Cool Spot

"A flawed, but utlimately enjoyable old-school platformer."

The fun thing about writing a review for an old game is being able to apply years of experience and reason to critique it in a way that just wasn’t possible back when I was thirteen. Case in point: Cool Spot, for the Super Nintendo.

I used to love this game. I remember being blown away by the graphics and music and putting a significant effort into collecting as many little red dots as possible. My friends and I, in our innocent youth, became so infatuated with the background music from the bonus level that we integrated it into one of our school video projects. In retrospect, I suppose I should have devoted less attention to Cool Spot and more attention to either school work or developing social skills, but what can you do? It really was catchy music.

So why write the review now? Well, I am constantly scouring local game shops looking for deals on used games that have nostalgic value to me. When I recently found Cool Spot I was instantly whisked back to junior high, flooded with memories of beaches and bubble-tossing and, well, that’s pretty much all I could remember. So I figured “What the heck?” and snapped that puppy up, eager to take a trip down memory lane.

And what a trip it was. It’s amazing how strongly video games can engrave themselves into your memory. Just watching the Spot clean his shades and say “OK!” in his tinny little voice as he stands next to the Virgin Games logo reminded me of the first time I’d seen the same thing many years ago. Back then I was enchanted by the personality of this little dot. Back then I was impressed that he had been given the gift of speech in an era when silent protagonists were the norm. Now, I’m not as impressed, although I can still recognize that the animation as above average for games of that time.

Two-dimensional platformers have all but disappeared recently. In fact, if it wasn’t for the GameBoy Advance they probably wouldn’t be around at all. But there was a time when this was far from being the case. That time was the 8 and 16-bit era, and 2D platformers were the most common genre of game there was. They were being churned out at an incredible rate, and it seemed that any time a popular (or not) license wanted some attention, they would get some developer to make a platformer that was little more than a glorified commercial for a movie or TV show or, in this case, soft drink. Some developers took pride in their licensed platformers, most notably Capcom whose Disney-licensed games are often exceptional (The Little Mermaid and Darkwing Duck for the NES are two of my favorites). Others went for the easy way out, producing shoddily-assembled messes which adopted every cliché in the platformer book (the SNES Lethal Weapon game, for example, was powerfully lousy if memory serves). Cool Spot seems to have fallen somewhere in the middle (And you thought I had forgotten this review was for Cool Spot!).

Don’t get me wrong, Cool Spot does adopt several platformer clichés. However, a significant amount of attention was given to graphic and music quality, and the overall presentation of the game seems nicely polished. The basic ground rules are presented as though they’re scribbled on to paper, for example, which is charming. One thing which I didn’t notice as a kid but which bugs me now is before every level (like many platformers, the level names make extensive use of bad puns, i.e. “Pier Pressure”), Spot stands in from of a sign pointing right with the level’s name on it. He takes out his little map, inspects it carefully and cheerfully says “OK!” before walking off the screen to the LEFT. I would have thought it was a joke (“Oh look! Spot’s a moron!”) but it happens before every level so I don’t know what it means.

Okay, so the point of the game is to free your fellow spots who have been imprisoned in little cages in a variety of locales that really have very little to do with one another (the beach, the inside of a wall, a toy store, etc.). In order to keep you from storming through any given level in search of the cage, the game requires that you collect a certain number of red dots scattered throughout the level (out of 100) before you can unlock the cage. Kind of a cheap trick if you ask me, but I guess the developers correctly figured the levels themselves weren’t really interesting enough to warrant exploration on the player’s own merit. As another cheap ploy, each little dot you collect adds one percentage point to your “coolness” meter. So you’re not just accomplishing a time-consuming fetch quest, you’re proving how “cool” you are!

Anyhoo, a nice touch is the inclusion of bonus levels you can only visit if you collect an even higher number of red dots in a level. These bonus levels take place in the inside of a giant 7-Up bottle, where you must bounce upwards off of large bubbles to collect more red dots (surprise!) and, if you’re really cool, a letter that goes towards spelling “UNCOLA”. Yup, that was once 7-Up’s tagline: “The Uncola”. Don’t ask me what happens when you spell the whole word, I only managed to collect the first three letters, since besides having a fairly short time limit, later bonus levels include incredibly frustrating floating spiked balls which make finding that elusive letter much more difficult.

