Spy Hunter & Alpha Mission retrospective: Shoot the snore | NES Works
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 14 ม.ค. 2020
- SunSoft returns to NES with their first internally developed game for the U.S., though like this episode's back-up feature (Alpha Mission) the game in question (Spy Hunter) actually hails from the arcades. Neither of these vertical shooters offer much in the way of a compelling reason to play them, aside from a pretty good take on the Peter Gunn theme in Spy Hunter. Don't worry, though. SunSoft will get a lot better. And SNK.. will get a little better, at least on NES.
Video Works is funded through Patreon ( / gamespite ) - support the show and get access to every episode up to two weeks in advance of its TH-cam debut! And be sure to check out the Retronauts podcast (www.retronauts.com), where I (and many others!) tackle a much wider array of classic gaming topics each week. - เกม
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Alpha Mission's a great game if you give it a chance and really learn it. It's fun figuring out which abilities take out which bosses the fastest.
I remember the NES Spy Hunter (not sure about other versions) had a bug (secret?) where you could drive your car slowly to the right edge of the screen. Once there, you could drive full speed and never run into anything. You're forever stuck in the forest, however, as you never trigger a new area, but you end up stacking up unlimited lives just as long as you're driving over there (as you get lives via travel points). Once you stack up a ton of lives, you can slow and travel back over to the road.
I discovered the whole Prog Rock/ NES connection a couple of years ago and I love finding new games with that style of music.
There's actually a few more entries in the Spy Hunter series than Jeremy mentions here. There was a GameCube/Xbox/PS2 reboot just called Spy Hunter (2001), followed by Spy Hunter 2 (2003) on Xbox and PS2--no GameCube release--and *then* Nowhere to Run, the abortive film adaptation tie-in, once again for Xbox and PS2. Lastly, there was another reboot in 2012 for the PS Vita and 3DS. They're all pretty average games, but the 2001 reboot is probably the strongest of the bunch, developed by some of the team from PilotWings 64.
Came to say this
The was a midway collection (like Namco collection) of games I think on PS1 or (ps2) that included Spyhuinter...i own it but to lazy to go in my video game collection to look for it...i use to beat my record of my high scores of 200,000+
Not to mention the incredible Coleco version that used the wheel expansion.
@@RalphBarbagallo thanks! I could've have sworn it existed on celecovision, but was second guessing my memory. Did you have coleco? My mom bought into the Adam, but luckily there was some confusion and we had the Adam that could play cartridges, but the store also gave her the stand alone colecovision which we gave to our cousin Ryan. Ryan and I became fairly regular NES and SNES partners
@@RalphBarbagallodid it use the steering wheel peripheral? I will have to refurbish mine and give it a go. I use the the super action controller as the game asks which controller you are using prior to play. Regular or super action, the steering wheel is not a posted option prior to game start
Zanac's next? That's always been my favorite Compile shmup. I can't wait!
Very nice
Alpha Mission 2 for the NeoGeo is amazing...
Spy Hunter always captured my imagination as a kid purely because of that cool arcade set up. Yet every time I did give it a few quarters I would end up regretting it moments later. Definitely a style over substance game.
Arcade version was hard, but fun. The NES version was pretty awful. Like the video says, without the steering wheel and the ability to accelerate/decelerate like in the arcade, the game became almost impossible for all but the most-skilled players.
The PS2 version was awesome. It expanded on most aspects and due to the analog stick and trigger of the Dualshock, control was near-perfect. Too bad the sequels weren't anywhere near as good.
Spy Hunter was one of *those* NES games... you know, when you were a kid, you had like 5 or 6 games, you knew them by heart and then someone lent you or gifted you a new game. The cover art seemed mysterious (almost every NES game had a cover that had nothing to do with it, but back then you tried hard, oh you did) and damn, you had a new game and plenty of time. And you played it and it was... eh, okayish at best? And you pushed on until you just couldn't deal with it. But you always dreamed and wondered if there was something beyond, that maybe, just maybe, the real meat of the game, the true good part was hidden beneath that stage, that enemy, that jump you couldn't achieve.
And then, 20 years later you find out it was, indeed, a crappy game.
3:22 - hell yeah, indeed! If you can survive long enough in the game to hear it, that extended rendition is pretty sweet to listen to.
Oh, the first racing game use of the Peter Gunn theme? So, Rock 'n' Roll Racing having it on its soundtrack could be a nod to the ones who came before?
