Cool Spot
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You are currently reading a thread in /vr/ - Retro Games
You are currently reading a thread in /vr/ - Retro Games
Growing up as a PC gamer there weren't too many platformers on the PC back then. We had the Apogee games and later Zool and Jazz Jack Rabbit. One game I've REALLY enjoyed is COOL SPOT. Every summer I feel like touching this gem again. The game play is VERY smooth and it feels great. The atmosphere is nice - but that mostly applies to the beach level. Unfortunately the level inside the house with the rats is a bit annoying and I don't even think I ever managed to beat this game. Cool Spot 2 with it's isometric view...was that any good because I do not like it.
What version / port is the best anyways? I really enjoy the DOS version. Just look at that dithering. I think I will try the SNES version now though. What was the deal with Cool Spot anyways (I am not American). Was he the mascot of 7UP? I thought Feedodeedo or however you spell that triangle face dude was their mascot.
Always loved the music in this. Sounded like a Beach Boys rip off.
>>3208461
It's a 99% eye candy fest and I don't even care; comfy AF game
I tend to like the Genesis or PC/Amiga versions best; the SNES version has nice transparency effects and whatnot, but the screen layout feels weirdly crowded and the HUD is lesscool. I grew up with the Master System port though, of all things
Cool Spot used to be the Sonic to Fido Dido's Alex Kidd; FD eventually made a comeback in the 2000s, since Spot was too aggressively ninetiesy probably
>>3208527
Bitch, it's Tommy "Music Options Submenu" Tallarico
Don't the computer versions of this game have shit scrolling and framerates compared to the console versions?
>>3209076
I am wondering this as well. The SNES version has some very nice parallax while I do not think that the PC version was able to pull that one off.
Level 4 is a complete mess! It's a kiddy swimming pool and you have to jump from bubble to bubble and kinda FIGURE OUT where to go to. If you fall you fall into the water and you DIE! So you jump from a bubble into the UNKNOWN and you can only hope that there is a bubble in the direction you are JUMPING. If there is NONE you are screwed and you can't jump back onto the bubble you came from because it disappeares. The entire level design is a trainwreck. I am too proud to look up a lets play on youtube but this level is shit and I never made it any further! All that rage and I try to beat this crap every summer again for like 20 years now and I never make it any further.
>>3209076
a lot of older PC games had bad framerate locks. a number of older games have mods for modern OSes to unlock framerate and added improvements.
also I played coolspot on snes op. it's one of my favorite SNES games. beat that son of a bitch on emulator last year.
>>3209927
But tell me about the level design. That kiddy swimming pool level fucking blows so badly. no idea where to go to. jump on a bubble - pick a random direction- opps wrong you fall into the water and die.
>>3208541
Which version has the best music?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNrFaHVxDCg
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3S92uRpqbxM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xrhtL0h_pZg
>>3211145
I always thought the genesis version had the best sound. Cool spot is one of the few games that sounds better on genesis than SNES.
Genesis:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_WLn7z5x2Rg
SNES:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbpDwaTnGGI
>>3211128
oh god i save scummed that bath level. it was a bathtub by the way. but jesus christ that fucking level. trust me it took me to the last seconds to save the other spot. you can't fucking tell where you're going and the background is so noisy and you can't see where you're jumping and they got flying enemies coming at your ass.
>>3209579 >>3211128 >>3211269
Come on, anons. You actually got me curious about whether this would actually be "unacceptable" for today standards, so I got the rom and entered a gamefaqs'd cheat code to skip directly to the (Toy/Souvenir Store? Weird Uncle Rec Room?) level: Fell down twice (once from each of the top 2 levels), but cleared in in one life and normal difficulty after literally over 20 years since last time I played it FGS.
It was fun, gorgeous to look at, and fast food-simple to pick (back) up; just like I remember it.
The gameplay has that very loose damage buffer-based type-deal, like almost all Virgin/Shiny games. You're supposed to get hit a lot even if you know the level; these aren't games about not screwing up, but about not screwing up *too badly*.
On the level design issues, I really have problems seeing most of what's being described as actually unintentional. The level is designed to be playfully exasperating, that's all: you'll yell at the screen when you fall down (and you -will- fall down), but you might very well survive and only get delayed. Delegating part of the difficulty as "unfairness" is a perfectly valid way of providing a sense of achievement that doesn't feel simply handed to you as part of the normal flow of the game.
About the blind jumps, how are they exactly "blind"? You know in which direction you're supposed to be going; you KNOW you've got to jump; and very few of the actual jumps have any actual risk of overshooting the target. It's a game based on quick reaction, so it simply asks of you to make the final 10% of those actions on the fly (it's always about *adjusting* a forcibly incomplete decision, not about making a blind one to begin with)
All in all, you're probably right: these are design paradigms product of their time, and wouldn't really fly today for a casual game
>>3211145
The gameboy version is surprisingly good, but the SNES takes the cake for me.
>>3211358
Forgot link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgDeGGa486w
>>3211346
Most of the game is fine and I think the level design is fine. But the fucking bathtub level is one mistake with the bubbles and you don't remember where it falls to you die. It's a frustrating level and you can't always tell where you're at. The level is purely something you have to practice and remember very well. The rest of the levels are fine and you can beat them without game overs. But fuck the bathtub level.
>>3211187
I think the Genesis version sounds good until the kick drum comes in, then it sounds awful. The other sounds start in and it just sounds like a mess.
I just prefer the SNES version, all of the sound channels go together well.
>>3211145
Gameboy version sounded better to me even with the inferior sound. The Amiga version is a close second. The Genesis version was very tasteless and full of fart sounds for my taste.
>>3211269
it clearly is NOT a bath tub. It has a yellow rubber rim and is CLEARLY a kiddy pool you can blow up. ive beaten it today but ive saved every few steps. really really annoying. i mean there is ONE thing that I've figured out: look for the STRINGS! the planes are attached to strings so you just have to land where strings are - more or less because it is hard to tell where they start and where they end. also those flying ufos have NO STRINGS so you still don't know where you are jumping.
>>3211145
That Amiga track is amazing! I had never heard it before. That's why I love old consoles and computers so much. Comparing each version is a lot of fun. It's like listening to a piano song and then a guitar version of the same song and so on. Nowadays everything is pretty much the same.
Okay so I gave up on this game now. FUCK COOLSPOT!
The first two levels are AMAZING. I love that beach level. It's a Cool Spot at the beach. The beach level is FITTING. The level at the docks is also fitting. After those two amazing levels which are very asthethic (vaporwave the game) it just goes DOWNHILL.
All of a sudden you are trapped in a world of TOYS. So many toy levels and recycling level ideas which SUCKED in the first place instead of giving me more cool beaches. I gave up on the toy train level because
1) it made me dizzy like fuck. The background that would constantly scroll and jumping around where you don't know where you are going made me sick like fuck and I had ZERO orientation. It also makes no sense to have a MOVING TRAIN and then static platforms above it... awful awful level design
2) TOY SHIT AGAIN? FUCK THIS CRAP!
So what's your take on Cool Spot 2, Anon?
Anyone played spot goes to Hollywood?
>>3216192
i didnt. did you?
