Pushing The Limits: Panorama Cotton

One of the Mega Drive’s more expensive games is also its most impressive stab at the 3D rail shooter

Nick highlights this late Mega Drive release

Sometimes, it’s quite hard to know the motivation behind a particular release. A few years after the cute witch Cotton was introduced in her first horizontally scrolling shoot-’em-up, Success decided to bring her to the big 16-bit consoles. The Super Nintendo got a game that was similar to the arcade original, but the Mega Drive got something completely different – a 3D shoot-’em-up using scaling sprites, similar to games like Space Harrier.

It’s an odd choice, given the Mega Drive’s struggles with previous 3D shooters and the system’s lack of popularity in Japan, but the developers went for it. It’s a good thing they did, too, as Panorama Cotton is a technical showcase for Sega’s console.

The 3D pseudo-scaling technique was used by many earlier Mega Drive games, typically those based on Sega’s popular arcade games, including conversions such as After Burner II and sequels like Super Thunder Blade. However, Panorama Cotton blows all of those earlier games away – with a few years of extra programming knowledge, Success was able to convey the effect with greater speed and smoothness than its predecessors. It isn’t quite arcade quality, but it was the closest you’d get on the Mega Drive.

Though the technical mastery is mostly used to provide memorable graphical setpieces, like the spectacular plunge over a waterfall during the opening stage, it does also offer some interesting game design possibilities. Most notably, it’s possible to shift onto upper and lower paths off the main route, which both looks great and provides depth. Of course, the game doesn’t lack replay value as it’s a rather stiff challenge at times.

Unfortunately, late Japanese Mega Drive releases tend to be rare and expensive, especially exclusives like Panorama Cotton.

The last copy we saw sold for over £330, and if you want the exclusive bonus tea cup that was packaged with some copies of the game, that’s more like £650. The Dreamcast sequel Rainbow Cotton offers similar into-thescreen action, but it’s a poor alternative as it’s also expensive and offers little in the way of challenge. So there’s a very steep price to pay for excellence, but there really is nothing else quite like it on the Mega Drive.