Cotton Reboot: PS5 Review

Developed by BEEP and Rocket Engine
Published by Clear River Games
Platform: PS5

One of Japan's apparently most recognisable cute'em up franchises, the Cotton series debuted in Japanese arcades back in 1991.

In Cotton Reboot!, you get to take control of young witch Cotton as she heads through various environments, blasting her way through whatever perils are pushed in front of her. However, in this side-scrolling actioner, you're not alone as you've got fairy companion Silk to accompany you and help get magical crystals to defeat the hordes of creatures and end of level bosses heading your way.

It's a very familiar side-scrolling horizontal shooter which sees you taking Cotton on a journey through waves of enemies and bosses. Much like Apidya Special did recently, the game follows a tried and true formula - shoot, bomb enemies, collect crystals and repeat. It's not exactly rocket science but there's a bit of strategy to be had when firing, given that the crystals offer up access to different elemental spells that unleash various levels of deadliness on your enemies.

At its heart, Cotton Reboot is really just a very simple game that requires a bit of thought, precision and some button-pressing. But it does it all in such a colourful way that the game has a lot of charm and enjoyment if you're just simply wanting to sit back and shoot.

Along with a HD Reboot mode which offers up some enhanced visuals and a remixed OST, the game's smooth gameplay makes this addictive and easy. Though if you want to make things harder, playing against the Nightmare Mode is a lot harder and infinitely more challenging. It's also a lovely touch that, like Apidya Special, just a flick of a mode can transport you back to the original X68000 version and its old-school graphics.

Cotton Reboot! may not be the most sophisticated of games, but this witchy cute-em-up does cast a spell when you'd least expect it to.