#595 – Spot: The Videogame!

Spot: The Videogame!: The Review!

PLAYERS: 1-4 simultaneous

PUBLISHER: Arcadia Systems

DEVELOPER: Arcadia Systems

GENRE: Puzzle

RELEASE DATE: September 1990

The exclamation point in Spot: The Videogame! may seem ostentatious, but it is for the players’ benefit. Only through an ecstatic punctuation mark can it be made clear that Spot is a videogame, and not a piece of fruit or a pre-owned history book. Turn the cartridge on and you will see that Spot is your garden-variety Othello variant. Spot is circular, thus he naturally fits onto a board composed of circles. Spot is also “hip” and “with it,” thus he can reproduce asexually to make more pieces of himself on said board. The goal is to get your Spots to reproduce quicker than the computer’s Spots. Your Spots have a distinct color (if you’re playing one-player, it’s usually yellow), as do the computer’s. Move your Spot near the computer’s Spot, and your Spot will convince them to change their reproduction cycles and their colors to a calm and healthy yellow. The computer’s Spots can influence your own Spots to morph into a dictatorial blue as well, so be forewarned. Once the Spots get shaken up, like so many fizzy, delicious 7-Up two-liters, the board will turn into a multi-colored primordial soup of Spot. Spot – all of them – like to yuk it up for the player and engage in cartwheels, moonwalks, breakdancing, and other miscellaneous funkery. Turn his antics off in the Options menu. It makes the games quicker, and frankly, more enjoyable. 500+ board layouts help bolster the replay value, as does a simultaneous four-player option. Spot: The Videogame! isn’t as refreshing as a can of Cherry 7-Up, but it beats the pants off of Diet Slice.

C+