+jgkspsx Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Data East's Sly Spy is a very fun game and full of many mysteries, some of which I have catalogued here. Spoilers abound. Go finish the game if you haven't and then come back. Mystery 1: How did Data East not get sued for this? The music sounds like Bond, the character looks like Bond, the villains look like Bond villains, the death traps look like Bond death traps, the high score table uses the poster artwork for The Living Daylights, and they even made the default high score 007. Come on! Mystery 2: who is really leading the bad guys? How the hell did they manage to assassinate President Ronnie and First Lady Nancy right at the White House? Mystery 3: How is Sly both snorkeling and scubaing at the same time? Does he have gills? Mystery 4: The whole game is apparently set in the Washington DC metro area. Is he swimming in the Potomac? Mystery 5: And why is Sly swimming so much anyway? He just shows up to the next stage in a Ferrari anyway. Does he park underwater? Mystery 6: Did the US federal intelligence apparatus really let a Soviet group of supervillains set up a warehouse / HQ in Georgetown?? Mystery 7: Are there really sharks in the Potomac? Mystery 8: who is this dead robot thing? Chelnov? Or... another Data East protagonist? 👀 Mystery 9: who makes the budget at the Council for World Domination? Tigers are expensive and not easy to train. There's a reason "herding cats" is a common figure of speech for doing the impossible. Why not invest in more practical deathtraps? Mystery 10: If Sly stops one ICBM from launching, what about the other three? Why nuke rural China or Mt Fuji anyway? Mystery 11: Why build an ICBM in the mid-Atlantic to nuke New York City? Or even Paris? You can deliver warheads with much smaller missiles at those distances. Or is this one going to Japan or China? Mystery 12: Wait a minute, what is the significance of these letters? Does it say СЭР or does it say C3P? Oh... Mystery 13: What did Sly forget? To buy bread and milk? I have not seen any ending but this one. Is this a trick to get you to try again? Mystery 14: Why is George Herbert Walker Bush so happy about this turn of events anyway? Was he behind it? Mystery 15: What is the motto on this version of the Great Seal of the United States? It sure ain't "E pluribus unum". Feel free to share any other mysteries I've missed, or propose solutions to any or all! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jgkspsx Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 Mystery 7 is solved: there really are sharks in the Potomac! Maybe not as far up as DC, though. Mystery 8, I am sad to say, appears to be Spoiler Robocop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roots.genoa Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Nice! As a James Bond fan I like that game, even though I wish the gameplay was closer to Rolling Thunder. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jgkspsx Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 Another mystery courtesy of this FAQ: https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/arcade/568679-sly-spy/faqs/39205 Mystery 16: What does the speargun item you can pick up do? It changes the visual appearance of your speargun but it doesn't seem to change anything about the shots. Actually, this screenshot demonstrates mystery 17: where did the shark have the speargun it dropped? Come to think of it, there's another underwater mystery (18): how does Sly drink these Coke cans underwater? Maybe that's what the snorkel is for! Wikipedia proposes one answer to mystery 13 and maybe 14: Spoiler He meant the girls you go back to the White House to pick up. I guess that might be what he was winking about too... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
+jgkspsx Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 As to mystery 2, I guess it's possible that the First Couple shown is supposed to be the Bushes. That seems to be what everyone assumes since the game released in 1989. I'm not buying it, though. Here's both couples: President Ronnie darkened his hair even late into his presidency while HW famously had streaks of grey hair in his sideburns even in the 70s. More damningly, Nancy Reagan was famous for her berets. I can't find any photos of Barbara Bush wearing one. On the pro side, Bar had white hair, and Nancy colored hers until years later. Then again there are no photos of the Bushes waving from a sunroof and there is an iconic one of the Reagans. Really, you decide: 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TampaBay Posted March 30 Share Posted March 30 This is a great game and I have a lot of fun playing it. I look forward to looking closer at the mysteries! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Like us on Facebook
Follow us on Twitter
AtariAge on Instagram
Watch us on YouTube
Chat on Discord
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.