This is intended to help anyone understand the Cool Spot (Genesis) speed run better and hopefully be useful to help improve their own times. This is not intended to be a walkthrough or route guide – check out the runs for those.
Generic Game Mechanics: Spot has 4 main speed values 0 – Standing 1 – Walking 2 – Running (Slow) 3 – Running (Fast)
Spot can receive 7 hits. There is a short invincibility period after taking a hit. Damage boosting can be valid strategy to save time instead of shooting enemies if used wisely.
Enemies will occasionally drop health after being killed. It is not fully understood when these health drops will happen, but it is known that no health will be dropped if Spot is at full health.
Jumping in the air is overall faster than moving on the ground. For the fastest times possible you want to maximize your time jumping while also able to maintain the fastest speed value. Slowest to Fastest movements are as follow: [0-3]=speed value, G=on ground, J=jumping 0G 1G 0J 2G 1J 3G 2J 3J
Falling too far will trigger Spot’s falling animation. Along with this Spot will perform a splat animation/sound when hitting the ground. This will also reset the speed value to 0.
Walking off ledges will contribute to Spots time to build up to the next speed value. This can occasionally be utilized to gain speed faster as well as lowering the falling height.
Mouse traps will always shoot Spot in the direction the trap is facing. Pushing Spot backwards when trigged from one side or giving an extra boost if coming from the opposite direction.
Occasionally points will not spawn from what appears to be a sprite limit. It tends to happen more frequently in areas with many enemies and faster screen transitions.
Jumping through bouncing bubbles while currently in an enclosed bubble will result is a larger jump.
Speed Preservation tips: Rails/Balloons – keeping the D-pad direction presses while on balloons or rails will preserve current speed state. There may be a time limit on this, but it seems to last until Spot’s animation changes.
If D-pad direction is released when on the ground speed state will return to 0; however, D-pad direction can be changed or released while in the air without loosing speed as long as original direction is re-pressed before touching the ground.
Interactions that automatically change speed Bubbles that bounce Spot will automatically set the speed value to 2.
Ropes will automatically be grabbed unless Spot is moving upward when passing over them. When a Rope is grabbed the speed value will be reset to 0.
Other Time considerations: After the level is completed the remaining time and collected cool% will count down for additional score. During this time every 10% cool points is approx. equal to 0.16 sec of real time. Every 1 min of time remaining is approx. equal to 1 sec of real time.
The death screen is approx. 3 sec long.
Level timer will reset to the beginning value when a death is taken. Random deaths and picking up extra time should be avoided. Intentional deaths could still be beneficial if time to get to the checkpoint is more than the time penalties of the death.
Extra Cool% points are nearly insignificant to overall time. Where you shouldn’t go out of your way to get more points than necessary, you would probably lose more time with added movements of avoiding points in your route then you would from just picking up the extra 1 or 2 points.
Run Enders Above the level (Radical Rails): Somehow managed to get Spot soft locked above the level. Apparently got more speed getting shot out of an elevator tube and could not find a way to get back down to the level.
Top of elevator tubes (Radical Rails): Didn’t have enough momentum getting shot out of an elevator tube, ended up falling slightly back in which triggered getting shot out again. Just sat there bouncing without able to move/jump.
Frozen on Ropes (Any level that has ropes/wires): Getting hit and immediately grabbing onto a climbing rope. Spot gets stuck in the damage animation on the rope. This can possibly happen when taking damage while passing a rope, as well as getting hit by something like a mouse trap that flings Spot into the rope.
Insta-Deaths (Any Level): Spot Immediately dies without getting hit regardless of how much health is left. Often this seems when additional text animations are being displayed on the screen while trying to fire.
Level Specific Tricks: Shell Shock
- It’s possible to skip grabbing 2 balloons with well-timed jumps on the current any% route. 1st is just after the bubble that is bounced on. 2nd is jumping from the balloon after the second bubble and landing on the third bubble – the last bubble before the chair. This one the harder of the two and often results in either grabbing the balloon or missing the bubble if not done correctly.
