Park the space fighters and put the guns back in the safe. Instead, grab your broom and wand and prepare to be destroyed by cuteness! Cotton 100% was a Japan-only Super Famicom title that followed the popular Cotton Fantastic Night Dreams, originally released on the PC-Engine and the Turbographx 16 CD System. The Cotton series are cute ’em ups shmups with cute cartoony themes, and this title doesn’t slack on cuteness with super colorful sprites and giant silly bad guys.

  • Cotton 100%
  • Cotton 100%
  • Cotton 100%

Cotton 100% appears to be a direct port of the original; they even kept the original aspect ratio and resolution. Similar to many shmups, you have a basic weapon that increases in power as you collect crystals. You also have a fairy that is similar to Gradius’s options that follow you around and provide extra cover fire. There are also different types of magic that you can find, like a shield and a flaming dragon that scorches everything in its path, to name a couple.

The game has a great presentation with wonderful creature and character animations, along with digitized voice samples for added effect. The SNES had a great color palette, and it was put to good use in the game. Add tons of parallax scrolling in the backgrounds that are also wonderfully animated on every stage. The gameplay is typical and well done; I haven’t noticed anything that interferes or detracts from the gameplay.

  • Cotton 100%
  • Cotton 100%
  • Cotton 100%

The port has a few extra features that were not in the original release. Save states, rewind, and classic mode. The first two are self-explanatory. However, classic mode is the original with just three lives and three continues. It’s a challenge to beat Cotton 100% in this mode. However, doing so unlocks some new features. But I don’t want to give everything away.

Cotton 100% is a fantastically fun game. The stages are way too short, though, and that’s a drag given the $14.99 price tag. But is its price a show stopper? That’s up to you, the consumer. Still, Cotton 100% is silly, entertaining, and gives a decent challenge to beat.