The Spy Who Loved Me logo

Publisher: Domark Price: £24.95

RATHER than opt for the latest James Bond licence, Domark have decided to recreate one of 007's earlier escapades. Pandemania breaks out when both an American and a Soviet submarine disappear. Who can be behind this terrifying global take-over bid? No one knows for sure, but the British Secret Service are n the case and assign their most famous agent, James Bond, 007, licenced to kill.

The brains behind the "kidnapping" of the two nuclear subs is none other than the wealthy industrialist, Karl Stromberg. It seems Mr. Stromberg wants to crate a better world and, from his undersea fortress of Atlantis, he has sent an ultimatum to the world's two superpowers. Either they pay him the equivalent of Brazil's national debt or he nukes Hollywood and Red Square; it is hardly cricket.

Naturally, Bond is deployed to put paid to the meddlesome maniac's preposterous plan. En route he teams up with the KGB's ace agent and together they set out to reclaim the stolen subs. Of course, Stromberg is none too pleased at their intervention and decides it might be best if both 007 and his friend take a short vacation in a lead-lined box.

Racing through the winding roads of Sardinia (Spy-Hunter-style), Bond is attacked from all angles. Using his finest driving skills he manages to elude capture before his Lotus Esprit transforms into a speed boat and the chase continues over water.

En route Bond may collect numerous "Q" tokens. These may be exchanged for vehicle enhancements such as paint sprays and smoke screens. Q's creative mind has thought of an even greater option - the ability to change your Lotus from a racey sports car into a highly manoeuvrable mini-sub. This latter metamorphosis proves vital when you drive headlong off a nearby jetty.

So the action continues with Stromberg throwing everything he has at his disposal in the path of the relentless Bond. The chases take place on land, on sea (using both a boat and a jet ski) and under the ocean waves. Eventually, if 007 is worth the tax-payer's money, he wins through and saves the day. Stromberg, being something of a lilly livered coward, hops off somewhere. Leaving Bond to fight it out with his oversized bodyguard, the steel-toothed Jaws.
Who will be victorious? 007's fate lies in your hands.



The Spy Who Loved Me logo

DOMARK £24.99 * Joystick and Keyboard

Bond is back. Again. This, the fifth licence from Domark, follows the now standard format of game levels made out of various scenes from the film.

In Level One you drive the Lotus Esprit Bondmobile along a twisting course collecting things called Q-tokens - you will need them later - avoiding pedestrians, oil patches and the roadside scenery. Not too taxing if you take it slowly and keep an eye on your car's armour level.

Halfway through the level you reach a jetty where your Lotus is magically transformed into a motorboat. You spend the rest of the level slicing through the water, mangling careless swimmers and holding off marauding enemy boats. There are yet more of those Q-tokens to collect.

In Level Two you are back on the road again. Straight away, life is tougher as there are lots more enemies. In the midst of all this mayhem you have to attempt to drive up a set of ramps onto a moving Q-truck. This is where those Q-tokens come in handy. With them you can fix up your battered car as well as buy missiles, lasers, smoke canisters and all sorts of Bond-like goodies.

Level Three takes place in the giant cargo vessel Stromberg has used to capture the two missing subs. Bond slides precariously along the ceiling while baddies pop up out of the water and the scenery taking pot-shots at him. Bond's task is to top them in an Operation Wolf-style blast.

Somewhat of a puzzler is Level Four. Not too much at stake, though - only the total annihilation of the entire civilized world if you go wrong. You must reprogram Stromberg's missile targeting computer by matching the code symbols with those you find from tapping away on a keypad.

Then to Level Five: and by this time the action is hotting up. Bond leaps on to Q's specially-modified Wet Bike and takes off across the waves in an attempt to burst through the defences of the island Atlantis, Stromberg's HQ, before the whole place goes up. Pick up the packages Q has dropped along your route and you will be able to mash all corners.

Level Six (phew) and you are not far off now. It is another Operation Wolf-style shoot-em-up section, this time with enemies leaping out of doorways at you. At last you come face-to-face with that man with dentistry problems - Jaws...

GRAPHICS AND SOUND

The graphics are bright and clear with no real cause for complaint - except that your sprite does not turn all that convincingly. The animation on the driving and sailing levels, however, won't exactly set the world alight. The sound is good, consisting of a decent Bond-style soundtrack and some excellent effects - especially the 'thumping' sound of traffic cones being sent flying and the agonised shrieks of pedestrians flying over your bonnet.

LASTING INTEREST

The variety of levels gives The Spy Who Loved Me the edge over typical shoot-em-ups and the escalating difficulty as you advance through the levels is pitched just right. You would have to be a very handy joystick waggler indeed to beat it, but a complete novice not to be able to knock off the first level on your second or third attempt. All in all, there is enough difficulty and variety to keep you going for quite a time. Do not expect anything new, just good, solid fun.