Pier Pressure - The bees will spawn in the same spot every time, their movements afterward appear to have a semi-random element that seems to depend mainly on Spot’s current position. Firing so that they are hit just as they appear on screen is easiest way to kill them them unless you plan to damage boost.
Off The Wall - The throwing mice always start their throwing animation at the same point when spawning. This makes it easier to time when to shoot or jump to avoid the cheese. They also stop checking for Spots position in the middle of their throwing animation. A well-timed delay before jumping over the mouse can ensure that it will not turn around and continue to throw the cheese in what would now be the opposite direction of Spot.
- Mouse Trap Skip – Just before the third checkpoint there is three mice that throw cheese. Just below that there is a mouse trap between two other mice that throw cheese. Landing on the trap correctly will boost Spot up to the wire above the 3 mice on the next level up. Wading Around
- Early Speed – The lily pads and boats in this level are just big enough to increase Spots speed value. The first lily pad after the frog seems to be the best option for early speed, but the next boat is also a possible option. Once the faster speed is achieved it can be maintained though the entire bottom section by utilizing the speed preservation tricks of neutralizing the D-pad while in the air that has been mentioned earlier.
- Bubble Skip – Falling into the enclosure bubble from the top will give enough height to get to the next bubble just below the cage. One method is to line up horizontally with the fins of the red dirigible and jump at the shelf that has the inflatable duck.
- Intentional deaths could be useful in UNCOLA and 100% runs of this level due to the fact that almost 30% of the points are collected by falling back to the start. Toying Around
- By gaining speed and holding RIGHT+UP it is possible jump up the ladder quickly while also collecting the points. This utilizes the property of maintaining speed on slopes mentioned earlier.
- Spot can jump through the floor in locations where there are single tacks located above. It’s just a thing, not sure why. Radical Rails
- A good time here relies heavily on preserving speed on rails previously mentioned. Platforms at the beginning of the level can be used to gain speed. Controlling the height of jumps and neutralizing D-pad enables collecting the necessary points on route to the cage. Wound Up
- It is quite common for points at the end of this level to not spawn. There are three points behind the left stack of three blocks and four behind the stack of four blocks to the right. The point in between the two stacks will occasionally not spawn; and the majority of the time only 3/4 of the points behind the right stack will be collected the first trip up. This is a good example of where picking up more points earlier could save time. Loco Motive
- The final jump from the doll to the UFO at the end of this level is a significant time save. There may be other setups, but here are two that are known to work. The first is to gain running speed on the train cars and jump up the dolls and up to the UFO. The additional speed makes this jump possible from any point on the final doll. If this setup is proving to be problematic, a backup is to line up so that Spot is only standing on the eyes of the final doll. From a standing start at this point it is possible to just hold right and jump at the highest point of the dolls back in order to make it to the UFO. Back To The Wall
- Nothing new from other levels, several points are behind pipes and can easily be missed. There is 22 points after the cage that can be used as backups for shorter categories.
Dock and Roll - The majority of rope jumps can be done from the highest point Spot can climb without bonking on the platform above. The jump just after the clam is one exception to this. This is worth practicing and finding a setup that works for each individual, but here is one possible setup. Climb down the right rope until Spot’s foot is at the point where the rope goes through the hook screw. From here jump to the left rope and then jump again just after grab onto the left rope, all the time holding LEFT+UP. Surf Patrol
- Since the balloon pattern starts for each balloon when the sprite spawns, controlling when they spawn will be helpful in getting a consistent route through the level.
- The sky section next to the cage has a total of 22 points, which is more than enough back-up points for ANY%/UNCOLA% route. BONUS LEVELS for UNCOLA/100% routes
- There are three ways to exit bonus levels. 1) Get 100% cool and the letter; 2) to run out of time; and 3) to die - this does not decrease life counter. Currently for UNCOLA% the quickest known method is to die, then time out, then 100%. If improvements can be made in the 100% route for the levels, then this order could change.
