Driver’s License to Kill
Ah, 1983. Reaganomics. Junior high (for some of us). Theaters full of moviegoers unable to decide which was more shocking: the fact that Luke had been making goo-goo eyes at Leia or the fact that the Ewoks won.
Back then, few games at the local arcade were more addictive thanSpyHunter, a simple top-down driving game that added something new to the still-young racing genre: guns! As the SpyHunter, you shot your way through streets filled with enemies of the free world, conveniently color-coded for identification. Now, the adventure of the SpyHunter continues in Midway’s new 3-D version of the arcade classic. Our heroic superspy must once again go into action against the resurgent forces of Nostra International, fighting at top speed to foil a plot that will plunge the world into darkness.
Truck-hunting season is open—get your limit!
SpyHunter History
The original SpyHunter, created by George Gomez, remains a legend—an innovative, addictive game that rose to the top during an era when anything and everything was being tried in the arcades. Like many racing games before and since, the cabinet featured a built-in steering wheel, gas, brake pedals, and a gearshift. The steering wheel came with a few special features, however: buttons for offensive weapons, like machine guns and missiles, and defensive tricks, like a rear-projecting oil slick. The game also featured another innovation in its licensed soundtrack (the Theme from Peter Gunn), which remained wedged in your brain for hours.
Twenty years later, SpyHunter emerges as one of the new Platinum Hits titles for Xbox, and the update is both stunning and nostalgic. The feel of the game remains the same (as does a new, teched-out version of the old music), but the move to 3-D and a vastly more powerful system have let the developers build a solid story line to back up the manic driving combat.
Even the van comes with an aquatic mode.
The Man from SpyHunter
The SpyHunter himself now has a name: Alec Sects, a hardened veteran of the espionage battles of the eighties, who has been called back into service by International Espionage Services (IES) to lead the SpyHunter team. The former F-15 pilot is the only one with the skills to handle the G-6155 Interceptor, the high-tech car/motorcycle/speedboat that’s also theSpyHunter’s most effective weapon against the forces of Nostra International.
A rare enemy-free road.
With a Name Like That …
Nostra International is a massive conglomerate, founded and run by Daemon Curry. To the outside world, Nostra is simply one of the leading names in food, bio-chemicals, genetic technology, e-commerce, and naturally, children’s software. But to Daemon Curry, all of these things are but a means to an end. He believes that he himself has been described in one of the major prophecies of Nostradamus and is destined to bring a technological apocalypse to the world. Daemon Curry—businessman, political mover and shaker, and powerbroker—believes he’s the new messiah. Though his plans were foiled in the early ‘80s by Alec Sects and theSpyHunter team, he has now accumulated everything he needs to complete his ultimate plan.
“I’ve just had it with lousy satellite service!”
The Four Horsemen
Curry’s plan is fiendishly simple—using Nostra’s connections in the aeronautics industry, he will launch four satellites into synchronized orbits over the Earth. Once in position, these satellites (actually electromagnetic weapons) will blast the entire planet with a huge EMP shockwave that will knock out everything electronic. Lights, computers, the stock market, flying planes … all will fall to Nostra’s super weapon, plunging mankind into a new Dark Age. And, then, Curry believes, his time will finally come. According to Nostradamus, “One man will become king, and all the dying world will become slaves for his pleasure.” What megalomanaical super villain wouldn’t want that?
Catching air, Knight Rider-style.
Sects to the Rescue
Alec Sects may be two decades older, but his hardware is still state-of-the-art. In a series of increasingly difficult missions, Sects will take the all-new Interceptor out on the road, the water, or wherever he’s needed to stop the plans of Daemon Curry and Nostra International. The Interceptor is up to the task, able to morph into different configurations to take advantage of any terrain and equipped with an arsenal that only gets more devastating with practice. From the canals of Venice to the back alleys of the good old United States, the hunt is on, and the fate of the world is at stake.
Now, doesn’t that make those Ewoks just a little bit easier to take?
By Ben Barker