NES Spy Hunter is such a fantastic game! I particularly like that your car is lower on the screen when goat top speed than it is in other versions, making this game quite a bit easier than the arcade game. I like that. Awesome game, NES Spy Hunter is a definite great classic I would say. Also, yeah, the 2001 reboot is a pretty good game, I quite liked it at the time. Its followups (2, Nowhere to Run, and the 3DS/Vita game) are alright to good, but don't quite recapture the first ones' magic...
There was another Midway arcade game called APB (All Points Bulliten) it was like Spy Hunter but you play a cop arresting people and trying to meet your quota. That game let you free roam and complete you objective different ways. I think its a great top down 80s arcade driving game. An overlooked one too. I only found out about it when i got a PS2 midway collection (Aecade Treasures 2).
You can tell from the Spy Hunter port that Sunsoft was getter slowly better with each game which would hit its peak and stay there due to 1988's Blaster Master.
Great video, Jeremy.
Have you played the new Blaster Master games? They're surprisingly similar to the NES one. It all feels the same controls wise, looks about the same too. It'd be cool if they did one that looks like the mega drive one, I always thought that one looked pretty cool
I was excited to play the game at home on my nes and rented it often
I am able to remember a time in my life when I believed Spy Hunter was the greatest video game ever made but I'm fairly certain it predated my discovery of the NES.
Yeah man, I loved spy Hunter. Driving into the semi truck was so cool!
Just want to say I love the channel and all the content. You do an amazing job of covering these games. Criminally underrated channel. Thanks for all the uploads. Can't wait to see more.
I got my NES midway through 1988. I can't remember a time I didn't own Spy Hunter. I spent so long.. trying to learn the routes, trying to see new things, trying to earn as many lives as possible before the timer ran out (I think my highest was 6 or 8?)... I never put it together that you still have 3 lives when the timer was going on. But.. yeah. This game was a big part of my childhood.
I did enjoy Sunsoft's Spy Hunter on the NES. The game may have hit arcades in 83, but it was still a popular machine in 86-87 - I could rarely get a long play session in without someone wanting in, if the cabinet wasn't already taken. So an NES cart of a well-known game made sense. Gauntlet was not that much newer and only recently before released. Same with Paperboy. Nintendo was probably seeing the later releases of several arcade ports to help pad its library in its first two years in the NA market. Not so dissimilar from what we're seeing on the Switch 30+ years later - a lot of looking back over the last 3-8 years to pull in better titles. Alpha Mission, while bare, was challenging to avoid power-downs and its haphazard enemy patterns.
Great video. The arcade Spy Hunter had on of the best feeling steering wheels.
Ahh the memories. The Spy Hunter arcade game was the second video game I ever played following the original Star Wars arcade by long enough for dad to break a dollar for more quarters at a local pizza place, and me walking from one arcade machine to the other. I had the NES port but don't remember it very well.
And now that I think about it I think the PSN port of Alpha Mission was one of the games I bought the day I set up my Playstation store account, and may have been the first game I bought on the Playstation store that I played. And I preordered the SNK 40th Anniversary collection for Switch so I have it there as well.
Wow... I've had Spy Hunter for a couple decades and never knew there were 'friendly' vehicles you _weren't_ supposed to shoot.
R.I.P. your civilians
coleco vision had a spy hunter driven by a wheel and accelerator..it was GREAT!!!
Did you just say Compile? I *_love_* those guys!
Puyo Puyo and Madou Monogatari were my childhood! 😆
Not much of a fan of the original Spyhunter but i remember enjoying the PS2 reboot. Alpha Mission honestly aint that bad for a basic shooter of its vintage, the Neo Geo sequal is obviously better and pretty great in its own right too.
Indeed, Alpha Mission has a lot more meat than games like Xevious or Star Force.
methinks Jeremey is a James Bonding listener
Fire. _Canon._
*_Sheeld._*
Great job, guys.
Ah, a reference to Emerson, Lake, and Palmer's rendition of Peter Gunn? I guess you've earned a like!
Rest in Peace, Rocky Johnson.
That just happened, didn't it? I didn't know the guy but that's very unfortunate.
I don't think accelerating by pressing up is a bad thing at all in Spy Hunter. Although that game was made to look like a racer, it's essentially a vertical shooter
Spy hunter arcade game is amazing... for anyone that was born in the late 70s in queens NY, and hence grew up in the 80s, SHOULD know “THE BOW WOW” on cross bay Blvd.. greasy American cuisine and a HUGE ASS ARCADE... my dad would give me 5 bucks in quarters and I would blow it all on spy hunter, dragons lair, ninja gaiden arcade.... loved that shit
I never played the original NES Spy Hunter, but the pseudo-sequel Super Spy Hunter is one of the greatest games on the system. As for Alpha Mission, I don't think it's that bad. You have at least some weapons to try and can switch between them at will, as long as you have enough energy points
Alpha Mission II was awesome in the arcade at least
Super Mario Bros/Duck Hunt, Hogan's Alley and Spy Hunter were my first three NES titles back in the day. Spy Hunter was an alright game - good but not great.
