is a 1994

rail shooter Shoot 'em ups (also known as shmups or STGs ) are a sub-genre of action games. There is no consensus as to which design elements compose a shoot 'em up; some restrict the definition to games featuring spacecraft and certain types of chara ...

video game developed by Success and published by

Sunsoft , stylized as SUNSOFT, is a Japanese video game developer and publisher. Sunsoft is the video games division of Japanese electronics manufacturer Sun Corporation. Its U.S. subsidiary operated under the name Sun Corporation of America, though, a ...

for the

Mega Drive The Sega Genesis, known as the outside North America, is a 16-bit fourth generation home video game console developed and sold by Sega. It was Sega's third console and the successor to the Master System. Sega released it in 1988 in Japan a ...

exclusively in Japan on August 12, 1994. ''Panorama Cotton'' is the third entry in the ''

Cotton Cotton is a soft, fluffy staple fiber that grows in a boll, or protective case, around the seeds of the cotton plants of the genus ''Gossypium'' in the mallow family Malvaceae. The fiber is almost pure cellulose, and can contain minor perce ...

'' series and made a major departure from the original gameplay formula of prior Cotton entries; instead of being a side-scrolling shooter like the others, it is a pseudo-3D shooter in the style of

Sega is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...

's ''

Space Harrier is a third-person arcade rail shooter game developed by Sega and released in 1985. It was originally conceived as a realistic military-themed game played in the third-person perspective and featuring a player-controlled fighter jet, but techni ...

''.

Gameplay

''Panorama Cotton'' is a pseudo-3D scrolling shooter reminiscent of ''

'', set in an

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

-style fantasy world. Various levels scroll "into the screen", vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. The player can move Cotton over the screen, shooting at oncoming enemies and avoiding obstacles on her way. Cotton can upgrade her weapon to higher levels as you advance in the game, and can also cast magical spells by collecting special items.

Plot

The most important plot elements in all of the ''

'' games are magical candies called Willows. In the previous and first installment of the series, '' Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams'', the world had fallen into an endless night after an evil Demoness called Wool stole the 7 Willows that brought light to it. In desperation, the Fairy Queen Velvet dispatched a beautiful fairy named Silk to get the Willows back. Before long, Silk met up with Cotton, a witch who loved to eat Willows, and together, they defeated Wool and brought back the willows. Light returned to the world, and Cotton left on her own. ''Panorama Cotton''s story begins when Silk's sister Knit comes to tell her that Queen Velvet has started saying things that do not make any sense. Later, the Queen reveals that she believes that the world is falling into chaos, and that she is the only one who can save it. She rides off on an animal called "Pinky" to save the day, and disappears before anyone can stop her. Perplexed, Silk and Knit deduce that a burnt Willow which recently turned up in the castle garden is responsible for the Queen's odd behavior. Apparently, monsters north of the kingdom have been burning any Willow they see. Before doing anything else, Silk immediately decides that she needs to get rid of the burnt Willow in the castle first. Silk carries the burnt Willow far away, but before she can dispose of it, Cotton appears suddenly and snatches it from her. Not pausing for a moment to hear Silk's story, Cotton begins to eat the burnt Willow. However, she quickly spits it out, angry and disgusted. When Cotton discovers that someone is burning Willows, she vows that she won't let it continue. From there, Silk and Cotton set off on their new adventure.

Development and release

GameFan ''GameFan'' (originally known as ''Diehard GameFan'') was a publication started by Tim Lindquist, Greg Off, George Weising. and Dave Halverson in September 1992 that provided coverage of domestic and import video games. It was notable for its ex ...

'' reported Sunsoft only produced 4,000 copies in total. An unofficial English translation patch was released in 2019. In 2021, ININ Games and Strictly Limited Games announced that ''Panorama Cotton'' would be launched for

Nintendo Switch The is a hybrid video game console developed by Nintendo and released worldwide in most regions on March 3, 2017. The console itself is a Tablet computer#Gaming tablet, tablet that can either be docking station, docked for use as a home video ...

and

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013 in ...

across western regions in digital and limited formats on October 29, marking the game's first official international appearance. In addition, the original Mega Drive version will also be released in western regions under a limited run of copies.

Reception

''Panorama Cotton'' received positive reception from critics and players. ''

Mean Machines Sega ''Mean Machines'' was a multi-format video game magazine published between 1990 and 1992 in the United Kingdom. Origins In the late 1980s ''Computer and Video Games'' (''CVG'') was largely covering the outgoing generation of 8-bit computers li ...

''s Marlon compared the game with both ''

After Burner is an Arcade video game, arcade vehicular combat game developed and released by Sega in 1987. The player assumes control of an American Grumman F-14 Tomcat, F-14 Tomcat fighter jet, and must clear each of the game's eighteen unique stages by des ...

'' and ''Space Harrier'', commending its fast pseudo-3D sprite-scaling visuals. Readers of the Japanese ''Sega Saturn Magazine'' voted to give the title a 8.0367 out of 10 score, ranking at the number 113 spot in a poll, indicating a large popular following. ''Gamers' Republic''s

Dave Halverson Dave Halverson is an American video game journalist who has been the founder, publisher, and editor-in-chief of ''GameFan'' (where he wrote reviews as E. Storm, Skid and Takahara), ''Gamers' Republic'', ''Play'', and currently the new versions of ...

regarded it to be the "pinnacle of 3D shooting" on the Sega Mega Drive.

Notes

References

External links

''Panorama Cotton''
at

GameFAQs GameFAQs is a website that hosts FAQs and walkthroughs for video games. It was created in November 1995 by Jeff Veasey and was bought by CNET Networks in May 2003. It is currently owned by Fandom, Inc. since October 2022. The site has a databa ...

''Panorama Cotton''
at

Giant Bomb ''Giant Bomb'' is an American video game website and wiki that includes personality-driven gaming videos, commentary, news, and reviews, created by former ''GameSpot'' editors Jeff Gerstmann and Ryan Davis. The website was voted by ''Time'' mag ...

''Panorama Cotton''
at

MobyGames MobyGames is a commercial website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes nearly 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms. The site is supported by banner ads and a small ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Panorama Cotton 1994 video games Rail shooters Sega Genesis games Nintendo Switch games PlayStation 4 games Success (company) games Video games about witchcraft Video games developed in Japan Video games featuring female protagonists Cotton (series)