Spy vs. Spy

"If you read Mad magazine, you know what these two are up to"

Everybody has at least once in their life fingered through the pages of Mad magazine at their local store. Who could resist such blatent parodies and low brow humor? But to me, the highlight of Mad magazine has always been Spy vs. Spy, so it should only be a mild shock to learn that these two starred in a game, way back in yesteryear (well, a lot of yesteryears ago).

This game has a split screen which was a very novel idea at the time. The object is to run through a house and search through all of the drawers, chests, appliances etc. until you find the briefcase and all the top secret spy stuff. Once you have all of this, leave the house and you win the level. Doesn't sound too difficult, does it? However, at the same time the other spy is trying to do the same thing. You however have a series of booby traps to thwart the other spy. You can place a bomb in a drawer for example and kill the other spy. When he's dead, his timer goes really quickly for a little while until he comes back to life. When his timer runs out, he's out, leaving you alone to find the stuff. However, all of the same applies to you as well. If you encounter your opposition in the house, you will engage in a fist fight, where the loser will end up dead. Also hidden throughout the house are knives and pipes which make the fist fights SOOOO much easier. And if a friend wants to join in on the carnage, there's even a two player mode.

The graphics of this game are simple, and probably a little bit bad. You can tell who's who and what's going on, but the amount of detail is minimal at best. The sound isn't too great either, and everytime a spy dies, the other spy will unleash a laugh which sounds more like a ringing telephone than anything else.

Spy vs. Spy is an easy game to pick up and to kill some time with. It is pretty fun with another player, but it also does get repetitive quicly. All of the later levels just have more rooms, making it difficult and frustrating trying to find all of the stuff. Regardless, if your friend has this game, it wouldn't hurt to challenge him a few times. It's fun for a while, at least.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 08/07/01