Import Review: Marchen Adventure Cotton 100%
Cotton is a cute ‘em up series created by Success and featuring a young broom-riding witch. The original game was released in arcades and was later ported to the PC Engine, Sharp X6800, and even the Neo Geo Pocket Color. Several years later, the game was tweaked and released for the Super Famicom with a new name: Marchen Adventure Cotton 100%. Hit the jump for our review.
Cotton 100% is a horizontal shooter, and is pretty standard in that regard - shoot the enemies that attack, fight the miniboss, shoot some more bad dudes, then fight the boss. A bit like Gradius, you can shoot straight ahead or lob a bomb downwards. You also have a powerful but finite set of special moves, like a dragon that swoops across the screen and destroys everything in its path, a lightning storm, or a shield of bubbles. There’s a diversity of enemies, from one-shot-kills popcorn targets to guys that take several shots and bombs to get rid of.
The game’s controls are perfect. Zipping around the screen and dodging bullets is no problem at all. Some aspects of the controls are really impressive. For example, when you lob a bomb, you can move forward to throw it further or move backward to toss it right in front of you. This makes accurately shooting enemies a breeze.
The original Cotton had a sometimes-cute art style, but a lot of the characters were dark and creepy. It’s a very Halloween-y series, but the first game was probably a little too strange. The Super Famicom version swaps the dark color palette for a more colorful one and replaces some gruesome characters with easier to stomach ones. I think it’s definitely a change for the best, especially taking into consideration the super-deformed character designs and goofy cutscenes.
The game’s stages are cliche but have so much character that I can let it slide. You’ve got you forest level, lava level, water level, ice level, et cetera. But each stage has some neat twist. For example, the water level has bubbles that pop up and give you extra points if you rub against them and the lava level has volcanoes that you have to dodge.
The game’s audio is pretty strange. Some songs are forgettable while others are catchy, but they all have an annoying warbling effect to them. I’m assuming this is some sort of bug. But other than that, the audio is unobtrusive. It won’t blow you away, but it won’t drive you crazy either.
Cotton 100% is an easy game if you quarter feed, but trying to 1CC the game is a challenge. Some of the bosses are tricky and if you miss picking up extra lives or special weapons, you’re pretty much screwed. It took me about two or three weeks to clear the game without continuing.
I definitely recommend Cotton 100% for anyone who’s searching for a looked-over shooter and owns a Super Famicom or SNES with an adapter. It’s definitely one of the most enjoyable shmups of the system, and is up there with the great shooters of the 16-bit era. I’d even say the series has had a bit of an influence on other shooter developers. Deathsmiles seems very much inspired by Cotton. So if you’re fan of Cave’s only localized shooter, or just want to play something out of left field, check out Cotton 100%. You can pick it up on eBay for around $25 (cart only).