One thing I liked about the way the levels are laid out is that the designers put an effort into trying to make them fit in within the context of the “real world”. You won’t find magically levitating platforms (a staple of the platforming genre), for example. Instead, you’ll find balloons or model zeppelins (suspended by strings). Other nice touches are the giant beach chair and walkman in the beach level, which really make you feel like you’re a little spot. One platforming cliché that isn’t remedied, however, is the old “everything’s trying to kill you” situation. Maybe I’m wrong and there’s an explanation in the story (which I don’t know), but why are hermit crabs and insects and toy robots and cheese-throwing mice in pajamas trying to kill you? Do they all hate 7-Up? I dunno, but like most platformers, it’s a logic hole that’s easily ignored.

As to how Spot controls, well, to put it simply: not too well. He jumps ridiculously high, as many platformer stars do, but not particularly far. See, instead of making him run by holding a button (say, Y) while moving left or right, Spot just increases his speed as you hold a direction. So hold right and you’ll waddle, then saunter, then walk, then trot, and that’s about as fast as he gets. This makes controlling Spot a somewhat clumsy affair, as calculating how much runway you need to clear a gap can be a nuisance. And god forbid you have to change direction in the air, as inertia plays an often annoying role in pulling you where you don’t want to be. One level takes places on a moving train, where you often have to jump from small target to small target high in the air, made all the more difficult by the fact that at the apex of your jump you can’t see where you’re going to land and the background is scrolling so quickly that it throws you off. Whether this was intended to add challenge I don’t know, but it is one of the more satisfying levels to finally complete because of it.

Spot’s attack is throwing bubbles. No, really. He fires carbonation of death at a surprising velocity, disintegrating the various wildlife and knick-knacks trying to stop him. He can fire them at angles, but unlike the traditional 8-direction scheme many games use, you can actually fire at a multitude of different angles, which seems to be determined by what direction you’re moving and for how long you hold another direction when you shoot. I make it sound more complicated than it is, but it is occasionally unnecessarily difficult to get Spot to shoot where you want him to.

As I mentioned earlier, the graphics are where this game shines. All the characters are well animated and the levels themselves are beautiful. The background elements are nicely detailed and colorful, although occasionally repetitive (some levels are based on layouts of other levels but with a different color palette). The digitized sound effects (like Spot’s voice) aren’t sampled at the highest quality so they sound a little rough, but they’re passable. The music, on the other hand, is top notch. Composed by Tommy Tallarico (who also did the excellent music for the Earthworm Jim games), the tunes are catchy and high quality. My only complaint is the music from the train level. While the western-themed music fits the level very well, it loops a little too quickly and eventually becomes pretty annoying.

Unfortunately, because I was playing in “normal” mode the last time I completed this game (which took about an hour and a half), I was screwed out of a decent ending. Instead, I got to watch 2 Cool Spots cry as I was congratulated for saving all the Spots but chastised for not doing it in hard mode AND collecting all the letters in “UNCOLA”. Is there anything exciting waiting for me if I do accomplish these goals? Another level? A boss, perhaps? Since I have no intention of playing this game again any time soon, I may never find out. And honestly, I’m not gonna lose a lot of sleep over it.

So what’s the final verdict? It’s a flawed, but ultimately enjoyable platformer with above-average graphics and a decent dose of charm. While the dot-collecting might be too slow-paced and repetitive for modern gamers (especially since there’s no save feature), if you can get into “retro mode” you can have some fun with “Cool Spot”. Oh, I almost forgot: When spot dies, he dramatically collapses backwards onto the floor, his sunglasses tossed into the air where they spin hopelessly before landing back on his cold, lifeless face. But because you’ve got another life, Spot’s corpse becomes instantly reanimated and he leaps to his feet while exclaiming “Yeah!”. It may not sound funny in text, but for me it was the comedic highlight of the game.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 06/14/03, Updated 06/14/03