Previous Next

As this sequel to the excellent Spy Vs. Spy opens our black and white heroes parachute onto an island. Their mission is to retrieve a nuclear missile and rendezvous with a waiting submarine.

Unfortunately, the missile is in three pieces, each buried somewhere on the island and, to make things even more interesting, the island's volcano will erupt in four minutes.

The volcano is in the centre of the island and that, along with gaps in trees, form the game's "rooms".

Three white specks in the sand show that something is buried there but you won't know that it is until you pick it up. Then, if it's a trap then it's too late. In true comic book style, your spy is covered in sand which collapses into a heap as your opponents pause for brief giggles.

As in the first Spy game, the action takes place on a split-screen display showing the part of the island that spy is in. On the right is a panel of options from which you can vary the number of players and level of difficulty of the game. To the left, each player has a trapulator from which fiendish devices can be built.

For example, a pit can be dug in the sand with the spade and then covered by twigs found on the ground. A bomb buried to look like an object or a gun drawn and fired. Finally, a rope can be made into a trap by suspending it from a tree to the ground. Anyone standing in it will quickly by hoisted upside to dangle from the tree top. Or, if those are too subtle for your taste in violence, you can always belt each other with clubs.

The damage from any of these attacks is removed from your energy bar. Although this can be replenished by resting, if it reaches zero then your Spy is replaced by a gravestone.

Life seems to be even tougher in Spy 2 as they have to avoid all sorts of natural hazards as well as the man-made ones. These include quicksand which costs energy to get out and sharks, from which there is no escape.

I found Spy 2 to be just as good as the original and a challenging and fun game against both computer and human opponents. If you enjoyed the original, then you'll love this. If you haven't played either of them, buy both immediately.