(AfroGamers.com) You know, a 90s series that I often pontificate about is Cool Spot. It was released and developed by Virgin Games in 1993. This was a platformer and adaptation of the old 7 Up commercials from the time featuring the Cool Spot mascot.
A Lot of Work for a Playable Commercial
Now, it’s basically a super-involved tie-in for the soda. You’re playing a long commercial here but it’s more enjoyable because it’s a game and not an ad interrupting the show or film you were watching. That’s not the main reason it’s enjoyable—far from it—but it a bright point because who would care about playing as the Cool Spot?
In the early 1990s, there were cooler cartoon mascots for snacks, fast food, drinks at the time. Chester Cheetah sits at the top of the heap, Andy Capp, and so on. They all had pretty mid games that were definitely games by they games that could be avoided or skipped over. That isn’t to say they were awful but developers could’ve not made them.
But Cool Spot—this game was anything but mid. The platforming was in-line with other platformers of the time such as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island and Sonic the Hedgehog in that it keeps things simple as far motion, enemies, and navigation. However, it leans more in the direction of games like Vectorman, Boogerman, and Earthworm Jim.
On that note, this title was released on Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis and I played it on the Genesis. Now, relating it to those three games, I always felt that Cool Spot was more of a Sega game than a multi-platform title. It just seemed like it was made for the Sega Genesis and it player better on that console.
In reality, it was really good on both consoles.
What Made the Game Fun?
For our retro gamers, if you remember the Army Men franchise, there is an element of that game here. In Army Men, the player controls the green plastic Army men against tan plastic Army men in battlefields such as the front yard, backyard, and different rooms in the house. The characters are all scaled to toy size and the levels are all rooms or outside environments.
Cool Spot is similar. The first stage is the beach where crabs and smaller creatures are your main enemies, debris, beach chairs, umbrellas, and sand castles are the natural obstacles you’ll have to navigate. There are hazards that wouldn’t be out of place at the beach as well.
My favorite level happens to take place inside a wall where you have wall studs, spiders, mouse traps, and so on to deal with and navigate. Best of all is that all of these obstacles are placed in a way that you could see this being a harrowing adventure for the sunglasses-wearing Cool Spot.
Outside of the setting and level design, the gameplay was tight for a platformer that wasn’t going to compete with the bigger names—which it could’ve done with more support or a major advertising push. It featured responsive controls, the abilities or powers of our hero is a simple fizz blast, and most importantly—and my favorite—the blind leap of faiths in this game made for some fun platforming action. In Sonic games from the period, you knew where you were going and where you would fall. The same with the Super Mario World where the jumps were risky but not blind jump risky.
That seemed more of a screen-scrolling thing but it worked here. That was actually the main risk or threat in the game: the jumps and watching Cool Spot dive for a ledge ala Prince of Persia.
Outside of that, it’s a pretty straightforward platform game but a very well-crafted one. If you remember Cool Spot or played it, what are your memories of it?
As always, let us know in the comments!
Staff Writer; M. Swift
This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.