Rating : - Better than I expected
When I bought "Spot Goes to Hollywood" for the Sega Genesis for a buck, I figured it was probably a lame game I'd only play once. After all, it features "The Cool Spot", some soda pop advertising gimmick. I guessed it was probably given out as a promotion when you bought a 12-pack. How good could it be?

Well, I was surprised. Once I got used to the controls, Spot-GtH has been quite enjoyable and I'm definitely going to play it again.

At first it looks just like any other shoot, run, and jump game. You run around picking up items and occasionally shooting a bad guy who gets in your way. However, where it caught my attention was when it started adding little puzzles. How do I jump to that high bookshelf? I can see an item that is completely walled in; but how do I get it? There's a locked chest; where's the key? What combination of blocks need to be pushed to open the hidden passageway behind the fireplace? What is the relationship between the flower pot and the pictures on the wall?

One of the nice things about this game is that you only have to solve 60% of the puzzles before you can opt to skip to the next level. That way you don't get too bored trying to figure out any one level, but you still want to come back and replay the game to find the parts you missed.

So, given all these positive things, why did I give this game only three stars? Mainly because sometimes the game can be overly frustrating for no good reason. For example, if the solution to a problem is a complicated series of jumps, it seems too often that if you miss even one of the jumps, you fall to a location which requires you to walk quite a bit just to get back to try the jump again. Also, sometimes the fake 3-D perspective can be rather confusing when multiple levels are visible at once.

The graphics seem about average for what I've seen from the Genesis. The music is fine and does nicely set the mood for the different levels (each of which is supposed to be a different movie genre). The controls are annoying to me, because, in this game's visual perspective, moving forward (joystick up), actually means moving at a 45 degree angle on the screen. I compensate by rotating my chair slightly.

All in all, this is a game for someone who likes a mix of action and puzzles and has a bit of patience. (If you liked Super ZZT for DOS, you'll like this game). I'm looking forward to playing more of Spot Goes to Hollywood and someday conquering it 100%.

--b9