Now this is a tough one to call. The original Spy vs. Spy for the NES was one of the finest games on the system, in my opinion. Taken from the MAD strip of the same name, the game saw you pitting the White Spy against the Black Spy (or vice versa) and trying to beat the opponent to the punch by utilising a whole load of booby traps and insane weapons to stop them in their spying. Nineteen years later, the pair are back for more of the same.
You could probably have guessed how the game has transformed in that time scale. We’re looking at a third person platform romp here, complete with an easy-to-follow story and online multiplayer options. Yep, Spy vs. Spy is as generic as they come if you don’t spend any time with it, but once you do, there are surprises abound. Take the first level of the story mode as an example. Lengthy and interesting enough to keep the player engaged, there are a whole host of different enemies to defeat, a handful of weapons that need to be mastered to ensure your progress (such as the bucket of acid above the door trap) and a bunch of bog-standard platforming challenges that add to the variety by going that extra bit further.
Most games would see you running onto a collapsible bridge, with the idea being that you sprint across this as far as you can, then jump the rest of the way as it falls from under you. Spy vs. Spy has these, but before you can cross them, you must activate them. This is done by proving yourself to be a deadeye with the catapult, hitting classic red-and-white circular moving targets from a good distance away. As tedious as it sounds, this is actually quite fun, as are many of the other challenges present in-game.
Don’t get me wrong; Spy vs. Spy is by no means the world’s greatest game. In fact, there are technical flaws all over the place. Clipping, slowdown and some things that can only be described as “strange” occur graphically, and at times the gameplay seems to be fairly throwaway, often repeating the same type of challenge in an ever so slightly different setting. That would kill any other game stone dead, but not Spy vs. Spy. The sheer amount of character that the game possesses, along with belly laughs that you’ll get from cut scenes such as the white spy setting the open fire to toast the black spy as he walks past, only to see the black spy wander in, place his hat on the ground as if he’d been fried alive and then hide whilst the white spy goes to investigate is enough to carry the game along.
You’ll put up with some shocking gameplay flaws just to see the next movie. That isn’t a particularly good thing, since if you just wanted to see a funny set of clips, you’d pick up a comedy DVD for less money. However in most of the game modes, Spy vs. Spy sees you outwitting the opposing spy yourself, setting buckets of acid on top of doors, putting boxing gloves inside safes and closing them, tempting the other spy to fall for your plan. This is strangely engaging in itself, and when taken online (if you can find any opponents, that is), is absolutely cracking fun.
As you can probably tell, I’m not entirely sure about where to take this review. On the one hand, Spy vs. Spy is a fun, engaging, throwaway platform game that comes in at the right price. The addition of the multiplayer modes and classic game are just a bonus. On the other hand, you’ve got a fairly buggy and technically inferior platform game that contains just enough inventiveness to get by. Whether or not you enjoy the game depends on your love of the characters and your level of cynicism. Either way, Spy vs. Spy is a good title to have a quick pop at when you don’t fancy getting into anything heavy.
