Cotton Reboot! aims for Switch and PS4 release this July

A beloved horizontal shooter is coming west in revived form, with swank collectible options to mark the occasion.

Hang around any group of shmup fans (who uniformly adore it when you describe a particular sort of game with that label) for long enough and someone is practically guaranteed to mention Cotton, a charming horizontal affair that appeared in arcades, on the Turbo CD and even on the X68000. Now, 30 years later, it is about to come west again in rebooted form.

Headed for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, platforms it has already reached in its native Japan, Cotton Reboot! will be published by retro-minded ININ Games. It was developed by some of the people involved with BEEP, a Japanese retro game store in Akihabara's electronics district that is well known to fans of such things.

Cotton Reboot! is a proper remaster, with updated visual designs that include hand-drawn HD graphics. There also are remixed soundtracks, with tunes you can enjoy across seven colorful stages loaded with "pixel perfect animation, sprites and backdrops."

Included in the package are Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams in the X68000 original mode, along with two additional game modes. Arrange mode offers 16:9 screens with redesigned graphics and characters, or you can try your hand at Score Attack mode to compete in 2-minute or 5-minute sessions with online rivals.

Cotton Reboot! is being offered in digital and physical editions, for all of your collecting needs. You can peruse physical options at the Strictly Limited Games Partner Shop, which offers a "Limited" edition with manual for €39.99 and a Collector's Edition for €79.99 that includes a tea set (!), original and remastered soundtrack, art book, shikishi and more besides.

Unfortunately, the Deluxe X68000 Collector's Edition is sold out due to high demand that appears to have developed before the publisher saw fit to distribute today's press release. So that's a bit of a bummer, but you can probably count on eBay resellers to swoop in and save the day with exorbiantly priced listings for those willing to pay a premium.

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Staff article by Jason Venter (June 24, 2021) Jason Venter has been playing games for 30 years, since discovering the Apple IIe version of Mario Bros. in his elementary school days. Now he writes about them, here at HonestGamers and also at other sites that agree to pay him for his words.