Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams
A cute 'em up arcade shooter starring a young witch.
Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams is a 1991 horizontally scrolling shooter arcade game developed by Success and published by Sega. It is the first installment in the Cotton series, featuring the young witch Cotton and her fairy companion Silk on a quest to obtain Willow candy. The game is regarded as a key title in the cute 'em up sub-genre.
Quick Facts
- Developer
- Success
- Producer
- Takato Yoshinari
- Programmer
- Masaru Hatsuyama; Toshiyuki Kuwabara
- Artist
- Hideki Tamura
- Shinobu Itō
- Tatsuo Kashima
- Composer
- Kenichi Hirata
- Series
- Cotton
- Platforms
- Arcade
- TurboGrafx-CD
- X68000
- PlayStation
- Neo Geo Pocket Color
- mobile phone
- Nintendo Switch
- PlayStation 4
- Windows
- Genre
- Scrolling shooter
Facts from the source article.
Gameplay
Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams is a scrolling shooter similar to Parodius. Players control the witch Cotton, who flies on a broomstick through fantasy dream-like levels, blasting monsters and collecting crystal power-ups to enhance firepower and unleash magic spells. Bombs can obliterate enemies. The game incorporates role-playing elements, allowing the player to level up attack power up to 13 levels. The player has three lives, with one hit allowed per life; the game ends when all lives are lost unless more credits are inserted.
Development and release
Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams was produced by Success founder Takato Yoshinari. Masaru Hatsuyama and Toshiyuki Kuwabara were co-programmers. Character designer Hideki Tamura, an anime animator, also handled pixel art alongside Shinobu Itō and Tatsuo Kashima. Kenichi Hirata composed the music, and Cotton was voiced by radio actress Takae Yoriguchi. Tamura noted the game used hand-drawn animations, uncommon for arcade games at the time. The working title was Kurumi-zaka Diary: Katsugeki-Hen before being changed to Cotton. It was first published by Sega for the Sega System 16 arcade board in April 1991 and showcased at the 1991 AOU Show.
Ports and re-releases
Cotton was ported to the TurboGrafx-16 in Japan on 12 February 1993 and in North America in April 1993, using the Super CD-ROM² expansion with lower resolution, modified palette, and CD-quality audio; the Japanese version added voice acting by Tarako. A conversion for the X68000 home computer was published only in Japan by Electronic Arts Victor on 24 September 1993. The PlayStation port, Cotton Original, was released in Japan on 28 April 1999 and reissued on 30 March 2000 under the SuperLite 1500 series; it was later re-released on PlayStation Network on 28 June 2007. A Neo Geo Pocket Color version was published in Japan on 23 March 2000 and in Europe later that year. A mobile phone release in 2007 included a lottery for Cotton-themed teacups. A Mega-CD port was planned but never released.
Reception
Cotton received positive reception from seven Gamest reviewers at its 1991 AOU Show appearance. Game Machine listed it as the ninth most popular arcade game of May 1991 in Japan. Micom BASIC Magazine ranked it sixteenth in popularity in July 1991. Gamest awarded it several honors in the 5th Gamest Grand Prize: fourth place in Best Shooting, Best Direction, and Best VGM, and second place in Character Awards for Cotton. The TurboGrafx-CD port received positive critical reception; PC Engine Fan readers gave it a 22.82 out of 30 score, ranking 101st in a poll. French magazine Consoles + praised its arcade-accurate graphics, animations, hard rock soundtrack, playability, and replay value but criticized the presentation. Electric Brain called it an above-average shoot 'em up, noting its difficulty, colorful presentation, and Valis-like orchestral music, but criticized the Japanese voicework. GameFan considered it one of the better TurboGrafx-CD shooters, praising originality, action, audiovisual presentation, and challenging stages. DuoWorld criticized the English translation and the fairy companion's usefulness, comparing it unfavorably to Magical Chase in graphics and sound, but praised presentation and gameplay. Computer and Video Games commended the visuals, sound, and gameplay.
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