Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton

1993 | Success Corp | Sharp X86000

Okay, calling this the X86000 version is admittedly a bit of a cheat. It’s the X86000 version INSIDE of Cotton Reboot for the Playstation 4. The 2021 remake of the first Cotton, developed by ININ Games, contains a rather faithful emulation of the original game (minus the frame drops when there’s too much going on). It’s not an uncommon trend among the shmup, or Shoot ‘m Up, genre to include variations of the game in a single package. Game series like Mushihime-Sama, DoDonpachi and Raiden usually come prepackaged with a new console version, alongside arcade builds, or the original games which the new ones are based on. It’s something that I deeply love about the genre, as it allows people to enjoy all the versions without having to dish out entire mortgages for their physical copies. Another bonus is that you have a direct comparison to work with and see how small additions, like the Jewel MAX mechanic of Reboot, fundamentally changes the game.

Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton is part of the subgenre of cute ‘m ups, basically shoot ‘m ups made cute (as the name implies). Usually these titles are riddled with bright and vibrant palettes, upbeat and cheerful music and feel more playful in tone. It’s not the first title in the subgenre, as the design style can be traced back (albeit not named as such) to as early as Konami’s Pooyan in 1982. It got more widespread attention through series like 1985’s TwinBee (also Konami), Sega’s Fantasy Zone in 1986 and 1988’s Parodius, a parody of the ever popular Gradius series. The original Cotton released in arcades with on Sega’s System-16 arcade boards in 1991 and was later ported to home consoles and home computers in 1993 for the PC-Engine and, the ever slick looking, Sharp X86000. And in 2021, the X86000 version, got implemented in the remake of Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton as a bonus mode to give players a taste of how the game was in its original form.

Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton is a horizontal cute ‘m up in which we play as the titular Cotton. Cotton is a young witch who gets tricked into helping the fairies by the promise of a super tasty candy called Willow. If she can gather seven Willows, she can enjoy the wonders of a super sized Willow, and Cotton can’t say no to that. At the risk of her own life, Cotton and the fairy, Silk, set out on a journey to unknowingly save Fairyland from an Evil Mist, with the promise of a tasty treat on the horizon.
The story structure of shoot ‘m ups usually follow either a wildly elaborate plot, with insanely detailed worldbuilding, or, in Cotton’s case, throw it all to the wind for a fun and comedic experience. The humor in this game is wonderfully brought to life by animation slides that play during the intermissions, and the voice acting excels at delivering punchlines to jokes. There is a hilarious sequence near the end of the game when Cotton realizes that there is no candy, to which the normal response is; turning to stone. Silk unfreezes Cotton by tricking her again with the promise of candy, if she saves another thing. Enticed by the empty promises of tasty treats, Cotton bolts off to the next game.

The game takes us through seven stages, with a boss at the end, and with the occasional mid-boss sprinkled for some variety. Throughout the stages you’ll be met with a plethora of enemies, such as sphynx’s breathing fire, devils chucking tridents, floating eyeballs and dwarves playing axe toss. The bosses themselves come in a large variety as well. These range from a large dragon to a pair of loincloth wearing bulls. To deal with these enemies, Cotton is equipped with a variety of skills. As with most games in the genre you have a default shot that can be upgraded. On the bottom of the screen is a bar that you can fill by picking up yellow and orange crystals to increase your fire power. Each time Cotton loses a life, the shot power loses a level worth of experience, so the higher the level the more you risk to lose by dying. Your shot power ranges from a small line of bullets to a screen filling magical barrage scaling up from level 1 to 12. Alongside the standard shot we also have access to magic attacks. By picking up blue or red crystals, we can fire a thunderbolt or flaming dragon respectively. By picking up fairy statues you can add more fairies to accompany Cotton and add to her fire power. The crystals themselves can be shot to “juggle” them in the air and to change their color to whatever it is that you want to pick up.
The core mechanics are quite intuitive and this allows Fantastic Night Dreams to fill screens with enemies without feeling overwhelming. Boss patterns are pretty easy to distinguish, with each cycling through three phases as they take on more damage.
There are some differences between the X86000 port and the original arcade release, mainly with the bosses. The stage four boss, Sphynx, is replaced with Mola, a giant flying snake. And the stage five boss, Dracula, got replaced with Cyclops. While I haven’t played the original arcade release, these fights felt kind of off in their design and it made them feel a bit out of place. Both fights feature continuously scrolling stages, so getting hit is extremely detrimental for your shot level, since most crystals will fall out of sight before you even have a chance to react. With Cyclops, the screen scrolls so fast that anything that hits the floor can be considered lost. These fights felt a bit frustrating, but ultimately don’t feel too detrimental, since the other bosses are a ton of fun. The dragon is particularly challenging with its homing fire balls, challenging you to constantly move around and weave through waves of bullets.

Like many other shoot ‘m ups, the game is on the relatively short side (about 40-50 minutes or so). This makes Cotton a perfect afternoon snack to play when you have an hour or so to kill. However, the replay value of these games is undeniable. It’s a treat to see how well you’ve memorized stages and enemy patterns and trying to go through the game without losing too many lives. This provides an incredibly addictive game loop, to pursue an ever higher score. Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton is incredibly charming and almost cozy to play, despite the sometimes hectic amounts of enemies trying to take you down (seriously, the death ghosts suddenly popping in from behind are the worst). It’s a great entry into horizontal shooters with easily digestible mechanics and with the addition of great character design, a great soundtrack and a fun, whimsical setting, it provides a stepping stone for those trying to get their foot into shoot ‘m ups. Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton is a must play for anyone with the remotest interest in shooting eyeballs and flaming turtles, and having a few chuckles along the way!

Giant Willow/10