Cotton: Fantastic Night Dreams[a] is a scrolling shooter video game developed by Success and originally released in Japanese arcades in 1991.

Cotton proved to be popular among players in Japanese arcades, earning several awards from Gamest magazine, however the console ports have been met with mixed reception from critics.

[13][12][14] Tamura was also responsible for the pixel art as co-graphic designer along with artist Shinobu Itō, prior to her role on the unreleased party game QP for Neo Geo, and T.

[5][16] This version runs on the Super CD-ROM² expansion featuring a lower screen resolution, a modified color palette, and CD-quality audio.

[18] The game later received a conversion to the Sharp X68000 home computer with many changes and enhancements over the arcade version, published only in Japan by Electronic Arts Victor on 24 September 1993.

[6][16] The title was then ported in near arcade-perfect form to the PlayStation in Japan under the name Cotton Original on 28 April 1999 and later reissued on 30 March 2000 under the "SuperLite 1500" budget series.

[21] Due to hardware limitations, the Neo Geo Pocket Color release features less detailed graphics and inferior sound quality compared to previous versions.

The arranged mode also features new voice work based on a cast selected by auditioning, with Minami Miyaki now playing the role of Cotton.

was announced in April 2021, featuring Appli ke Pumpkin and her hat companion Needle from Cotton 2: Magical Night Dreams as free playable characters, as well as improving screen visibility and bug fixes.

[42] Public reception was also positive: readers of PC Engine Fan voted to give Cotton a 22.82 out of 30 score, ranking at the number 101 spot in a poll, indicating a popular following.

[7] French magazine Consoles + praised its arcade-accurate graphics, animations, hard rock soundtrack, playability and replay value but criticized the presentation.

They gave positive remarks to the colorful presentation, Valis-like orchestral music and sound effects but criticized the irritating Japanese voicework during story cutscenes.

[40] DuoWorld criticized the TurboGrafx-CD's English translation of cutscenes for being incoherent and Cotton's fairy companion to be less useful than the drones in R-Type and Blazing Lazers.

[38] In 2008, IGN placed both Cotton and Magical Chase as number 4 on the top ten list of TurboGrafx titles not released on the Virtual Console, stating that both games were different but shared the same general idea.

[70] Famitsu's four reviewers praised the game's arranged version for being easy to play, "Jewel Fever" mechanic, flashy visuals, addition of a timed score attack mode and faithful recreation of the X68000 conversion.

[67] Push Square's Jamie O'Neill praised the game for its two-dimensional graphics, arranged soundtrack, elaborate mechanics and scoring system, inclusion of the X68000 port and accessibility but criticized it for being single-player only, as well as the lack of save states and English voiceovers.

for its impressive HD visual style, remixed soundtrack, mechanically complex gameplay and addition of the X68000 version, claiming each modes brings different playstyles that makes them feel like separate games.

[71][72] Retro Gamer regarded Cotton to be one of the key games in the "cute 'em up" sub-genre alongside Parodius, Fantasy Zone, TwinBee and Harmful Park.