Spy Hunter
Reviewed by Dogg
Whether we like it or not, these days coming up with
brand new ideas for games becomes so difficult that
many companies give up what they like so much. Midway
is a company that almost so closely follows that
example. They've been known for games that have given
up so much hope (see Mortal Kombat), and this is sad
because they were such a good company back in their
glory days. One of the emerging 'big' name titles
back then was the entertaining, but rather
repetitious Spy Hunter. Here, you played a silver car
that very closely resembled a Mercedes-Benz or a
silvery-polished Ford as seen in many automobile
shops today. With this car you gunned down enemies
till you reached the end of the level. Then you
repeated again in the next part of the next level.
Sounds kind of confusing by today's standards, but it
was most definitely groundbreaking by early game standards.
Then in 2001 Midway reluctantly announced a remake
for Spy Hunter. It was penned down for Sony's
industry giantÑthe PlayStation 2. Soon ports were
brought over to Nintendo and Microsoft's consoles.
Now many had a chance to reminisce in the glory days
of gaming, while also rocking down to classic and
modern rock tunes. But now Spy Hunter is being
brought over to the Game Boy Advance. It really is
hard to put such games into such small systems, but
with Spy Hunter the rendering and self-input seems to
be very well done. It is very erroneous to compare
this game to its console brethrens, but it is most
definitely is not a mistake to compare this game to
the other 'big' crop of games coming on the hand-held
side (besides wasn't that old Midway collection for
the Game Boy Color a success, more so 'cause it
featured Spy Hunter?).
This remade conversion of the classic Spy Hunter
doesn't look much different in comparison; but in the
true prospect of a gamer it is a brand new quest
sought to teach you to hunt down enemy personnel.
Once again you will be able to play as that classic
silver Spy car (it is called an Interceptor in this
game) which is still equipped with a missile launcher
to launch off non-homing rockets at oncoming enemies,
as well as a built in gun turret which also fires at
an incredible speed and brings large amounts of
enemies down within seconds. While these weapons are
useful, most of the time you won't have to use them
since the greatest skills you have are strafing to
all sides, while avoiding enemy attacks and then
hitting the main point in the areaÑwhether it be
missile launchers to a self-automated chopperÑand
then instantly bringing it down. Other then the
weapons you can also boost up. Thanks to an extra
cylinder of gas in the car you will be able to boost
up your car in amazing speeds, which will help you
track down many of the fast enemies in this game.
Sounds easy, right? Wrong. Spy Hunter still retains
its classic status to be a hard-as-hell game limiting
to a faithful few who would actually ever get a
chance to beat this game. The levelsÑover 8 in
allÑall range in difficulty. The practice course and
the first level should be a piece of cake for
veterans or to people interested in the genre. But
soon you'll see the inner and deeper side to this
game. By the time you reach the third level you'll
already be crying in merciless pain; in this level
you must hunt down a stolen Interceptor, the same
brand your car is. By the time you will finish the
third level (took me over a day, I'm serious) you
will then go to the jewel eyes that is the next level
where you hunt down missile placements and must hit
down choppers, towers, and must even protect brazen
civilians from the clutch of your evil enemies. The
next levels follow more of the extreme difficulty
that can be seen within these early levels. Like a
big Contra 1, 2, and 3 fan would tell you, 'don't
expect to beat this within a day!'
The missions, as little to little explained, are
mostly different within each passing stage. The only
ones that you'll constantly and constantly see are
these two: Activate SATCOMs, and Minimize Civilian
Casualties. As a spy and big first-person shooter
buff, the minimize civilian casualties is almost a
breather to be in this game. However, the civilian
automobiles roaming around the street can be
annoyingÑmore so in the third level because they're
almost everywhere so getting a hit on the stolen
Interceptor can be quite hard. Minor fret behind, the
Activate SATCOMs objective is, however, also no easy
thing. Here you must find several green specs in the
area and then you must collect them. After you
collect one you will have to get the others. Not
easy, but it's not really needed for full progression
in this game.
Rather than being just a car, your Interceptor
automobile allows your car to transform when in need
of a different route of transportation, or when your
automobile has taken too much damage. When it takes
too much damage your car will transform to a
motorcycle (basically the same as the car, save for
its ability to be faster). And when your car (or
motorcycle) goes through a path filled with water,
your car will transform in order to be sustainable to
the water, or to put it simply, the automobile
practically transforms into an outreach boat. The
boat-like transformation doesn't have any important
differences from the original so there's no need to
say anything more about the stature of your
automobile's transformations.
The different enemies roaming around the area are
your average fairs of bland enemies who'll shoot you
for a while, then leave an open spot for full attack.
Enemy automobiles range from motorcycles, hoodlum
black-like cars, to even armor trucks that most
closely resemble tanks. All the enemies are pretty
smart, even if it really doesn't look that way. For
example: in the third level when tracking down the
stolen Interceptor I came upon some enemies. I came
face-to-face with them. I tried to get myself out of
the impudent mess, but soon all the enemies went in
front of me and then all of a sudden they fired mad
fast at my car, already transforming that excellent
heap of machine to a half-destroyed motorcycle. There
were even worse times where such a monstrosity came
into beingÑmost times resulting in my motorcycle
blowing up. Pretty smart, eh?
The graphics are as bland and as generic as can be,
sort of like most Game Boy Advance games these days.
On one end of the spectrum you got well-designed car
models and creative backgrounds, on the other end you
have pixilated graphics that might displease some
here and there. Doesn't matter, though, because while
they are a bit washed out, they still are great.
Water-effects are also great too, as are explosion
and other SNES looking effects that simultaneously
take place in this game. The short cut-scenes that
take place are also greatÑsort of like the console
versions. While the graphics are antiquated, the
sound effects and background tunes are just great.
Everything from your car exploding to the sound of
your car transforming is all captivatingly, and
amusingly well done. There were times when I thought
to myself, 'hmmÉ where's the Saliva music?' But that
little thing is just a thing that simply doesn't
bother me at all (sides some of the Peter Gunn tunes
are still here, so what more can you ask for?) if you
were concerned.
Overall, Spy Hunter is a superb and well-exploited
try from the peeps over at Midway Studios. While it
is not exactly perfect, Spy Hunter is indeed a
gamer's game that puts you in the true feat of
actually protecting the world; while reluctantly
killing evil forces when in the clutches of near
defeat. It is most definitely a linear game, but who
cares? Remember good old Crash Bandicoot? Remember
his games? They were all linear. Each and every one
of them, yet each one was almost better then the last
(if you count out the PS2 version and Crash Bash).
Nevertheless, Spy Hunter is one of those games on the
Game Boy Advance that triggers an experience. While
it's not exactly perfect, but hell what game
unerringly is perfect. If you like them old 80's
style games with a 90's style twist, and have not
given the console versions a try, then do your best
to please play Spy Hunter. Chances are that you won't
be displeased with this game.
Overall: 8 out of 10