Cool World (SNES) Playthrough - NintendoComplete

A playthrough of Ocean's 1993 license-based platformer for the Super Nintendo, Cool World.

I remember Cool World coming out when I was a kid, and I also remember that I didn't really care too much. It looked like a lame rip-off of Who Framed Roger Rabbit? Granted, being ten or so when the movie came out, I wasn't really part of the target audience, but the movie's sales seem to suggest that I wasn't the only one entirely apathetic to it.

I saw it much later on, and it was okay. It wasn't a total train wreck, but it was indeed a lame rip-off of Roger Rabbit. Less funny, less clever, and worse production, but the general idea was clear.

And unfortunately, the game seems to adhere to the qualities of the movie pretty rigidly. It's not bottom-shelf as far as SNES games go, but it certainly bites off far more than it is able to chew and generally falls short in everything it does.

The graphics and sound are nice exceptions, though, like they are in most of Ocean's games based on movie licenses. The Amiga-style graphics use an odd mix of elements both cartoony and "realistic", relatively speaking. Your character looks like a normal guy (anyone else think he looks just like the guy from the Darkseed games?) and he creates a neat contrast with the super cartoony enemies that are constantly swarming him. Most of the backgrounds have a ton of detail to them, and bright colors are flung like unicorn farts across the screen quite regularly. In most cases, it's a very good looking game. The music is also excellent with fantastic sample quality and compositions that manage to swing from energetic to moody in an instant without being corny or distracting. It's not the type of thing you'd listen to outside of the game, but it does its job well.

The gameplay leaves quite a bit to be desired, though. The game rarely provides you any explicit direction on what it expects from you, and any attempts to explore or figure things out quickly become frustrating thanks to the inconsistent and touchy controls, merciless roving enemies, and the limited number of coins the game will provide. I would argue that there was a lot of potential in the general framework built here - stylish, license-based fetch-questing can work when done well (again, see Roger Rabbit...), but the game never fulfills that potential. It's far too difficult for its own good, and there are limits as to how far presentation alone can carry a title. Cool World stretches those limits more than it should.

Cool World grazes mediocrity, but once the the novelty of the graphics and sound has worn off, your patience won't be far behind.

As some wise sort might have suggested at some point (but I don't know if they ever did): Big cartoon jugs alone do not a good game make. But if that's a selling point, at least include them regularly throughout the game.
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.

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