Panorama Cotton

Name: Panorama Cotton
System: Sega Genesis
Developer: Success
Publisher: Sunsoft
Release Date: 1994
Genre: Shoot-‘em-up

I guess you could call this a shooter, not a FPS, but an old-school shooter where you fly forward as enemies come at you. Anyway, it’s weird… You’re a witch and the version I have was half in Japanese, so I have no idea what the storyline is, not that it really matters I suppose.

What a clusterfuck. The game begins with the main character flying through space with weird rock arms trying to kill her and floaty Kirby-like blimps coming at her from every direction. You shoot green blobs at things while she makes cute noises while and unleashes unspeakable horrors from beyond against her foes from atop a broomstick. Oh, and there are My Little Ponies jumping about, and I can only assume you are supposed to kill them… that’s pretty damn gruesome, honestly, but surely every boy’s dream.

Not Pictured: The Yellow Submarine

The levels are pretty straightforward. Your character is on rails, flying forward automatically like pretty much all games of the genre. You’re supposed to be a witch with a fairy friend or something… I don’t know, the storyline was in Japanese. You swerve about trying to shoot everything on screen and dodge anything left, all the while marveling at the weirdness of it all. The more things you destroy, the higher your life bar goes. There are also “levels” of some sort that seem to equate to getting special abilities and the life bar increase, but I’m not quite sure if this is tied strictly to points. There are also some off capsules that you can shoot at, which seem to give you new special abilities. Honestly, I’m not really too sure, but I don’t really feel like it matters much. You can choose between three different flying speeds, which is helpful.

The graphics are pretty good for a Genesis games, a little glossed over with pinks and purples for my taste, but it’s definitely colorful. And hell, it’s 3-D… kinda. Everything is just very trippy, with rainbow rivers and odd Dali-esque rock cropping. Unfortunately, there aren’t any melting clocks that I saw. The music is decent, nothing particularly catchy, but at the very least doesn’t get annoying, and that’s all I ask for in a game like this.

Wilford Totem Poles

It’s a fun game, but a challenging one, like most shooters are. This is the sort of game that cannot be made anymore, and it’s a little sad. It’s just too weird to make any sense. A game about a little girl witch who flies on a broomstick and shoots random things with green blobs? And do I ever mean random… There are Wilford Brimley Totem poles, flying fish, Buddha monsters, blue cats wearing top hats and bubbles, oh my are there a lot of bubbles. Maybe in Japan these things can still happen, but the game would never get sent here. The option to change your speed mid-flight is nice, as are the special powers. I’m still trying to figure out what is with the fairy lady who flies ahead of you all the time. Maybe she’s just eye candy, and if that’s the case, thank you, Success.

A fun game, but probably not one that I could play for long without getting bored. However, definitely something worth picking up every once in a while.

Score: 7/10

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