Spot Goes To Hollywood

Spot Goes To Hollywood is the sequel to the well-liked Cool Spot, the platform series starring the red dot mascot of the 7 Up soft drink. This time Spot gets sucked into an old film projector and tumbles through the genres of the silver screen: he hops around a pirate ship, creeps through horror scenery and braves adventure-serial escapades. The version here is the Sega Genesis release from 1996, developed by Eurocom and published by Tec Toy, Sega's partner in Brazil.

The big change from its predecessor is the camera. Instead of side-scrolling, the game plays from an isometric viewpoint, and the levels are no longer straight runs but sprawling climbing frames full of traps, switches and hidden corners. Progress is looser, too: you search for the way forward, backtrack and unlock passages rather than sprinting to the right. Visually it is a treat — the backdrops are colourful and detailed, and Spot himself is animated with the personality of a proper cartoon actor.

But the isometric angle collects its tax. Judging exactly where a jump will land is considerably harder at a slant than from the side, and the game demands precise jumping constantly. This is where it loses much of the goodwill the presentation earns — a pretty world you keep falling out of stops being charming rather fast.

In the mid-nineties nearly every product had its own platformer, and the 7 Up dot belonged to the better end of advertising games. Judged in that company, Spot Goes To Hollywood is still above average, ambitious and lavish. Judged purely as a platformer, it is weaker than the tight, precise Cool Spot: beauty wins over playability a little too often. Worth a look, as long as you know the magic is mostly in the scenery.

You can try it on oldgame.cz right in your browser, with no installation.