Overview
Sly Spy (known in Japan as Secret Agent, and known in European ports as Sly Spy: Secret Agent) is a side-scrolling run-and-gun developed and released by Data East for arcades in 1989.
Reminiscent of Namco's Rolling Thunder, Sly Spy has players hunting down a major criminal organization (the C.W.D., or Council for World Domination) as a lone American secret agent known only by the name Sly. It includes various references to the James Bond media franchise, including Sly's appearance, the appearance of some boss characters (strongly resembling Jaws and Oddjob), and the Golden Gun superweapon (a mechanic lifted from Heavy Barrel).
The arcade version of the game later received two ports after Data East's bankruptcy: one for the 2010 Wii compilation Data East Arcade Classics, and a standalone digital release for the Nintendo Switch. The Switch version was released by Flying Tiger Entertainment on May 3, 2018, as part of the Johnny Turbo's Arcade series, and was later included in the compilation Retro Classix Collection 4-in-1: Sly Spy, Shootout, Wizard Fire & Super Real Darwin on August 27, 2020.
Gameplay
Sly Spy covers a varying amount of game genres, but it all takes place as a side scrolling adventure. The genres include action, run and gun, beat'em up and adventure, and each level is broken up into these genres. You begin the game by choosing your secret agent number (i.e. 007), and sky dive from a plane shooting enemies all the way down. After this, the game primarily becomes run and gun style game if you are in possession of a weapon, or a beat'em with out the weapon. The gameplay changes occasionally in the game, sometimes you may be riding a motorcycle or even swimming under water. In these instances the game style retains the objective of simply shooting the enemies on screen. You will progress through the game eliminating multiple bosses, culminating to a level where you have fight all the bosses once again including the final boss.
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