1st October 1986
Live And Let Die
In Spy Hunter you assume the role of a James Bond-style secret agent. Your mission is simply to keep your spy car on the road along which you are driving. Sounds easy? Well, it would be, if it wasn't for the enemy cars. With names like The Enforcer, Switch Blade, Mad Bomber and Doctor Torpedo, you know you're in for trouble.
The action starts when a van drives up the road and your car is rolled out of the back. From here on it you're on your own!
You must drive along the road keeping an eye out for enemy cars among the normal traffic. They are not too difficult to spot as they invariably try to force you off the road or alternatively shoot you!
To assist you in combating the enemy threat, your car is initially equipped with forward-firing machine guns.
However, as the game progresses, you can collect extra weaponry for your arsenal such as a missile launcher, an oil slick generator and a smoke screen.
As if this wasn't enough, every now and again you get the chance to drive down a fork in the road to a boat house. Here your car changes instantly into a speed boat and the battle re-commences on water.
Spy Hunter is well-designed with attractive graphics and reasonable sound. Keyboard response is also very good.
A unique feature of the game is that, at any time, pressing f0 causes the screen to toggle between a small high resolution display and a large low-resolution one. One small criticism is that during loading, a high resolution title screen is loaded in directly from the tape. Although the title screen is very good it does increase the loading time of the already very long program.
Despite this small annoying point, Spy Hunter is a well presented thoroughly enjoyable game.
Other BBC Model B Game Reviews By Mike Ginns
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