Fantastic Night Dreams Cotton

A series of side-scrolling shooters made by Success, Cotton was one of the earliest Cute Em Ups involving Cute Witches and Beam Spam to pre-date Touhou. Known mostly to hardcore gamers, the games involved the titullar Natta de Cotton searching for candies called Willows (not to be confused with the film Willow), and her fairy side-kick Silk who, when not trying to look for help to save some kingdom, encourages Cotton to help her anyway with the promise of said sweets.

To Cotton, Willows are Serious Business, and she will absolutely do ANYTHING in her power to get hold off (and consume) one of these, such as blasting everything in her way, apparently...

Cotton has spanned over the course of 8 games: 
 * Fantastic Night Dreams: Cotton (1989) - Released originally for the Arcade, Cotton made its way to the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx-16 and introduces us to our protagonist. After an evil mist envelopes the world of Filament keeping it nighttime forever, a fairy named Silk seeks for help. She happens upon Cotton, who, in the witch's habit of doing nothing but searching for Willow treats, initially ignores her plea. That is, of course, until the fairy makes mention of said candy...


 * This game is also mildly notable for having the first ever Fan Translation of a Playstation game.


 * Marchen Adventure Cotton 100% (1994) - Cotton's debut on the Super Famicom. Unlike the first game, it never made it outside Japan.


 * Panorama Cotton (1994) - Released for the Mega Drive, Panorama Cotton did not play like a traditional side-scrolling shooter. Instead, it pretty much played like a clone of Space Harrier... The ruler of Filament, Queen Velvet, runs off to "protect her kingdom" after divining an incoming catastrophe (via means of plant petals). Meanwhile, word spreads out of monsters burning any Willow they see, the fumes of which cause sickness among the fairies. As Silk cleans up some of the burnt remains, Cotton appears after eating a charred piece and demands an explanation for the attrocity...


 * Magical Night Dreams Cotton 2 (1997) - Like it's much older predecessor, this game started out in the arcades and made its way to a console (Saturn, to be exact). This game introduces the player to Appli, a princess who runs off with a treasure from her Kingdom of Pumpkin to use its power to grant a wish... except she just got swept by a tornado and now lost it. Upon searching, Cotton and Silk stumbles into Appli and overhears the princess' assistant Needle speak of a "Bluewater Willow". Appli and Needle scout out more while Cotton and Silk give chase...

The games provide examples of:

 * Attack Drone: The Fairies.
 * Cute'Em Up
 * Cute Witch: Cotton.
 * Everything's Deader with Zombies
 * Fairy Companion: Silk.
 * Lighter and Softer: The first Cotton game was pretty dark in the visuals. Marchen Adventure Cotton 100% is almost a remake but much lighter in content, e.g. the zombie/demon boss in the cemetery became a pretty doll in a Gothic dress, and so on.
 * Ms. Fanservice: Silk.
 * Smart Bomb
 * Rebellious Princess: Appli.
 * Theme Naming: Almost every character name is a reference to tailoring: Cotton, Silk, Velvet, Needle, Filament...
 * Trademark Favorite Food: Willows.
 * Weird Moon: The skull-shaped moon right at the beginning of the first Cotton game.
 * When Trees Attack