10 years in the past it was standard knowledge that hottest Japanese video games would by no means come to PC. Quick ahead to now, and never solely is it uncommon for a Japanese recreation to skip PC, however we’re getting deep cuts from the again catalogue too. Living proof: Rainbow Cotton was a Sega Dreamcast unique when it was launched in 2000, and never solely that, it was by no means launched exterior of Japan. Oh, and it reviewed fairly poorly too. Hardly a recreation you’d count on to get the remaster therapy in 2023, however by no means thoughts: now it is hitting Steam.
Rainbow Cotton is a 3D rail shooter belonging to the Cotton sequence, which has been quietly reanimated of late: 1991’s Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams—a sidescrolling shooter—was reissued on Steam in 2021, and a brand new game within the sequence, borrowing from the sidescrolling format, launched earlier this 12 months. So do not go saying the Cotton sequence has been unduly uncared for! Rainbow Cotton was the final Cotton recreation, except you rely Magical Pachinko Cotton, which was a Pachinko which additionally got here to PlayStation 2.
So Cotton fanatics are consuming effectively of late. The remaster is dealt with by Inin video games, which was additionally chargeable for bringing the opposite most up-to-date Cotton video games to Steam, along with, for instance, Darius HD. Rainbow Cotton was the primary and solely absolutely 3D Cotton recreation, and performs like Panzer Dragoon, principally. A fast perusal of its Wikipedia entry means that it wasn’t precisely a important hit: consensus suggests the controls have been dangerous, however the general presentation was good.
It is an HD remaster, so count on sharper graphics, new results, and a pleasant trendy facet ratio. There’s additionally a “Devoted Retro Mode”, which tries to simulate the ye olde Dreamcast situations, and people management woes of yore have been “enhanced” away.
The kicker is that Rainbow Cotton will not hit Steam till “spring 2024”, so you may have to attend patiently on this barren videogame panorama to defeat demons and eat sweet.
