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Anime-Shooter fans rejoice! Not since the original Cotton on PC Engine or Keio Flying Squadron on Sega CD have we had so much wacky shooter action. Cotton 2, along with the rest of the excellent Saturn shooter lineup, shows once again that shooters are a Saturn thang, and that this is how shooters are meant to be played!!! Okay, right off let me say this game is no match for Soukyugurentai or Thunder Force V or Layer Section I, but I will say that it is definitely a blast to play. Let me go to the premise, then the real goodies.

Premise: You are a witch, and your name is Cotton. Not a bad one, but a pretty good one, except you are young (I think maybe about 12 years old) and you’ve got a very annoying fairy (Silk) as a sidekick. Then you’ve got your best friend/worst enemy witch as another companion, she’s called Appli and about the same age as you. She’s got magical talking hat Needle as a sidekick. You two together must save the kingdom which has been harassed by another rival witch (this is the sketchy part, I’m not sure if that’s how the story line really goes--my Japanese sucks). Anyhow, that sure beats the old fashioned "last starfighter vs the entire armada" story, eh?

Onto the goodies now:

Graphics: 8.5/10
Very nice anime 2D graphics. Lots of rotation and mode-7 effects, but pixelizes quite a lot too. Not that bad of a side effect, but definitely noticeable. Very little slowdown, except when you put it on the top difficulty setting (which you should do for every shooter!!!) And there are lots of nicely animated cutscenes.

Music: 8/10
Well orchestrated PCM music. It’s not Redbook audio, but I think Saturn owners can live with that by now. But it’s well done, and some of the tunes are catchy (the intermission scenes especially).

Sound: 6/10
Uh... here’s where the game suffers a bit. Your voices are muffled pretty badly, almost worst than SF Alpha 2. However, the voices are funny, especially when Cotton dies, she bids you a very cutesy "Sayonara!!!".

Control: 9/10
Responsive as hell, and that’s good. Enough said?

Challenge vs Fairness: 6/10
Here’s where the game suffers again. When I first popped it in and saw the HUGE barrage of enemies approach, I was thinking, “How am I going to get out of this mess?” However I managed. And my sister (a non-shooter player) managed as well. This game is fair, perhaps a little TOO FAIR. It’s easy, even if you put it on hardest. I think for a true challenge, put it on hardest with no life, and no continues. That’s how you should play.

Gameplay: 9.5/10
You have here your standard 6 level shooter, with five different weapons (normal, flame, ice, wave, and a secret lance) which can be powered up five levels. Powerups come in the form of crystals, which you can shoot multiple times to change their color and thus their resulting powerup.

But what makes this game unique and very interesting is the fact that you can CATCH enemies. That’s right. You can catch all enemies except for midbosses and bosses. Once you catch them, you can throw them away, and that will damage the other enemies as well. And it doesn’t stop there. With certain direction presses, you can shoot out differently! For example, if you do a sonic boom motion (back, forth) then fire, you will get a super shot. Pressing forward, back and fire will get you a tri shot. You can also do yoga-flame fashioned keypresses which launches a barrage of shots, and finally one that launches a “ball” shot that bounces. Oh, and these multiple key press shots “trap” enemies they hit in a colored cell. You can catch this celled enemy, throw it, and any resulting enemy that cell touches will get screwed! Thus a “chain” system is employed in this game. As long as you don’t forget to catch the same celled enemy and throw it again, you can get a higher and higher chain rate! There were some levels where I chained well over 122 enemies! Or for a real kick, when you see a large regular enemy (or a defeated midboss) trap them in the cell and catch them. That’s a large object to throw!!! It is this aspect of the gameplay is one that I thought was very unique and worthwhile, and very lovable as well.

Overall: 8/10
SaturnWorld gave this a 6/10, which I thought was too low. The game is simply a very fun game, just pretty easy (unless you strive for the challenge like I do and MAKE IT HARD). It takes about 35-40 minutes to complete, which if you have read in my Soukyugurentai review, is a GOOD thing for people with hectic schedules like me. Plus, this game is funny as hell. Even though my Japanese knowledge is slim, the animated cutscenes inbetween the levels are done so hilariously that you can’t but help laugh. However, even if the game is pretty good, it’s no match for the beefed up shooters, mostly because of that challenge aspect. There is just also some sort of flair missing from this game. When I first played it, I thought that it was intense as hell because the monsters/enemies kept appearing. But later on, that intensity faded, and I learned how to deal with the mass enemies very easily. The same is not true for other shooters like Souk, Layer Section I, and Thunder Force V, where each time I play them I always feel an adrenaline rush and have to keep on my toes so I don’t die. This game is blast to play, or even to watch. Lots of things in the game are just so darn cute, and it’s a big change from our regular world of sci-fi shooters. Buy this if you are a shooter fan. Or if you want to get your girlfriend into shooters, this is a good game to start with because it’s visually appealing and cute and it seems hella hard but is pretty easy. (let’s face it, girls don’t play shooters). And if you ain’t a shooter fan... well, better start learning to time those reflexes so you can appreciate them from now on!

Extra Notes: I’ve heard this game works with the 1 meg and 4 meg ram carts, but since I *don’t* own a working ram cart yet, I don’t know what happens when you access the game with them. My guess would be less pixilazation or no slowdown, but whatever it is, thank SUCCESS for allowing such a feature!!!

-Phil Shen
pshen@uclink4.berkeley.edu