Retro|Spective 136: Cool Spot

[Neon Ignition]

History in Games:
1990 - Spot: The Videogame
1991 - Spot: The Cool Adventure
1993 - Cool Spot
1995 - Spot: Goes to Hollywood

Overview:
even up to setting this latest entry into Retro|Spective up I didn't know that the well known 16-bit platformer was actually the third game to feature the once popular 7Up mascot. The original Spot game appeared on a handful of 8-bit platforms and was a boardgame based title played over a seven by seven grid. This was followed up by a handheld title that was actually the NES title MacDonaldsland that had been rebranded as a Spot based game for the GameBoy. Following these two games Virgin moved on to making a 16-bit title that built on the platformer genre that was increasingly seeing mascot titles launched within it. The result was a game that briefly captured attention thanks to its clean, good looks. The game saw some editing in the EU thanks to Spot no longer being a focused character, having been replaced by Fido Dido, but despite this Spot remained the central lead. Due to the surprise success the game enjoyed a sequel was developed for the Mega Drive using an isometric view point. Solid reviews followed again but in being so late in the generation it meant that the game would get ported to Saturn and PS1 where the 3D era was taking hold and the game fared more poorly, ending Spot's videogame career.









What are your thoughts and memories of the Cool Spot games?

[DeathAdder]

Saw it on shelves but never bought it. Years later watched Yakumo's video on it and decided I could live without ever playing it.

[Neon Ignition]

Hollywood is another one of those games I saw but never played which feels slightly odd because I owned Cool Spot on the Mega Drive and played it a ton even if it never made the same impression as other platformers on the system.

[CMcK]

Only played the two MD games. The first one was a decent game with polished presentation and nothing that made it stand out from the myriad of other mascot led platformers of the era.
Spot Goes To Hollywood though wasn’t much cop at all.

[Cepp]

Played the MD ganes at my cousins plenty of times.

Loved the presentation and still do but its not that fun to play imo.

Level design, enemy placement, it all turns me off.

[Atticus]

This always looks like a mascot wanabee to me. Never warmed to it. Condemned to the bargain bin of my mind along with Titus the Fox and Bubsy et al.

[wakka]

I really miss games having that much 'tude. Look at that. It's positively radical.

[JazzFunk]

I saw the MD version running in a shop and it immediately reminded me of GLOBAL GLADIATORS with its slick animation and I hated that game bar how slick it was. It felt great but was dull as **** to play. This looked the same.

Fast forward to Xmas 1993. I bought myself a little stack of SNES games for Xmas and saw the SNES version dirt cheap down the market so it bulked out my Xmas games (liked to get like six or seven games for myself for Xmas back in the 90s. Still do it with Xbox credit these days lol).

Anyway, I was very stunned by how good it looked on SNES. Gone was the cartoony look of the MD version, instead it was full of lush, subtle colours and gradients. I fell in love with the graphics and played well into it until I eventually got bored of the generic Dave Perry-style 1992 gameplay. But I'd still like to rehack my SNES Mini, put this on and witness the graphical lushness. I will when I can be arsed.

Also played SPOT GOES TO HOLLYWOOD on Saturn but that reminded me of the MD game in look, a bit more cartoony, very blacky-outliney. And isometric, which is a good look in some manner but means you can't see lush skies like you could in the SNES version. There's no tropical/surf atmos, really. I thought it was OK, though, slick and competent but essentially generic and dull and very much of a US platformer mindset, even if it was more an isometric shootery thang.

Am I right in remembering it let you control Spot in an 'up goes up' way, meaning the isometric view doesn't necessitate awkward controls? Can't remember. Only had it about a week before trading it in. 6.5/10, a quality, dull game.

[Leon Retro]

I remember playing the SNES version back in the day and thinking it looked nice, but it just didn't have any artistic flair. It felt like a very generic platformer made as a promotional game, rather than something people put a lot of imagination into. There's nothing bad about it from a technical perspective, but it offers quite an underwhelming experience.

I'd award it 6/10. It's just an OK game rather than something special.