Spot Goes to Hollywood

The popular soft drink mascot makes it big in his second adventure for the video game market. Players join Spot, the red star of the adventure, to explore 20 levels set in movie-based worlds. These worlds are filled with puzzles, creative enemies, hidden passages and arcade-style action. The player's job in the adventure is to guide our cylindrical friend through captivating worlds such as a swashbuckling pirate world, a spine-tingling horror world and an adventure world.

Three bonus worlds also exist to challenge gamers all the more: a shoot-'em-up Western, prehistoric dinosaur park and science fiction. In order to move from level to level, players collect five hidden gold stars which grow increasingly difficult to find as the game progresses. If players complete all levels, Spot goes home.

During gameplay. Spot encounters many creative enemies and obstacles. Always active, Spot can ride witches' brooms, cannons, rafts, a big wheel and a space ship. Defending himself as he goes. Spot has access to a variety of weapons including fire, a freeze shot and homing missiles. There are also plenty of breakable objects in every level-like as pods-that hold surprises and even open warps to secret areas.

Spot is a visually rich, colorful game featuring an isometric viewpoint and 3-D rendered worlds. There are more than 20 minutes of cinematic sequences preceding each level that tell Spot's story and add to the movie-like feel of the game. For gamers with an extra ambition to finish the title, there is a hidden surprise video on the making of Spot Goes To Hollywood, providing insight on the many different facets of the game.

The days of 7-Up are over. It was a good drink, but Spot had to move on. He was destined to be more Ethan just a mascot for a soda. He has become his own person-a character separated from the rest of the mascots of the world. Spot has become...well, cool.

Many gamers have seen shots of this game on the back of Sony PlayStation, boxes or in GameFabrique before and probably liked the sharp graphics with a cartoony feel. We've finally been able to play a preview of it and so far it measures up to the hype.

Cool Spot is making his way through level after level-each with its own movie genre-trying to get out of the wacky film world. So how'd Cool Spot get in this pickle to begin with?

After getting released from a movie theater's pop machine, Spot sneaks into the projection room. From there the fun starts. He should've never played around with that darned projector-that's how he gets warped into the weird world where the game takes place.

The levels are set up like Zaxxon, in a three-quarter perspective but with a twist. Instead of just going in one direction all the time, Spot will go all over the place to make his way through each level.

Gamers will find stages that resemble Indiana Jones (i.e., the mine cart scene), a horror flic taking place in a large mansion and a typical swashbuckling pirate movie complete with a giant octopus. With this many levels, players will be kept busy. Fret not, the red one still has his sparkling bubbles that made their appearance on the original game for the Genesis.

Keep an eye out for the 2-D characters thrown together with 3-D graphics for an interesting combination that's animated like a cartoon. Leave it to Virgin with their platform games to always have awesome character animation, examples being Aladdin and The Jungle Book.

The 3-D rendered backgrounds with 2-D animation in the foreground is similar to what Disney used in Beauty and the Beast. The outcome is what Mark Kelly, executive producer for Spot Goes to Hollywood, calls "outstanding." It's safe to say that we agree. The graphics in Spot are flawless.

Gamers will fight hordes of Quasimodos in the mansion's bell tower to swingin' salmon on the pirate ship. In each of these levels, Cool Spot can find a whole array of different items. The standard item, like in the old 16-Bit version, is the red dots. Since we're dealing with a 32-Bit world in a 3-D world, some new items have been added. Included are the "Hollywood Walk" stars, special letter coins, take-boards-which act as half-way markers-and movie reel warps which transport Spot to special areas.

When Spot collects all of the stars, an extra life is given. If all of the stars are obtained from all the levels a special ending sequence is enabled. This includes segments of the game that didn't quite make it to the final cut.

Now that Cool Spot is breaking into new worlds, how long will it be until he makes his way to the 64-Bit realm-specifically onto the Nintendo 64?...Hmmm.

Lega Trouble

Why is it that whenever something funny comes along, these guys and gals called lawyers step in and start talking about these things called laws and even worse, lawsuits?

Perhaps nothing major ever happened during the making of Spot Goes to Hollywood, but some of the other companies' lawyers made a stink when presented with a few of the parodies in the game. For instance, some of the levels were parodies of movies like Blade Runner, Terminator. Predator. Tron and Aliens.

These movie house lawyers said, "NO." and that's as far as the idea went. But don't get angry just yet. There is hope. By collecting all of the Walk of the Stars stars in the entire game. Spot will get a special ending with the "making of" included. In this cinema, some of the parodies that didn't make it into the game will be shown. You've gotta love hidden stuff!

