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What a complete and utter basket-base James 'shaken and stirred' Bond is. Still, he gets to shoot loadsa bad guys and snogs all the girlies, so he must be doing something right. With Walther PPK in shoulder holster and a lifetime enrolment in the Roger Moore school of eyebrow-wiggling, Mark 'Q' Caswell investigates.

The life of a secret agent is full of excitement, with high-speed car chases and death-defying falls from airplanes top of the agenda. But the secret agent is only as good as his or her arch-rival, and the evil organisation in this game is a doozy. The Council For World Domination (hereafter referred to as CWD to save my poor fingers) are threatening to detonate an atomic bomb.

So, into the fray leaps Sly Spy, the western world's fast hope when it comes to terrorist bashing. The game opens with Sly (i.e. the player) jumping from a plane and obeying the laws of gravity (i.e. plummeting toward the ground at warp speed).

Our valiant hero is, of course, wearing a parachute (I hope that ain't a rucksack on your back), and carrying his trusty pistol. As the ground rises up to tap Sly gently on the bonce, CWD henchmen drop in for a quick cuppa... well, they actually want to blow his brains out, but I was being polite. He starts out with a full clip of ammo, but watch out, it's limited - make sure you him him first time.

Once the airborne adversaries are playing their little golden harps, sly lands in Washington and enters a short, horizontally scrolling blasting bit.

Level Two shoves Sly onto a motorbike, he's chasing after one of the CWD bosses travelling in a black Cadillac. Again the limited-ammo rule applies but extra ammunition, along with more powerful weapons, is available. Included is the devastating Golden Gun, the pieces of which (five in all) are scattered around. Later levels take our hero to the harbour, and even Jacques Cousteau-style to an underwater base. The safety of the free world is in your hands Sly, don't let it end with a bang (though that's what I'll be doing if there's a nuclear holocaust!)

I've no idea why Ocean didn't release the C64 version of Sly Spy as a full-price game. Okay, the first few levels are easy to complete, but later on our lad really does have to hang onto his life with both hands. The angst created by the rapidly decreasing ammo level is great, as is the fun derived from blasting seven shades of brown out of the minions.

On the graphics front, the game is a bit of a mixed bag, the excellent in-game presentation screens sometimes clash with the occasional blocky sprite.

In all, Sly Spy is just about worth the four brass beer tokens asked for by your friendly computer shop owner. Nuff said. 77%

Oh woe is me, another potentially terrific game scuppered by an irritating multi-load! Don't get me wrong, multi-loads aren't always a bad thing. If you want a great game with loads of depth and spooky animation, you'll never get it all into 64K of memory.

I don't like it when presentation screens are multi-loaded before each level though - that's just a waste of time, and there's certainly no excuse for it in a game like Sly Spy.

Multi-load moans aside, Sly Spy isn't a bad game. Fast-paced, exciting, and easy enough to get into - even if you're not Mr. Shoot-'Em-Up 1992, this is one of those games you have to keep playing to get that little bit further.

On the negative side, the graphics are a little simplistic and the animation is sparse (so why the multi-load?) but that doesn't prevent Sly Spy from being a very good game. 76%

Presentation 80%
Annoying multi-load, neat presentation compensates.

Graphics 79%
Colourful but slightly blocky sprites in places.

Sound 70%
Decent loading and in-game tunes to gig along to.

Hookability 77%
It's easy to start playing with you spy set-up.

Lastability 73%
You won't put your weapon away 'til the job's done!

Overall 76%