Video Game Review: Cool Spot

Cool Spot

Super Nintendo

When I was a kid I gobbled up games like this. 2D platformers based on licensed products were my thing, even if said licensed product was just a silly (and now completely obscure) soda mascot. Why exactly they felt the need to create a game based on the 7-Up mascot, I will never know. But hey I liked it.

This game was either a Christmas or a birthday present. I don't really remember and I don't think it matters at this point. The graphics were stunning for its time. The levels were big and full of secret stuff. And Spot was just... so damn cool. He was only a red dot with sunglasses and big hands and feet. But hey it worked for him. Sure there are obvious flaws with this game. But I was a kid, and I didn't pay any attention. It was fun, and that's all that mattered to me.

I actually grew up playing the Genesis version of the game. Somewhere over the years it got lost in the shuffle. So when I saw it at a used game shop for the Super Nintendo 20 some years later, I scooped it up for nostalgias sake. How has the game held up?

It's a mixed bag. First I will say that it has been such a long time ago that I played the Genesis version of the game. I didn't notice any discernable differences between the Genesis and Super Nintendo versions of Cool Spot.

The game starts you out on a beach, and the controls of the game are very easy to learn. You jump and you shoot. That's it. the goal of each stage is to collect a certain number of red dot thingies. Collecting them increases your "cool" meter. When you get cool enough, you can move on to the end of the stage where there is a fellow Spot in a cage. Blast the lock off the cage to free him, and the level is over.

The stages are really big, and there are many collectibles to be found. The aforementioned red dots, 7-Up icons, extra lives, health items, extra time, etc. With the levels being so large, there is a lot of replay value going back and trying to find everything. If you fill your cool meter up to 85% or more, you unlock a bonus stage at the end of the level. The stage puts you into a giant 7-Up can where you must bounce off bubbles and collect items and letters. Each letter represents a continue, which you definitely are going to need if you have never played this game before.

One letter can be found in each bonus stage. The letters spell out "uncola". Yeah, that was 7-Ups big catchphrase back in the day. Lame, huh? If you beat the game on normal, you get a screen saying that you have to complete the game on hard - AND collect all the letters to see the real ending. Which I never bothered to do. Because fuck that. After a little research, I discovered that the only extra perk you get is a screen for some kind of contest. You are supposed to take a picture of the screen and send it in to the game makers to win.... something. I doubt the offer still stands.

The game looks nice. It sounds fine. There is really nothing special in the music or sound effects department. The difficulty level can be high. I don't remember having any trouble with the game when I was a kid, but playing it now as an adult I died quite a few times. The aiming for your fizz attack isn't too accurate and a lot of enemies are swarming you and causing damage at all times. Objects in the environment can hurt you as well. Health items are rare and only appear randomly when you kill an enemy. But they ascend off the top of the screen as soon as they appear, and they always seem to appear somewhere where they can't easily be reached. And before you know it, they have floated off the screen.

 But the main problem I had with this game was the precision jumping/platforming sections of it. One level in particular you have to jump across lily pads in an inflated bathtub. Fall in the water and you instantly die. But that's not even the hard part. You must climb high up above the pool to finish the stage, and the only way to get there is by jumping across inflated bubbles that pop when you bounce off them. One misstep (or misbounce) and you plunge to your doom. As if this wasn't hard enough, you have to collect some seriously hard to reach items as you bounce from bubble to bubble if you want to fill up your cool meter enough to finish the level. And sometimes you have to jump to a bubble or platform that is not on the screen and you can't see. So you have to take a leap of faith which has a 50/50 percent chance of succeeding.

A lot of the stages are also recycled. There are slight differences in level design, but the backgrounds and the enemies are the same. Two beach stages, two dock stages, 2 toy land stages, 2 "behind the wall" stages. I wish a little more creativity was shown in this department. Overall there are about 10 to 15 stages in the game and half of them are repeats.

So that's the basic premise of the game. Traverse the levels, collect items, shoot shit, rescue your fellow Spots, and hope you are cool enough to participate in the bonus levels. As a kid I had no problem with this title, but as an adult I have seen enough games like this to be able to spot (no pun intended) some pretty obvious flaws.

But I still enjoyed it. Yeah the controls aren't great. Sure the precision jumping stages sucked. There could definitely be a little more variety to the levels. The difficulty level and the constant cheap deaths can be irritating. And there are no bosses or big climactic moments in the game. When you rescue your last Spot on the beach repeat stage, the game ends.

Despite all that, I still had fun. Kind of. Maybe if it weren't for the nostalgia factor I would have despised the game. We shall never know. You'd have to really mess up a 2D platformer for me to hate it though. If you didn't grow up playing the game or if you are too young to even remember Spot or the uncola slogan, there probably is no point for you to play the game. There's really nothing here that hasn't been done a thousand times before. Unless you are a really big fan of exploration and collecting hidden items. This game does excel in that department.

Overall:

C