Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton (generally just referred to as Cotton) is an arcade shooter released in 1991 that defined a new sub-genre (the cute ’em up though I don’t know anybody who actually says that). In 1993 a port was released for the TurboGrafx-CD. This version, particularly the U.S. release, is very rare and demands exorbitant prices on eBay. It was also released on the PlayStation in 1999 but only in Japan. The prices for that one are not much better.
In Cotton, the player controls a young witch on a broomstick. Fans of arcade shooters, anime and extremely cute games all love this one so I suppose that explains its relative rarity and high demand. As far as shooters go, it is not really exceptional and got mostly average reviews but the uniqueness adds a certain appeal. You would think that the publisher just would have released more of them…
There was also a much more limited Neo Geo Pocket Color port, available only in Japan and again very expensive. There have been various spinoffs and follow-ups including a sequel (Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams). Cotton 2 was released for the Sega Saturn but once again it is quite expensive if you are looking to buy it today. It seems like these games would be good Virtual Console candidates given their expense but as of today you’ll have to lay out the cash or look into emulation options.
The above screen shots are from the 1999 PlayStation release of Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton.
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Release Date: 1991
Platforms: Arcade, TurboGrafx-CD, Sharp X68000, PlayStation1, Neo Geo pocket color
Genre: shooter
Developer: Success
Darkness has surrounded the fairies world, and with that, the prism that brought joy and life to the land doesn’t work anymore. The fairy queen told Silk, a young fairy, to find some help and get the seven magical candies, Willows, that you need to fix the prism. Silk finds Cotton, a witch who loves Willows, and thanks to that, the fairy is able to trick her into the adventure.
http://darth-azrael.tumblr.com/post/162648460068/fantastic-night-dreams-cotton