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Image: Clear River Games

Grab your best broomstick and don't forget to stock up on sweeties, as Clear River Games is bringing its remasters of the classic cute-'em-up Cotton! to PlayStation and Nintendo Switch platforms today.

Cotton Reboot!, developed by Beep Software and originally released in 2021, is a remake of the totes adorable 1991 Sharp X68000 shmup. The story follows the misadventures of the titular witch-in-training as she battles to save the home planet of the sexy space fairy, Silk. Initially uninterested in Silk's plight, Cotton has a change of heart when she learns the planet, "Filament", is fit to burst with "Willow", which happens to be our hero's favourite candy.

And so begins an odyssey of horizontally-scrolling shmup action, as Cotton and Silk battle hordes of ghouls and monsters, using their somewhat shoddy magical powers to beat back the bad guys, save the planet, and rot their teeth. Cotton Reboot! fully reimagines the 1991 original, with dazzling new visuals, a remixed soundtrack, new stages and boss battles, additional modes and characters, and an overhauled scoring system, more in keeping with modern shmup theory.

Sequel Cotton Reboot: High Tension!, which debuted just last year, is a direct follow-up to Beep's remaster, and sees the Willow of Filament become self-aware, mounting a coup against Silk's people in revenge for having been eaten all this millennium. I swear I'm not on anything as I type this. Seeing as Cotton is a devout gorger of Willow candy, Silk once again calls the worst witch into battle for a campaign of sugary warfare.

Evolving the gameplay of Cotton Reboot!, High Tension adds several new magic modes and bonus features, along with new story cutscenes and even a guest appearance from Marion, star of Psikyo's own legendary shmup, Gunbird. Players can activate the new "Over Tension" mechanic, which increases the game's difficulty momentarily for higher bonus multipliers. Time this ability wisely to rack up mega points!

Cotton Reboot! and Cotton Reboot: High Tension! are available digitally on PlayStation and Nintendo Switch platforms today. For physical media fans, disc and card editions will be coming from Clear River Games on December 10. Pre-orders for these editions are now live on the Clear River Games website.