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This Week in Games
Cotton Candy

by Heidi Kemps,

Howdy again, folks. Kind of a slow news week… kind of. It's more a case of “everything else in gaming news seems rather insignificant compared to the ongoing shitshow that is the Activision/Blizzard lawsuit and its fallout. When mainstream press outlets like The New York Times – who usually don't turn their eye to the inner goings-on of the game industry – are writing lengthy coverage of what's going on, it means it's kind of a big problem.

All of the negative press – combined with a high-profile employee walkout and a sharp decline in their stock price – have had Activision scrambling to do damage control, with Bobby Kotick himself being forced to backtrack and saying ATVI's initial response was “tone-deaf.” Yeah, no shit, Bobby! Also, we learned details about the Blizzcon employee “Cosby Suite” which is about as bad as you'd imagine, given that it was named after someone who later turned out to be a convicted rapist. (Big ol’ content warning there, by the way.)

I honestly hate writing about all of this, because talking about abuse and harassment in the game industry just feels so depressing and exhausting after a while. It's like an onion of awfulness that gets worse and worse the more layers you strip away. I'd much rather be making snarky jokes about Final Fantasy or whatever. But this situation is too big to ignore, and I think we'll definitely be feeling the fallout from Activision/Blizzard's miserable corporate culture in gaming for years to come.

The news isn't all bad, though! We had a few nice announcements courtesy of the folks at Idea Factory International, who have a nice little slate of releases for the rest of 2021 (and early 2022).

IDEA FACTORY BRINGS NINJAS, DEATH, AND SOME TRUE LOVIN’

Idea Factory International announced four titles during their Online Summer Festival broadcast. While most of the announcement came as little surprise, there was one I found to be quite a pleasant surprise. Let's take a look at the list of games, shall we?

Neptunia x Senran Kagura Ninja Wars is the headliner of the bunch. This action crossover has the busty, bouncy, clothes-in-constant-states-of-disrepair ninja girls of Senran Kagura joining forces with the Neptunia gang in yet another alternate-universe take on the world on Gamindustri – oh, sorry, Gamninjustri. This one is set to arrive sometime late this year for PS4.

The cult-favorite dungeon-crawling series Mary Skelter is about to reach its conclusion, and it's now got a confirmed release date: September 30th! (Europe will get it a day later on Oct 1st, but with timezones and all it's basically same-day.) You'll be able to grab this one on Switch and PS4.

Death End re:Quest 2 is already available for PS4 and PC, but there's a Switch version coming early next year! It includes all available DLC for the PS4/PC versions in the package, as well. If you want some dark RPG gameplay on the go (and couldn't get an order in for a Steam Deck), well, here you go!

Finally, we have the otome game Cupid Parasite! It's been a while since Idea Factory International's localized an otome game, so I'm glad to see them coming back to the genre with a very fun-looking title. In this game, you play as a heroine working for Cupid Corp, Los York's greatest matchmaking agency, charged with bringing love to 5 (surprisingly hunky) losers through a bizarre reality TV program. Sounds like an interesting premise to me, so I'll definitely be looking at this one. It'll be launching for the Nintendo Switch this fall.

ASSORTED NEWSBITS

There are some other noteworthy happenings this week. Let's go down the list!

  • Digimon Survive has apparently been delayed yet again, according to a Toei Animation financial report. It's now listed for a release in 2022. This game was first announced way, way back in 2018, so it's been dogged by delays for quite a while… and I'm sure the whole COVID thing hasn't helped. Even so, that's a lot of time and effort to be putting into a Digimon I predict that Digimon Survive is either going to be the greatest work of Digimon media mankind will ever witness or a hot, half-baked mess. We'll likely see which next year!
  • Fighting game news time! Athena's name is MAGIC, and she's sparkling her way back into King of Fighters XV, alongside teammates… Yuri and Mai? Huh. I wonder if that means Chin and Kensou have a new partner…
  • On August 3rd, CAPCOM will be broadcasting a Street Fighter V Champion Edition summer update stream over on Previously announced DLC characters Oro and Akira will no doubt be detailed further, and we'll likely get a glimpse of the final DLC cast addition. Will the Captain Sawada fans finally see their dream fulfilled?
  • Sony announced that the PS5 has sold 10 million units since launch. No word on what the breakdown is between disc/digital-only systems, or how many of that 10 million are in the garage of this asshat.

