Growing up as a fan of the James Bond films, I loved video games based on the franchise. We all know the great Goldeneye on N64, but there were others such as a game on the original Game Boy that I have fond memories of. But one thing I was disappointed with was that there was never an arcade game for 007, especially in the prime of the arcades. However, I have now discovered that there was such a game…sort of.
Sly Spy is a James Bond game in all but name and it is an incredible thing to experience. This is the game I had always wanted to see despite not being an official Bond game, and I am disappointed that I never knew about it until now. The gameplay can be compared to Bad Dudes a bit, just also with a gun now. You have a limited amount of ammo, after which you must use kicks like in Bad Dudes. There is plenty of ammo to pick up though, so that should not be an issue at all. Something else that is good here gameplay-wise, is the vehicle and underwater levels. Normally I am not fond of these types of levels in video games but they were done very well here and I rather enjoy them.
When I said this was inspired by James Bond, I meant it in more ways than one. Two of the bosses are based on Bond villains, Jaws and OddJob, and the best weapon you can get is the Golden Gun. I am kind of surprised at the extent that Data East went through to make an unofficial James Bond game and yet did not get sued over. This would not have happened if the game was made today, and this makes me appreciate the classic arcade gaming scene much more.
There are some weak points of course, as the game has a very limited life system. You can of course add more credits, but it feels a bit too clunky of a system. I get that the game was a quarter muncher, but this is just a bit much. I also noticed that the attacks do not always connect properly and this can lead to you being the one getting hit by an enemy’s attack. The hit detection in general just seems off a bit and this does actually put a bit of a damper on the experience for me. I still love the game, but this is a flaw that may have held it back at the time.
Yet the arcade game, despite the flaws is worth playing., and in the end I think that Johnny Turbo’s Arcade did a great job re-releasing Sly Spy. This game never got a console release in the west, but was released on home computers in Europe and on the Commodore 64, which may be why the game isn’t well known here. I would definitely check this out on the Switch for the James Bond arcade experience that could have been!
Disclaimer: A review key was provided for this review