Cool Spot

[Phil]

This and Global Gladiators are very similar in the way you have to collect stuff, with the same syle status bar, but C.S is far superior. I used to love this has a kid, great graphics, shame about the sprite flicker with the mice, but is still is a fun little platformer.

Only found out the level select cheat actually worked earlier this year, I've only owned the game for like 13 years!

[mattblah]

I have never liked this game. Ive played it on the sms, megadrive and snes and ive always found it extremely boring. Im not sure what it is about it, i love platformers theres justs something missing.

[outruner]

first of all thanx to rupert for sorting me a copy of this game,as i've mentioned before i love the visuals and movement of coolspot himself,the first level really draws you in,after getting used to the graphics i do get bored easily thou,it's another platform game,maybe when i get further it'll grow on me

[Geishaboy]

Not a bad game, I played it on the SMS and Amiga, and the only real difference I could see was that the SMS version controls aren't as fluid. But I still give it a balst now and then, I mean c'mon, it's Cool Spot

The game does kind of feel like an interective 7-Up commercial though

[uffbulle guest edition]

Funny how everyone says it's a good game when they've barely played it
It's just an average collectathon-type platformer (not my cup of tea tbh) except it has great gfx & sound. It gets very tedious later on when it starts repeating levels.

[playgeneration]

Oh yeah thats right the levels repeat a second time but more difficult. That really annoyed me when I discovered that playing the Amiga version. Cool Spot is a game I've always tried to like, since it was highly rated by most, but I do find it dull.
I'm struggling to think of a platform game on sms I like less than Cool Spot - other than the obvious Tectoy ones. I would have preffered a port of something else over this, the amiga game Alfred Chicken would have been great to have on sms, brilliant game that

[rupert]

I found Superman and Ottifants to both be pretty terrible platformers.

I didnt get chance to play it over the weekend but I'm going to try this week. I don't think I have got as far as the levels repeating so that would be a real downer. How many actual proper levels are there?

[playgeneration]

I might have preffered Ottifants over Cool Spot if it wern't for the awful awful scrolling. But Superman is just pants, funnily enough both Superman and Ottifants were made by the same developer.

Theres only 5 levels in Cool Spot before they start repeating.

[Phil]

There have completely different layouts though, so it's not like the only difference is more enemies. It's a great piece of programming to pull it off though on the MS. I like the bonus round inside the bottle, played it the other day but didn't release it was so flickery.......

Haven't you completed it on easy Rupert? I don't think I have ever completed normal or hard though.....

[Maxim]

I've been mapping this game on-and-off recently:

www.vgmaps.com/forums/genmessage.php?topic=505

I bought it brand new back in '92 or whenever it was it actually came out, based mostly on the cool box, the nice-looking screenshots on the back of the box, and the fact that I'm a sucker for crappy platformers. It's frustrating because you have a rather constrained view, so you really have to learn the levels, there's not time to react in a lot of cases. It runs at a shockingly low frame rate (12-16fps) which actually seems to show up more on an emulator than it does on a TV. Quote why it does is a mystery to me... In terms of level design, the concepts are interesting, but the level design often requires you to leap into a blank blue screen because you just can't see where you're going. When you get to the "Wading Around" level you also get a killer headache because the background is just way too busy.

Overall, it's a reasonably tough game - although you shouldn't have too much trouble completing it, especially if you're emulating and saving - but often more due to enemies attacking you from nowhere than due to a challenging difficulty curve. However, it rarely strays from frustrating ("damn, I died again") into annoying ("screw this game, I give up") - at least, for the hardcore platformers among us.

Global Gladiators was a lame reworking of the engine - it's really just a quick modification of the graphics and a tweaking of the jumping/shooting physics - and it's awful. But maybe that's because it lacks that "I saved up for ages to buy this game so I will really try to like it" factor I had with Cool Spot.

People talking about repeats are making it unclear that what you get is repeats of the graphic style, not the levels themselves. You've got 5 different sets of graphics spread over 8 levels (not counting the bonus levels). It's more normal to have 2 or 3 consecutive levels in the same style before switching, rather than cycling through them, but it's not really any different to that.

Yeah, I never normally post here.

[edit: there are 8 levels, not 10]

[rupert]

nice mini review that I think sums up most peoples thoughts. And welcome, didnt realise you had never posted here (?)

[playgeneration]

I don't think I would have been that bothered if the same level theme was repeated one after the other. But to have worked through half the game to be confronted by same looking levels again just annoyed me.

[kikedanger]

The game has good graphs but it can be some bored.

[kungfukid]

I tried to complete it yesterday on normal and failed. didn't have a whole lot of time, and could have gotten further but had to give up after using one continue (still had another two, but not the time to use them!) Got onto level seven. might give it another bash later on if I have the time. Like Phil said, I love the bonus stages too! I genuinely do think it's better than most platformers for the SMS, it might not be original, but it is of a higher quality than most in my opinion.

[Phil]

They pushed the MS as far as they could with this game, a great conversion. It might not have the boats in the background like the SNES version, but that doesn't add anything to the game. Just makes it look a bit prettier...