Data East was a beast when it came to the Arcades. The company produced so many classic hits, that have recently been re-released on systems like the Switch by FTE Games. One of these that caught my eye was Sly Spy. As a fan of classic James Bond movies, I also loved video games based on the franchise, such as the great Goldeneye on N64, and a game on the original Game Boy that I have fond memories of. One thing I always felt was a missed opportunity however. was that there was never an arcade game for Bond, especially in the prime of the arcades. That changed when I played Sly Spy however.
Sly Spy is a James Bond game in all but name and it is the game I had always wanted to see. I am disappointed that I never knew about it until now. because this is a game I would have loved in the arcades. In terms of gameplay, this can be compared to Bad Dudes, albeit with a gun. You have a limited amount of ammo, after which you must use kicks like in Bad Dudes. That said, there is plenty of ammo to pick up though, so that should not be an issue at all except for one boss fight where the gun is constantly thrown out of your hand. I must also noted about vehicle and underwater levels, as 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.
I was not exaggerating when I said this is a James Bond game in all but name. Two of the bosses are clearly supposed to be the bond villains Jaws and OddJob, and the best weapon you can get is the Golden Gun. If I am being honest, I am kind of surprised at the extent that Data East went through to make an unofficial James Bond game and managed to get away with it. In today’s more litigious environment, I doubt this game would have been made, 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. More importantly however, is that I 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.
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 in the Americas. Thankfully the Johnny Turbo’s Arcade release is available on Nintendo Switch, so everuon can nowy check out the James Bond arcade experience that could have been.