Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams (CD)
A little witch on a broomstick, obsessed with sweets, soars through a magical landscape blasting spells all around her — Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams is exactly the kind of game that gave rise to the term cute-em-up. In its 1993 CD version for the PC Engine, it dazzles with everything this powerful console could do.
Beneath the adorable exterior, however, hides a surprisingly thoughtful shooter. Cotton isn't just any shmup — it blends action with RPG elements, so you collect experience for defeated enemies and your witch grows stronger level by level. This progression gives the game a pleasant sense of momentum and sets Cotton apart from purely arcade rivals, where power is measured only by the power-ups you collect.
Visually and sonically, the CD version is a feast. Colorful, detailed backgrounds, striking bosses, and quality music and voice acting made possible by the CD medium create a stylish, fairy-tale world. This presentation is one of the reasons the game earned its cult status — it feels like an interactive anime from the early nineties.
Cotton gradually grew into an entire series and became one of the best-known faces of its subgenre. Its lasting popularity is proven by modern remasters and collections that have brought this classic to a new generation of players who never held the original hardware.
For shooter enthusiasts, Cotton is a mandatory stop — it combines accessible charm with enough depth to keep you entertained even after many playthroughs. And for anyone who thinks shmups have to be gloomy space battles, it's a welcome proof to the contrary.
Why play: A stylish, colorful cute-em-up with RPG progression and gorgeous CD presentation — a cult classic of the genre that still delivers.
Game 19 of 38 for PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16
The same title elsewhere (1)
The Sharp X68000 version served as the computer counterpart to the arcade original, and thanks to the power of Japanese home computers of the time it offers sharp graphics and FM-synth music close to the source experience. The PC Engine CD version, by contrast, used the CD-ROM's capacity for something the X68000 couldn't match — higher-quality streamed music straight from disc and animated anime cutscenes that give the story of the witch Cotton a more cinematic feel. If you want the sharpest visuals closest to the original, go for the X68000; if you want atmosphere carried by music and animated scenes, the PC Engine CD edition is the one to pick.
