I am no Cotton expert, and can only judge this game on its own merits as opposed to how it stacks up with the rest of the series... but goddamn is it addictive. A harmony of well-crafted, diverse levels, an easy-to-understand-but-difficult-to-master scoring system, and unfussy control and gameplay. You essentially do not have to dodge in this game if you score it properly -- and scoring is what makes it truly fun (something I would not, personally, say of very many shoot-em-ups).

The other thing that Cotton Fantasy has going for it is its massive amount of content. I played the game with one character (Cotton) using one route (the standard one) and had a blast. There are, however, 7 other characters to experiment with, each with its own style / gimmick that fundamentally affects the gameplay, and six secret stages that you're able to swap into a run in place of a standard one. There were a couple stages I really disliked (fuck Blue Sky) so I'm looking forward to exploring alternatives.

There are some visibility and hitbox issues that bugged me (background elements appearing dangerous but actually being harmless or vice versa; boss hitboxes being WAY smaller than their sprites) but with a little replaying and learning the irritation was assuaged. The game is just, insanely fun.

I can't pretend to know how marketable the Cotton series is in Japan, but as a Westerner who only learned of the series existence about four or five years ago, it's surprising to me that the series is getting new releases. Cotton Fantasy is a port of Cotton Rock n' Roll, a 2021 arcade game that was bafflingly renamed for this release. I've only played Cotton 2 before this (well, and Panorama Cotton but that's hardly the same thing) and despite some improvements to the overall formula, it really is just more Cotton, in the Year of our Jericho 23 (I converted to the Chris Jericho calendar during Y2J, sorry for any confusion.)

Fantasy provides a large and varied cast of characters to choose from, though the story mode is only viewed through Cotton's perspective, meaning there are no narrative changes when selecting any character other than her. Some of these characters have interesting gimmicks, like Ria who needs to graze past hazards to build meter, Kawase who grapples and tosses enemies to create combos, or Tacoot who throws her staff out to relocate shots like the force pods from R-Type. They all offer a decent amount of variety, and completing the story mode with each character opens up new levels that can be experienced on your next replay. Levels are all generally pretty easy, which you might expect from the nauseatingly named "cute-em-up" subgenre of shooters, though a few later levels become absolute bullet hells. Not that it matters, because getting a game over only impacts your score, which is completely unimportant. This is probably the easiest side-scrolling shooter I've ever played in my entire life, there's really no consequence to failure. It's fun enough if you want to totally deactivate your brain for about 30 or 40 minutes, but I would not come to this one expecting anything particularly deep.

I wouldn't describe myself as a Cotton fan, but I have been a little fascinated with these from a cost perspective. At 40$ a pop, they're expensive. Frankly, I think they're on the same level as the Shantae remakes in that the asking price is a little ridiculous given the quality of the product, but I'd be lying if I said the steep value of these games didn't make me curious about them. The newer Cotton games rarely go on sale, and it took until now for Fantasy to hit 20$, the point where curiosity and value finally hit parity for me. Even then, Fantasy doesn't offer a satisfying enough level of challenge for me to feel comfortable suggesting you go in at that price, and its budgeted presentation makes me adamant that only Cotton fanatics should buy in at anything higher than that.