Classic cute-’em-up Cotton is getting a reboot! Titled, appropriately enough, Cotton Reboot, and including the original X68000 version (which is pretty identical to the arcade version, from what I can tell) as well as an HD remake, the game is being issued by BEEP for PS4 and Switch in a variety of configurations. I’m excited!

By “a variety of configurations,” I mean a standard game-only edition, a box set including all sorts of bonus items, and a dee-luxe edition with all the box set stuff plus a cool throwback X68000-style case.

The X68000 version is the one I would love to have, but ultimately, I opted to buy just the game by itself. Why tho?

Let me back up just a bit before getting to the jist of my post. First off, I’m really happy that BEEP is putting this out. For those who don’t know, BEEP is a now-famous retro game shop located in Akihabara, Tokyo, known for acquiring and selling highly sought-after PC, console, and even arcade rarities.

In recent years, they have followed what seems to be an old tradition of game retailers actually publishing their own games. (Nihon Falcom, for instance, is one such company that started off this way, as a computer game shop that established a label and began selling their own games.) BEEP has focused on reissuing rare retro PC games, right down to putting them out on floppy disks and everything.

So their latest announcement of Cotton Reboot for PS4 and Switch marks — as far as I know — their first foray into the console market, and a welcome debut it is! The new arranged version looks amazing, and I can’t wait to play it!

Preorders are open now for the Japanese edition, which is available through Amazon Japan, and there’s also a Western version from ININ and sold through Strictly Limited Games. Of course, in addition to the game itself, the are also some limited collector’s sets with a ton of goodies included.

Japanese box set
Euro/US box set

So of course, as excited as I am for this, I went right for one of the box set versions, right?

Well, I wanted to. I really did. Especially that DX X68000 version — I definitely have a fetish for games in plastic clamshell cases, and that retro X68k case is SEXY AF.

But it’s really been my policy in recent years to downsize my collection and keep the clutter to a minimum, so I got to thinking hard about what kind of items I like in a collector’s edition.

I like items that are somewhat useful. Of course, a printed instruction manual will always be welcome. I’ll definitely flip through an art book and listen to a soundtrack! I think the repro arcade flyer included in the Cotton sets is really cool too, being interested in any historical arcade items that I would otherwise never have seen.

After that, the usefulness of the included tchotchkes kind of falls off. Am I going to wear the pin? No. Stick the stickers on anything? Maybe one on my laptop, but I think I’d be more concerned about ruining the sticker that way and would prefer to keep it in good condition, so probably not. The telephone card? A cool throwback to the ’90s, but I don’t have a collection of ’90s telephone cards as it is, and I’m not looking to start one. The shikishi art board is nice, but am I going to hang it up? Nah.

Then there’s the tea set. That stuff is AWESOME, don’t get me wrong. But I would certainly never use it, so I’m not going to store it in my kitchen cupboard.

That means that ultimately, all this stuff is just going to sit in the box on my shelf, and once I’m doing looking through it in the first few days, what good is it doing me? For almost a hundred bucks less, I can buy the game by itself and still play the heck out of Cotton, which is what really matters to me!

I’ll take just this, thanks!

Now, I’m not trying to disparage anyone who loves this stuff from buying it. Far from it! I do think it’s cool, and if I had the budget and the space, I’d get the X68k edition. Think of my decision to buy the game alone as my gift to you, one more limited edition available to someone who really wants one. You’re welcome!

However, I do wish that collector’s editions such as this would pare it down a bit and keep the items a little more useful. An ideal set for me would include the game, a printed manual, an art book that includes some history on the game and perhaps some developer interviews (maybe this could even be included together with the manual in one nice book), maybe a superplay DVD or Blu-ray (or include some superplay videos on the game itself), a soundtrack, and maybe that arcade flyer/instruction card, and fit it all in that X68000 case and call it a day. To me, that would be worth spending a little extra on, and it would all be stuff I would use and enjoy!

That’s one of the reasons I felt that the Limited Run Games version of the Samurai Shodown Neo Geo Collection was worth getting: game, artbook, soundtrack, in a shockbox. It comes with a mini cartridge too, and a replica MVS cardboard box, and those are kind of useless to me, but at least they’re unobtrusive and the cost of the set was not outrageous.

Of course, I’m still waiting for it, but

This also reminds me of an oddity that I just got: I ordered Yakuza: Like a Dragon for PS4 from Best Buy, and it said that I got a free bonus steelbook with it. Sweet! But as it turned out, the Day Ichi Edition of the game was already packaged in a steelbook. So now I have two different steelbooks for one game. The hell am I supposed to do with the other one?

I like the one it already came with better anyway

At any rate, I’m still super excited to get Cotton Reboot when it comes out early next year, because playing the game itself is really gonna be the best part! I really hope it does well and that BEEP continues to reissue classic stuff for consoles.

Are you getting Cotton Reboot? Which edition did you order and why?