JUDGEMENT

None of the Bond licences have been the sort of stuff to set the gaming world alight, but they are growing steadily more proficient and playable. As ever, the levels are only thinly related to the plot - change a few sprites and backgrounds and it could be any other action film - but the game works well for its own sake, never mind as a faithful rendition of the film. Not a gaming great, but not bad either!



The Spy Who Loved Me logo

Jedes Jahr beschert uns Domark ein neues James Bond Spielchen - und da die Games schön langsam immer besser werden, ist diese Tradition auch gar nicht so verkehrt!

Der Vorläufer "Lizenz zum Töten" war ja schon recht ansprechend, aber für ihr nunmehr fünftes 007-Spektakel haben sich die Jungs noch mehr ins Zeug gelegt. Sollte irgendwer den dazugehörigen (und mittlerweile 13 Jahre alten!) Film nicht kennen, hier die Story in aller Kürze: Der größenwahnsinnige Karl Stromberg hat zwei Atom-U-Boote geklaut, und James muß sie schleunigst wieder auftreiben. Unterstützt wird er dabei von der russischen Argentin Anya Amasova (="der" verliebte Spion).

In der ersten Szene jagen die beiden mit Bonds Wagen über eine kurvenrechte Strecke voller Hindernisse. Es rennen andauernd lebensmüde Passanten über die Straße, die, sollte man sie überfahren, einen häßlichen Blutfleck hinterlassen (zur Strafe gibt es auch Punktabzug).

Am Hafen steigt unser Agentenpärchen in ein Rennboot um und düst zu Strombergs Festung, wobei ihnen unschuldige Schwimmer, Holzpfeiler und andere Widrigkeiten in die Quere kommen. Während eines kurzen Zwischenenthalts im "Q-Truck" kann man unterwegs eingesammelte Bonus-Symbole gegen Extras tauschen, dann fährt Bonds Lotus seine Flossen aus, und der Spaß geht unter Wasser weiter (die Sequenz erinnert entfernt an "Xenon 2"). Damit ist es mit der Fahrerei (vorläufig) vorbei, jetzt darf erstmal geballert werden. Im Stil der "Operation"-Serie schickt man ein paar Bösewichte zur Hölle, wobei auch hier wieder ein bißchen Blutt aus dem Monitor spritzt - allerdings sehr dezent.

In Level vier ist dann fast so etwas wie Denkarbeit gefragt: James muß unter Zeitdruck einen Computer umprogrammieren.Nach einem kurzen Zwischenspiel mit dem "Wet Bike" (sehr ähnlich wie die ersten Level) folgt schließlich das große Showdown, wo eindlich der berühmte "Beißer" seine Zähne fletschen darf.

Gesteuert wird der geliebte Spion mit dem Joystick, und das funktioniert auch in allen Leveln ganz prächtig, besonders die (Auto-)Fahrerei ist angenehm leicht zu handhaben. Die Grafik ist ordentlich gezeichnet und sehr abwechslungsreich, meckern kann man eigentlich nur über das leicht rückelige Scrolling.

Die Musik hingegen malträtiert die Ohren mit einem gräßlichen House & Hip-Hop-Remix des Bond-Themas, aber die knackigen Effekte machen es wieder gut. Negativ fällt auf, daß fast alle Ideen aus diversen anderen Games geklaut wurden; auch das Spieldesign läßt manchmal ein bißchen zu wünschen übrig: In den Baller-Leveln hat man oftmals keine Chance, und wer mit dem Rennboot in eine Sackgasse gerät, muß halt Selbstmord begehen...

Trotzdem bietet Der Spion der mich liebte viel Spaß für's Geld: Fünf solide Action-Spielchen zum Preis von einem - dieses Angebot ist doch nicht zu verachten, oder? (mm)



The Spy Who Loved Me logo

The Spy Who Loved Me places you in the rather comfortable old English shoes of Roger Moore, as he returns once more to save the world, this time from the insane clutches of Karl Stromberg. Kaz, as he is known to his friends, has stolen two submarines, one Russian and one British, and intends to use them to take set the cold war superpowers at each others throats and so take over the planet. James Bond is back in action.

Set over six levels, The Spy Who Loved Me is not so much a consistent game, but more a compilation of classic game styles including Spy Hunter, Master Mind, Operation Wolf and Xenon 2. You begin the game in Bond's infamous submarine car - an adapted Lotus - and from here you have to race along, avoiding or destroying enemy cars and collecting bonus points by driving aboard the weapons trucks that sporadically appear.

The controls of the car are responsive, but you have to travel quite slowly to get a fair chance of avoiding oncoming obstacles. Halfway through level one, you drive off a jetty, get into a speedboat and race through a maze of docks, boardwalks and swimmers. Unfortunately, it is far too easy to take a wrong turning and find yourself in a dead end. You cannot reverse, so the only thing to do is lose a life. There is an on-screen map, but as it is less than a centimetre wide strip on the left hand side of the screen, it is far too small to be practically useful.

