Sly Spy

Infobox VG
title= Sly Spy


caption= North American Sly Spy arcade flyer.
developer= Nihon Bussan
publisher= Data East
designer= Makoto Kikuchi (planner)cite web |author = | year=| title=sly spy, video game at arcade-history
format= | work=arcade-history.com | url=http://www.arcade-history.com/?n=sly-spy&page=detail&id=2475 | accessdate=2008-09-07]
Kazuhiro Takayama (hardware)
Tac.H (programmer)
Azusa Hara (music composer)
Hiroaki Yoshida (music composer)
Joe Kaminkow (special thanks)
released= 1989
genre= Adventure; Beat'em up; Run and gun
modes= 2 players, alternating turns
platforms= Arcade, Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Commodore C64, Atari ST, Sinclair ZX Spectrum
input= 8-way joystick, 2 buttons

"Sly Spy" (known in Japan as nihongo|"Secret Agent"|シークレット・エージェント and known in Europe as "Sly Spy: Secret Agent") is an arcade game developed by Nihon Bussan and published by Data East in 1989. After Data East became defunct due to their bankruptcy back in 2003, G-Mode bought the intellectual rights to the arcade game as well as most other Data East games and licenses them globally.cite web | url = http://www.dataeastgames.com/title_slyspy.html | title = Sly Spy - DATA EAST GAMES | publisher = G-Mode | accessdate = 2008-09-08]

Description

Plot

The plot resembles the James Bond series and takes place in the U.S.. During the beginning, the president and his wife wave at the crowd next to a limousine at the White House in Washington D.C., while terrorists (some flying in using jetpacks) approach the president and his wife armed and dangerous while the screen turns red and black. Later, a secret agent known as "Sly Spy" was sent to prevent the terrorists from infiltrating the city.

Gameplay

Players control the secret agent name Sly Spy through nine different stages. Each stage has its own gameplay. In the first stage, players shoot enemies horizontally while sky-diving. The second, forth, sixth, seventh and ninth stages are played in a run and gun format similar to Namco's "Rolling Thunder" and its sequels, but it lacks the ability to jump between the top and bottom floors while grabbing rails. Also, when out of ammo or attacked by a boss with one hit, "Sly Spy" drops his firearm while the game becomes a beat'em up in 2D platform manner, much like "Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja", except players can't make "Sly Spy" do punches, but can only make him do three different kicks: high kicks, low kicks and jump kicks. The third stage shows "Sly Spy" riding on his motorcycle with a built-in machine gun, which makes this stage a combination of run-and-gun and vehicular combat game formats, much like "Moon Patrol". The fifth and eighth stages are in marine-based, side-scrolling shooter format.

Minor enemies will drop several different items when defeated, such as extra ammo, cans of Coca-Cola-esque soda and machine guns. Sometimes enemies will drop a jetpack when on land or a DPV when underwater to make transportation easier. Enemies also drop parts of the ultimate weapon in the game called the Golden Gun, which is based on the weapon of the same name from the novel and the film titled "The Man with the Golden Gun"; however, instead of shooting Golden Bullets like in the James Bond series, "Sly Spy"'s version functions nearly the same way as the Cobra Gun in Data East's 1988 "RoboCop" arcade game and the "Heavy Barrel" energy cannon from the arcade game of the same name. It is also shaped like a rifle instead of a pistol; however, when the Golden Gun is equipped along with either the motorcycle or the DPV are both equipped, the DPV's built-in firearm will shoot the same energy bolts shot from the Golden Gun itself on land.

Besides the protagonist and the Golden Gun being references of the James Bond series, several bosses and stages in the game are based on villains and settings in the James Bond series. The second boss is based on Jaws from the films titled The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, the third boss is based on Oddjob from the film titled Goldfinger, and the ninth and final stage is based on the launch base seen in the Moonraker film.

Ports and related releases

The game was ported to several home systems for personal use. Data East ported it to the Commodore C64 and released it in Europe and North America in 1989, while Ocean Software ported it to the Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST and Sinclair ZX Spectrum in 1990 exclusively in Europe.

Several references from Data East's other arcade games made cameo appearances in "Sly Spy". A poster showing "Chelnov" (a.k.a. "Atomic Runner") can be seen at the beginning of Stage 4, the "Bad Dudes" logo can be seen at the end of Stage 4, and a poster showing "Karnov" can be seen at the beginning of Stage 6. In the 1990 movie, "Robocop 2", Officer Duffy gets pushed by RoboCop into the "Bad Dudes Vs. DragonNinja" arcade cabinet; however, when Duffy's head destroys the arcade monitor, the arcade cabinet changed into "Sly Spy". [cite web |author = | title=ROBOCOP 2 - TRIVIA
format= | work=RoboCop Archive | url=http://www.robocoparchive.com/info/making2-2.htm | accessdate=2008-09-07]

References

External links

* [http://www.dataeastgames.com/title_slyspy.html Official G-Mode webpage of Sly Spy]
*GameFAQs|num=568679
*KLOV game|id=9589
* [http://www.arcade-history.com/index.php?page=detail&id=2475 arcade-history]