Cotton Rock ‘n’ Roll exA Edition Now Shipping Worldwide

It’s been a few months – October last – since exA-Arcadia released a new title to their platform, but the dry spell has ended as they have begun shipping their first game of 2022, Cotton Rock ‘n’ Roll.

If you are unfamiliar with the series, Cotton is a side-scrolling shoot ’em up (“shmup” or “STG”) where you play as a witch riding a broom and blasting enemies along the way. Developed by Success and first released to arcades back in 1989, the series is also known as a “cute ’em up” thanks to it’s cute theme & art direction.

The game was previously released to Japanese arcades through Sega’s APM3 distribution network, and it was also launched on PC/PS4/Switch this past December. With that knowledge, you might be asking, “why buy the exA version then?” Here are some version exclusive differences:

• New Arranged mode “featuring completely rebalanced characters and stages made for scoring.”
• Simultaneous 2-player support
• 3 frames input lag (on consoles the lag is about 5 frames; APM3 is 5+)
• A1 Game Poster
• Support for both new 4k and older 4:3 CRTs
• Coin-op support worldwide with no revenue share (APM3 has a rev share requirement and is only available digitally)

The game sells for a little over $1200 for the kit you see here below; European customers can order through Red Sun Systems:

What do you think about it? I’ve been considering grabbing this, as I’ve found that my clientele tends to go for “cutesy” games. The standard game mode is also a bit more forgiving than some shmups. I’m just hesitant as there are some 1v2 fighters coming along soon that might be a better grab for my situation.