Developed By: Success, Kritzelkratz 3000
Published By: ININ
Categories: Retro, Shooter
Release Date: 05.09.24
Price: $19.99

We really are getting to the point where all of the Cotton games on the Nintendo Switch. That’s the thing that keeps me coming back to the console, almost entire series, plenty of them too, all can be played on just a little tablet. We’re at the last game before Reboot, the Dreamcast’s very own Rainbow Cotton! It might be my least favorite in the series though.

So lets start with some good. The series’ charm is here and in full force. If color in games is what you want, color in games is what you’ll get, and then some. Voiced (and now translated) animated cutscenes greet and wave goodbye to you in each of the game’s levels, of which can be pretty long, especially for a rail shooter. The in game graphics are cute and stand out as well. I can’t be the only one who misses earlier 3D graphics either.

Did you like Panorama Cotton? Good, because Rainbow Cotton is a sequel of sorts to that. Except not as good. I never quite had an issue with aiming and seeing what to shoot in Panorama. The speed could be problematic, but it was never an issue of actually shooting in a shooting game. With Rainbow, the game feels much slower, but Cotton herself feels like more of an obstacle than actual obstacles like walls, pillars, or boxes. In addition to this, the aiming has a bit of drift to it. Moving changes aim, but then regardless of position, if you stop, it’ll center. It makes trying to take down enemies with more HP or a fairy cage a bit more of a task than it should be. It should be said too, just hold down the fire button, don’t press repeatedly, just hold it down.

How much of a fan are you of shooters where if you get really far in a level, but die, you restart the entire level? Sure, you can just keep trying and there is a code to get infinite continues…one continue at a time, but it can be and is frustrating. Even worse, between levels, you can go without healing. There’s not very many at only five, but the developers very much made sure you wouldn’t be beating this game quickly. The levels can and will get absolutely overwhelming, but then bosses feel like a joke, even later in the game.

Rainbow Cotton has a decent handful of mechanics you’ll never to learn or at the very least adjust to. Not to mention, the controls have a surprising amount going on. Too bad there’s absolutely nothing to tell you about these. Considering this isn’t a physical release either, there’s no manual. This is not accessible at all and it makes for a poor introduction to the series or even to the game itself.

Final Thoughts

It’s a shame that Rainbow Cotton’s recent port/remaster just feels like not enough care was put into it. I know that’s not the case, porting games, especially Dreamcast games isn’t easy. I’m glad it’s finally playable for an affordable price and outside of Japan. However, the original game had issues, very glaring issues that this release does nothing to fix. You could argue it makes thing more faithful, but the whole point of re-releasing older, maybe flawed games is to enhance them. Not to mention, the game has a dedicated mode just to feel retro. Go wild with the standard mode. If a few things get ironed out, I’d feel more comfortable recommending this. Otherwise, unless you’re a collector or series mega-fan, just wait.