GAME IMPRESSIONS: COTTON REBOOT!

ININ Games is a publisher that localizes and releases the exact sort of games I love – old-school compilations, remasters, and revivals. Their most recent release (which they graciously provided a download code on Switch for) is an old-school shooter from a long-running, much-beloved Japanese series… that most genre fans in the West aren't familiar with. But it's okay, because if you're not familiar with the Cotton series, this is an excellent place to start.

Cotton was birthed in arcades in 1990 by Success Corporation, a storied developer with a lengthy and interesting history that's a bit too long for the scope of this article. Rather than the ships and mecha commonplace in scrolling shooters at the time, Cotton put you on the broom of its titular witch -- a powerful but selfish girl who gets roped into saving the fairy realm by her companion Silk, who promises her exotic candy if she helps out.

The visuals and goofy story were quite novel for the time, and Cotton was successful (ha) enough to spawn several arcade and console follow-ups, only one of which ever reached North America: a port of the arcade original to the TurboGrafx-16 CD. The characters, world, and narrative of Cotton were designed by veteran animator Hideki Tamura, who continues to be involved with the Cotton universe to this day – just recently, a new installment called Cotton Rock n’ Roll was announced for Switch, PS4, and arcade.

So Cotton Reboot!, as the name suggests, is an attempt to bring the original game to modern platforms and revamp it for modern audiences with new gameplay features. The basic premise is the same, as are the base gameplay mechanics: fly through stages, attack using Cotton's forward shot attack and Silk's downward bomb, collect crystals enemies drop, increase your EXP to power up your shot, and use powerful limited-use magic spells when necessary.

There are two primary game modes: Arrange mode and X68000 mode. Arrange mode features the bulk of the aforementioned gameplay improvements, while X68000 mode is a port of Cotton for a popular early-90s Japanese PC format (which is also a port of the arcade game, and a very good one at that). There are also timed score attack modes and the usual options you'd expect, along with an in-game manual narrated in full voiceover by the duo of Cotton and Silk themselves.

The original arcade Cotton was a very challenging game, and that difficulty is very much present in the X68000 mode. Juggling various magic crystals dropped by enemies while dodging attacks and managing your special powers takes a lot of practice and skill, despite the game's deceptive cuteness and simple control scheme. The large, extremely damage sponge-y bosses and tricky scrolling in later levels seem tailor-made to deprive you of your yen, and for shooter newbies, could prove to be quite frustrating.

But Arrange Mode is something else entirely. In fact, it feels like a brand-new game in a lot of ways. Power-ups are easier to grab, enemies don't tank your shots, and the magical crystals that enemies drop behave completely differently. Instead of dropping to the ground, the crystals hover in the air, refracting your bullets when shot and increasing their damage output. Hit enough enemies with these refracted shots, and you can activate a hyper-powered state which temporarily increases your refracted shot power immensely – along with giving you a tremendous score multiplier.

The new shot/crystal system, different enemy patterns, revamped magic spells, and kinder EXP system make Arrange Mode significantly easier to dive into than the original game, and the feel of blasting through a bunch of enemies while watching your score skyrocket is tremendously satisfying. That's not to say Arrange Mode is easy – those last few levels are still quite brutal – but it is significantly more accessible to folks who didn't grow up on a diet of R-Type and Gradius. And most importantly, it's really fun!

The redrawn visuals look great -- particularly the cutscenes, which are absolutely filled with 90s anime Good Faces -- and the arranged soundtrack by a wide selection of game music luminaries is also a nice audio treat. I do wish there were more options available, like replay saving and the ability to stage select levels you've cleared – I'd love to try and get a one-credit clear on this, but not being able to practice those last few levels by themselves makes that quite difficult. Overall, though, I think Cotton Reboot! is a winner: it's cute, charming, fun to play, and makes you want to come back over and over to improve. I'm glad Cotton is back, and I hope the next game builds on the strong foundation of Cotton Reboot!.

That wraps things up for this week! If you didn't read my review of NEO: The World Ends with You, go check that out! Hopefully those of you who bought it are enjoying the experience as much as I did. I'll be back next week with more news, opinions, and written screaming at the awful people in the games industry. Thanks for reading, and see you all again soon!


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