens on the city sq., the place you are beckoned both proper or left by two store fronts: head left and also you tackle a practice assault over a railway bridge, its reworking compartments crammed with cannon-wielding enemies; or head proper to the river for a sterner problem in opposition to a large pumpkin mid-boss.
![Rainbow Cotton Review - Screenshot 4 of 5](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/147716/900x.jpg)
You may have a restricted quantity of freedom to roam the display screen, however, whilst you cannot direct the digital camera fully, you possibly can shift the motion relying on the obtainable house, in addition to steer by means of particular gaps and underneath or over objects. You bounce off of surroundings must you collide with it, and it does not value any well being. At greatest, it momentarily disrupts your flight line, requiring you to rapidly get your bearings. Your crosshair represents your firing line, and you may maintain the button for autofire or faucet it for a barely quicker, extra damaging shot.
Your purpose is to make use of stage one to energy up as a lot as doable, making bosses an incredible deal simpler. When gold-coloured floating jugs seem, simply noticed by the face adorning their entrance, you possibly can shoot them for bonuses. Some carry additional fairies, which circle you want choices and fly off to assault enemies in your behalf, in addition to well being objects, factors, or critically, gems. Like all Cotton titles, the preliminary yellow gem powers up your shot and it is crucial you seize as many as doable, ideally forgoing magic fully on the primary stage. In any other case, the gems change color when struck, permitting you to seize pink, blue, or inexperienced for varied magic bomb assaults. A few of these rain an electrical energy storm down on the display screen, others name on a meteor bathe.
![Rainbow Cotton Review - Screenshot 5 of 5](https://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/147714/900x.jpg)
Profiting from the bonus jugs is integral to beating the sport. You usually have to coach your hearth on them whereas all the pieces else is occurring round you, which will be tough in later levels. If you happen to do not hold taking pictures the jugs they ultimately head previous you, off-screen and out of vary. Fortunately, top-of-the-line new options on this HD remaster is a brand new lock-on capacity, whereby holding the button lets you hint a goal onto an enemy. As soon as performed, your fairy choices will hone in on these particular targets. Meaning when a jug seems, your fairies will hold it in play and doling out power-ups whilst you care for all the pieces else round you. It might appear a easy additional, but it surely’s so sensible, intelligent, and vital an addition that it immediately elevates this to the definitive model of the sport. Bear in mind the lock-on and different new options, resembling boss well being bars, are absent in Retro Mode.
Rainbow Cotton was by no means thought-about a nice sport, however there is definitely an excellent sport in right here, it simply takes somewhat dedication to eke out. Considered one of its major points is that Cotton obscures a good quantity of the display screen. You’ll be able to’t really see what’s immediately in entrance of you if you’re flying straight, and there is a certain quantity of guesswork concerned with this. House Harrier, for instance, has the identical downside, however that sport has far much less taking place than Rainbow Cotton, the place you are making use of your self to a number of duties concurrently. It isn’t overly tough to be taught, and the brand new widescreen format makes issues lots simpler to deal with, however it should nonetheless take a number of concerted efforts to settle into.
Conclusion
Though there’s room for enchancment in ININ’s presentation, and it could have been good to get a number of extra bonus unlockables, that is nonetheless one of the best model of Rainbow Cotton round because of its silky clean body charge, beautiful upscaling, widescreen formatting, and all-important gameplay enhancements. It is a enjoyable, at instances spectacular, novelty journey within the Cotton universe, that may often really feel complicated and cluttered. Keep it up, although, and an satisfying and genuinely charming rail shooter bubbles to the floor.