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Spy vs Spy

Spy vs Spy

Dec 31, 1984

Main game

3.00 average rating based on 113 ratings

5
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4
33
3
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2
31
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7
The black spy and the white spy are out to outsmart each other before the time bell rings. Find the needed objects (money, passport, secret plans and airport door key) by searching rooms in the embassy, which include desks, file cabinets and other furniture. Foil your opponent by setting creative booby traps in the various rooms (a bomb in a dresser drawer, for instance). Traps can be disarmed with objects found in rooms (a water bucket from a firebox on the wall will disarm the bomb in the prior example). When all the items are together in the secret briefcase, … More
The black spy and the white spy are out to outsmart each other before the time bell rings. Find the needed objects (money, passport, secret plans and airport door key) by searching rooms in the embassy, which include desks, file cabinets and other furniture. Foil your opponent by setting creative booby traps in the various rooms (a bomb in a dresser drawer, for instance). Traps can be disarmed with objects found in rooms (a water bucket from a firebox on the wall will disarm the bomb in the prior example). When all the items are together in the secret briefcase, head for the airport door. Less
Release Dates
1984 Full Release (North_America)
Atari 8-bit, Commodore C64/128/MAX
1985 Full Release (Europe)
Amstrad CPC, ZX Spectrum
1985 Full Release (North_America)
Apple II
Aug 01, 1986 Full Release (Japan)
PC-8800 Series
Sep 20, 1986 Full Release (Japan)
Sega Master System/Mark III
1986 Full Release (Japan)
Sharp X1
1987 Full Release (Europe)
Acorn Electron, BBC Microcomputer System, Commodore 16, Commodore Plus/4
1989 Full Release (Europe)
Amiga, Atari ST/STE
1999 Full Release (Worldwide)
Game Boy Color
User Stats
293
In Collection
17
Wish Listed
1
Playing
34
Backlogged
How Long Is Spy vs Spy?
Main story: 12.0 hours
Total completions: 1
Related Content
ApramPepo
ApramPepo gave Aug 10, 2021
ApramPepo gave Aug 10, 2021
Play it Co-op, Avoid it single.

That's pretty much it. the game isn't fun without a friend.

scoopings
scoopings gave Aug 13, 2022
scoopings gave Aug 13, 2022
Great, Complex Game With Lots Of Replayability--Especially With 2 Players
This review is for the Commodore C64/128/MAX version

Look: 8/10 I love the split screens for 2-player, the UI buttons, and how well-done the screens themselves are for 1984. And, you know I love maps from my early days with survival horror/RE haha, so I gotta love how they did the map. enter image description here

Oh, and the giggle animation whenever the other spy dies is a nice touch, giving me Oddworld feels. Finally, the airport screen is very well-done too! Impressive look to this game for sure. enter image description here

Sound: 8/10 What a beautiful jingle! I've heard of the cartoon strip and, perhaps a show(?), but not familiar with any jingles associated with it. Regardless of whether this game's jingle is original or not, I love it! (I played the original Commodore 64 version, not sure what it sounds like in the various ports.) Fortunately the sound effects aren't too obtrusive, tho some of the traps kinda are they are infrequent enough not to get too annoying.

Play: 7/10 It was quite confusing figuring out how to play. I got the jist of it: set up traps against the other spy because death depletes their timer (oh shoot, and it loses the items in your/their briefcase!), try to find the secret items …

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Look: 8/10 I love the split screens for 2-player, the UI buttons, and how well-done the screens themselves are for 1984. And, you know I love maps from my early days with survival horror/RE haha, so I gotta love how they did the map. enter image description here

Oh, and the giggle animation whenever the other spy dies is a nice touch, giving me Oddworld feels. Finally, the airport screen is very well-done too! Impressive look to this game for sure. enter image description here

Sound: 8/10 What a beautiful jingle! I've heard of the cartoon strip and, perhaps a show(?), but not familiar with any jingles associated with it. Regardless of whether this game's jingle is original or not, I love it! (I played the original Commodore 64 version, not sure what it sounds like in the various ports.) Fortunately the sound effects aren't too obtrusive, tho some of the traps kinda are they are infrequent enough not to get too annoying.

Play: 7/10 It was quite confusing figuring out how to play. I got the jist of it: set up traps against the other spy because death depletes their timer (oh shoot, and it loses the items in your/their briefcase!), try to find the secret items by searching the furniture (hoping not to trigger the enemy spy's traps), and exit to the airport! Now, where the airport exit was... how to engage with the beautiful UI... how to fight the other spy... how to set traps... etc etc all were not so clear. As usual, the Instructions help. But it still wound up being quite the learning curve. If I had someone else to play with this, I bet I'd push through and get to know the game very well.

Feel: 7/10 I bet this is amazing as a 2-player game. Of course, it would be even better if you couldn't see each other's screen, but LAN gameplay was long off in 1984 heh. So they had to work with what they could. And they did a damn fine job of it for its time! You can hit each other, set up elaborate traps (which the cartoon is known for), and/or focus on collecting the items and gtfo (but there seems to be an abundance of time, unless dying frequently which probly happens in 2-player mode, so why not enjoy trying to kill each other? haha). In the end, the gameplay is just too complex for my usual taste. Still, an excellent game.

Attachment: 7/10 Nice to see there is a variety of embassies/settings to play in, which would result in a lot of replayability especially back in the day and especially if I had someone else to play with. This feels really advanced for its time--a truly 2-player game that encourages replays with a variety of possibilities (plus a Look and Sound that are both functional and quite enjoyable). As for me myself, though, I doubt how often I will be returning to this. It's worth another try when I'm with my brothers, so both players are on a learning curve ha. And it's a great game, so no complaints here. I eventually gave up trying to fight even the first difficulty of the computer, though, so I obviously can't claim to have gotten super attached.

Completion: Couldn't even defeat Difficulty 1 Computer :( But that's mostly due to the complex gameplay and struggle with setting traps. (The Instructions at the beginning of the game should have been my sign this is a bit too much for me heh) Playtime: ~25 mins

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Quillshott
Quillshott gave Mar 20, 2015
Quillshott gave Mar 20, 2015
Quillshott's review of Spy vs Spy

Oh man, I remember being so excited to play this one on split screen even if I didn't know what the heck was going on.