Developers to “improve input delay” in Cotton Guardian Force Saturn Tribute

City Connection is saying in a statement released on Wednesday December 29th, they are going to “improve the input delay” in Cotton Guardian Force Saturn Tribute for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4. They note, this includes the physical and digital releases of the game collection.

This re-publishing of the Success Corp. shoot’em’up games (a category known to some as “shmup” or “STG”) met swarms of criticism upon its release for having noticeable input lag. This is a video game genre where any sort of lag is considered not tolerable. Fans later found out, Tribute is using a Sega Saturn emulator to run its games. This led to hackers finding ways to play other Saturn games on the Switch using the data from Tribute, and later discovering the emulator in question is likely SSF. The emulator SSF also happens to be known for its input lag.

The message from City Connection does not acknowledge any use of emulation for the re-release. It blames the input lag on two things: “Delays due to hardware and engine performance,” and delays “caused by input devices or monitors.” It says they were able to make “technical improvements” to the hardware performance. It also notes, they “prepared an environment where you can compare the improved version with the old version at the recent trial event.” The statement thanks people who took part in this event.

They expect to release the improvement update to Switch, PlayStation 4 and Steam versions of Cotton Guardian Force Saturn Tribute sometime in January or February of 2022. They are also confirming an Xbox One version of the collection will release early next year.

SHIRO! Media Group sent a message to City Connection asking to confirm if this game uses a Saturn emulator, if it is SSF, and how they plan to reduce input lag. We will post an update when we hear back.