Nobody asked for Cool Spot. Nobody tugged on their mother's dress in a Toys 'R' Us, passing over a copy of Mega Man X, and asked for it. This was a game, like many other licensed games, made for someone's confused aunt, uncle, or grandparent to buy. Grandpa would stumble into a store blasted on pain medication for a war wound long forgotten and say “Children enjoy soft drinks. Children enjoy video games. This particular video game tape is both. This will make little Jenny very happy.” Grandpa then opened his wallet, asked if there was a senior discount, argued that they had one last time he was there (they didn't), discussed the return policy, complained about the recent election, made the claim that his nurse was stealing change from his pockets, and purchased Cool Spot for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was also available for Sega Genesis, but little Jenny didn't have one of those video tape machine games.
In nine out of ten instances Grandpa would be making a terrible mistake. Most licensed games are rushed, needlessly difficult due to poor controls, ugly, and just plain old not fun. Cool Spot, however, would be an exception to this generalization. A platformer in a sea of mediocre platformers during the early 90's, Cool Spot was tight on the controls, easy on the eyes, fun on the ears, and surprisingly detailed in its level design.
In Cool Spot you play as the old 7up mascot. His name is Spot. This anthropomorphic red dot with sunglasses must jump, climb, bounce, and shoot his way through a series of levels to rescue his friends (the “Cool Chums”) who are also Spots. I suppose they're some variety of endangered soft drink mascot species. Each level contains red coins called “Cool Points” which must be collected in part. Unlike a Super Mario Bros. or Sonic the Hedgehog game where you can technically ignore coins and rings, Spot has to collect at least sixty percent of these points in order to free his buddy at the end of every level. If you get to the rescue point before collecting the necessary points? Tough luck, go back and find more. If you collect all of the Cool Points on a level you'll get a bonus stage. Go to all of the bonus levels (and collect all six hidden letters that spell “UNCOLA”) on hard mode and you'll get the “good” ending. While it's not much it's more replay value than many of Cool Spot's crappier platform brethren.
The levels in Cool Spot have a surprising amount of depth to them. It's no Castlevania, but there are plenty of different paths to go up, down, and sideways where you can find more Cool Points, extra lives, and other standard platformer fare. You can grab on balloons, bounce on floating bubbles, and be flung high by mousetraps. There is a time limit, but one of the pickups is a clock that extends this time and it's rarely a problem. Our hero can actually shoot enemies in the face with soda bubbles and is surprisingly good at it. You'll feel very in control of your attacks, as Spot shoots fast and in multiple directions. Enemies range from uncool hermit crabs in boxer shorts to uncool robot toys that shoot lightning. These baddies generally don't pose much of a threat. Why the world is angry with Spot and the Cool Chums we'll never know. The manual doesn't give any hints. The world of Cool Spot is just ripe with uncool dudes and dudettes trying to make things lame and stop you from enjoying a crisp, cool 7up soft drink beverage. What monsters.
Cool Spot is an easy game in comparison to some other platformers of the time. If you've beaten a handful of Mega Man and Super Mario Bros. games you shouldn't have much of a problem with the game's eleven levels. One level, “Loco Motive,” stands out as a difficult one mainly because the background is scrolling so fast you'll be lucky not to barf all over your TV let alone make proper jumps on to tiny platforms. Things can get a little frustrating with enemy placement at times. The game's UI takes up a significant portion of the screen and it feels that sometimes all you'd need is that much to make a jump or not get hit by an enemy. Your field of view is a little short because of that UI and most of my deaths were due to making a jump into an enemy that was obscured. Health pickups are plentiful, checkpoints are fair, and you get a decent amount of hits before you die so these are mostly minor annoyances.
Sound design is solid with Spot's cute little squeaks, yells, and exclamations. The music has always stood out, through. No, it's not like the sweeping opuses of Final Fantasy VI, or the haunting hymns of Super Metroid. Cool Spot has music that sounds fun, albeit juvenile. A few of the stages take place in a kid's bedroom and it's mirrored in the score. Other levels, like one that takes place inside a wall (called “Off Da Wall”...get it?), just have some good beats. It's no surprise that the music is top notch, as industry audio giant Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim, Metroid Prime) had a hand in it.
Is Cool Spot better than the slew of great platformers you already know about? Probably not. Gunstar Heroes wasn't a playable advertisement for a soft drink, though. It's a miracle Cool Spot is as good as it is. Look at the dozens of other “advergames” like Yaris, Yo! Noid (which we reviewed here), and Intel Discovered. The vast majority aren't worth your time. Cool Spot, were it released as just a platformer with no merchandising ties (as it actually was in Europe), would stand on its own as a certifiably good game. Grandpa did well in the holiday season of 1993. Would little Jenny have preferred Secret of Mana? Probably. But she won't be disappointed with Cool Spot.
We good