Provided you have bought submarine capability from the weapons truck, at the end of Level Two you transform the car into an underwater attack vehicle and play a rather limp version of Xenon 2. The enemies range from enemy divers that only swim and fire forward to large bubble-like machine that follow set patterns around the screen while firing a stream of bullets at high velocity.

Avoiding the bullets is nigh on impossible due to the sluggish response and movement of your car. Because of the large amount of enemy shrapnel flying around, you find yourself dying a fair bit.

Levels Three and Six are straight Operation Wolf shoot outs. Both follow the same lines - the enemies appear in half a dozen preset locations and you have to take them out before they shoot you. Ammunition is limited, but more can be collected by shooting magazines left by dead bad guys, and thankfully your crosshair can be controlled by the mouse as well as the joystick.

Level Four is the Mastermind section. You have to input numbers in an attempt to match symbols randomly selected by the computer. Level Five takes you back to Spy Hunter and Level Six is the final level of Operation Thunderbolt, only the pilot and terrorist have been replaced by Anya, the beautiful Russian agent and Stromberg himself.

The Spy Who Loved Me is far from original. However, it gets brownie points for sheer variety and, with the exception of the Xenon 2 section, a high level of playability and addictiveness. However, it is a very short-lived product, and I cannot see it being played over and over again. It is fun while it lasts, though.



The Spy Who Loved Me logo

Domark, Amiga £24.99

Get exercising those eyebrows! Roger Moore is back as James Bond in the 1977 movie. Once again 007 - licensed to kill and do raunchy things with as many women as possible - has to thwart the plans of a megalomaniac and save the world. This particular villain, Karl Stromberg, has an aquatic bent. He has captured two submarines, and intends to use them to nuke Moscow and New York. WWIII will result, leaving Stromberg's undersea empire to rule the world. 007 has been called in to foil the villain, aided by Anya Amasova, the glamorous Soviet agent. They take to the road for the opening 'scenes' (levels) of the journey in the ultimate Q-Mobile.

Steering the Lotus through vertically scrolling roads, a slender map gives an advance warning of obstacles. Traffic cones present no problem but water patches slow you down, oil spins the Lotus and knocking down pedestrians costs 50 points! 'Q' tiles line the route, collected for later use. The Lotus transforms into a speedboat halfway through scene one, where jetties, mooring posts and aggressive boats have to be avoided. Back on dry land for the next scene: heavily-armed vehicles hinder progress but Q's van is at hand, lowering a ramp for you to board it. Weapons can be bought using collected 'Q' tiles: lasers, smoke screens, armour etc.

The most important device is the submersible upgrade, necessary for the next scene - a vertical-scrolling shoot- 'em-up. Divers and subs attack the converted Lotus as it approaches Stromberg's base. Once there, gameplay switches to a single screen Op Wolf-style shootout. Bond slowly makes his way across a gantry to plant a bomb but Stromberg's men have other ideas; you take control of Anya's gunsight to shoot them.

More watery vertical action, this time on jet skis, as Bond pursues the sub Stromberg and his henchmen, Jaws, escape in. Once on board, you look down one of the sub's corridors while Stromberg's men appear from doorways. Shoot them and shortly, Jaws and Stromberg appear, holding Anya hostage. Maim the bad guys and save the girl otherwise the world won't be a nice place and you won't have anyone to go to bed with tonight!


Stuart Wynne Spy is probably the most accurate movie conversion yet, capturing a huge chunk of the plot and - most importantly - the spirit. The Lotus scenes in particular boasts some very impressive graphics which superbly recreate that brilliant chase scene. There is even the motorcycle with its missile sidecar, although the Spyhunter-style Q-van is a welcome Domark addition providing plenty of add-on gizmos. The underwater section is even better, with masses of divers, mini-subs and diving bells - plus one mega-hard big sub and Stromberg's heavily defended base. The Op Wolf scenes add some vital variety, and overall this is my favourite Bond conversion yet. The only drawback is the repetition of playing through the early scenes, but currently Domark well deserve their licence to kill and thrill. Heartily recommended.
Warren Lapworth Good old Jimmy Bond, you can depend on him to save the day while getting the girl and keeping his cool. It is a shame the same cannot be said about myself! Weaving along the road like a mad man, spreading cones all over the shop, crippling unsuspecting pedestrians, trashing Lotuses left, right and centre...! My performance on water was not any better but I had a great time trying to improve it. Spy's six levels are nothing original but all have at least reasonable playability with graphics and sound as polished as 007's flashy cars. Standard vertical shmup, static Op Wolf and, most distinctly, the souped-up Spy Hunter of scene two all come together to make a busy, worthwhile package. Clever, Mr Bond.