With the success of the original Spot game on the 16-bit systems already under its belt, Virgin has moved ahead with the soft-drink mascot into the next generation. Spot Goes To Hollywood will be a multi-platform game showing up on the Saturn, PlayStation, 32X, Genesis and Super NES. In what Virgin promises to be a cinematic wonder, Spot will make his way through several different levels of exotic locations. From what we've seen of this one, the 32-bit consoles are sure to have a great time showing off their graphical powers. We'll have to see how the sixteen-bit consoles fare.

Spot's back in a half-shooter, half-puzzle game that's sure to quench the thirst of young gamers. Unfortunately, it'll leave everyone else hungry for more action.

Spot Heeds a Jolt Cola

Spot explores countless Hollywood movie-done levels trying to rescue enough missing spots to exit each area and continue. Spot doesn't move quickly through the levels, though, and even when you hold the Run button you'll wish the un-cola mascot had some caffeine to speed him up. What's more, the 3/4-overhead view makes it hard to judge where you're walking, so you'll plummet off ledges in no time. It's frustrating.

If Spot hopes to make it in Hollywood, he's going to need some plastic surgery. The original game had ground-breaking animation, but that was years ago, and by today's standards these characters look average at best. Still, there are some cute animations, like when Spot walks by a mirror or wobbles on one foot as he tries regain his balance.

The sound lacks the flavor Genesis owners' desire, and the music hardly satisfies. Spot's shriek of damage is a curious -- and tiresome -- contrast to his enemies' silent deaths.

The Un-Game

Spot Goes to Hollywood isn't a bad game, but it's also not the kind of game that leaves you with a bubbly good feeling.

The irascible 7-Up Spot is set to help Virgin make its advanced-system debut in a new action/adventure romp. The hop-n-bop gameplay follows Spot as he makes his way through a variety of strange adventures, including a little swashbuckling in Pirate World and outer-space exploration in Sci-Fi World. A 34-overhead view combines with a blend of 3D graphics and hand-drawn animation to give this game an effervescent quality.

Everybody's favorite soft-drink spokesman is back in his own 32-bit game. Spot Coes to Hollywood tries hard to show up the other platform pretenders, but it falls short due to massively difficult controls.

In Spot, you hop and shoot through 20 levels, collecting Spot Dots as you battle a huge and colorful variety of cartoon enemies. Among them are sniffing sharks and gun-slinging cows, all beautifully illustrated on the PlayStation.

The settings are as imaginative as the enemies. You romp through adventure, horror, and pirate sets, along with three bonus areas. In addition to shooting enemies, you also ride a mine cart, down space ships, and collect stars to access the bonus rounds.

It's a great time--if you can leam to control the squirrelly Spot. Even with the ability to configure the control pad, you may find Spot accidentally jumping the wrong way. For example, pushing Right on the control pad makes Spot go forward, which would be fine if this were a side scroller, but in the &-overhead view, making accurate jumps becomes very frustrating. However, if you master the controls, Spot rewards you with a great-looking, funny game.

Graphics

Great little touches, like the Lion King-esque boar that gets served up as an entree when you shoot it, make the game as funny as it is gorgeous. The graphics are well animated and the backgrounds are impressive.

Sound

The sound is the best part of this game. Movie-quality scores enhance the action, and even the sound effects bring this game to a new audio level.

Control

I Spot's controls suck. You'll realize it the minute you pick up the controller. It's a shame that this good-looking, great-sounding game is so drastically unplayable.

Fun Factor

Spot's a fun game to play once you practice and master the controls. Unfortunately, if your patience level is low, it won't be long before you'll be looking for a bottle of Spot remover.

Following in the video game footsteps of the Pink Panther and Gex, the familiar soda mascot gets himself caught in Hollywood's big screen. In this 23-level adventure with 200 hidden areas, you must get Spot out of the pirate, western, horror, and sci-fi worlds. It's a tough spot to be in when you face dangerous levels that parody films like Indiana'Jones and Jurassic Park. The prelim version had sharp graphics and vibrant music.

That wacky Spot is at it again, taking his cola-related hijinks to new heights on the Genesis. Spot Goes To Hollywood is an enjoyable romp through cliche movie scenes that will prove to you that no matter how inane or stupid a mascot is, he can still get his own platform game.

You play Spot. The object of the game is to get to the end. On the way you'll have to tangle with some unpleasant antagonists bent on making sure you don't succeed in your mission. Did I mention it was a platform game?

The looks of this game differ little from the 32X version. Maneuver Spot along a 3/4 view screen and make sure not to bump into anything nasty.The cleverness and humor of the original, which made Spot such a refreshing platform game, has suffered not a jot in the translation over to the Genesis. As well as the humor, you'll find all of the same levels and items.Travel from the deck of a pirate ship to the bowels of an eerie dungeon. All in all, you won't be able to tell the difference between this version and the 32X version.