11:01 Well, they made The Guardian Legend after all.
I've never played the NES version of Spy Hunter. My all-time fave version is the Colecovision version, which rocks.
I worked a little bit on that 2005 Spy Hunter...the less said the better. Never played or even heard of the NES sequel though. I might enjoy it!
Your channel is still so damn underrated, as your content is so damn good!
I never really got on with Spy Hunter, top down games need to be a certain speed or they become outright unplayable. It's why I've always prefered Sega's knock-off, Action Fighter.
Micro Machines was always my favourite for that. It could get a bit crazy the first few times you play a track but once you've learned it you can manage to get by all the obstacles easily while still having enough speed for it to be a rush. Never completed that game though back in the day, it got hard as feck later on. Don't have my old mega drive anymore so gonna have to put it on the mega drive mini.
I've been chasing that recently, a great top down racer, but a modern game. There's a fair few of them out there but none have the charm or multiplayer fun that Micro Machines did. And I heard the relatively recent remake/new game of Micro Machines was terrible and had microtransactions which is a shame
@@starwarsunfiltered7848 Haha, it was the first ever cartridge game I ever bought for the Master System, still remember buying it as a kid with my Christmas money in January from Woolworths :D
But a lot of SMS games are neglected sadly, if they weren't a part of your own personal childhood, they'd be completely forgotten online.
YES! Action Fighter was a great knock-off, and I too had a cousin who had it for SMS. Per the NES arcade adaptation, honestly what could I have expected from it after having known the cabinet original with that super-rad interface?
9:40 “Sheeld”
I actually had Spy Hunter on NES. I enjoyed it enough to give it repeated attemps, managed to get pretty good.
If you drive on the right curb you can when the road shifts you can eventually drive off road.
I love Spy Hunter, the arcade cabinet is a golden age masterpiece. The NES port always underwhelmed me though. That didn't stop me from wanting it badly as a kid so I could play my favorite arcade game at home, or at least a facsimile of it, instead of needing to go to the burger joint with a handful of quarters to protect my high score.
One minor thing you got incorrect was that Spy Hunter's only other console release prior was the Atari 2600 version. It also came out on ColecoVision in 1984 (and in my opinion it's a surprisingly better port than the NES one).
Just a small caveat, Spy Hunter also was ported to the Colecovision as well and not just the 2600. Good video as always.
I was gonna say that too. It's one of the better conversions of the arcade game, given the fact that there are more than two speeds: leisurely Sunday drive and death wish.
That ColecoVision port was really impressive too, superior to the NES port in some regards.
Super Spy Hunter is soooooo good
Oh man, seriously.
Jeremy, that podcast about the Matrix: I too thought it was a Johnny Mnemonic sequel when it was 1st advertised.
You mention an “icy road” when in fact it’s a beach. There are palm trees along the side.
Climate change is chaos, man
they foreshadowed climate change
@@JeremyParish sorry for being that guy, it's my Asperger's. Love your work though.
Eagerly awaiting your next book Jeremy!
only 7 comments lol, never been this early on a works video! Keep it up, I've got your books and love them, hoping there will be more GB ones on the future (books, obviously there will be more videos lol)
Spy hunter actually appeared on colecovision as well
Isnt there a spy hunter for the PS Vita?
Great episode i am loving this an all the "Werks" series!
Turns out Spy Hunter did get on the Colecovision, but with what looks like a late 1984, early 1985 release. Not a good time for anything to get released on a console.
Like every other Apple // kid, I had the cracked version of that port.
You should do my all time favorite nes game " The Magic of Scheherazade"
David Holmes It will be quite some time before he gets to that game. With a few exceptions he is doing the games in chronological order and he is currently at late 1987 and that game was released in the West in Jan 1990. It will likely be several years since he also does retrospectives for other consoles (SNES Game Boy etc).
I used to play spyhunter to death. Hours and hours as a kid.
I remember enjoying the 2001 Spy Hunter but I do not remember *any* of the game. Maybe this is the time to load it up on the PS2 and figure out what exactly it is that I was enjoying.
As for the NES rendition: played it a lot, but came to similar conclusions about its slightness...
I had NES Spy Hunter as a kid, not a wise decision!
The Earthbound Sharks arcade sound fx! Is Alpha Mission the origin of that sound?
I wanna show you my Armored Scrum Objects...
Too harsh on Spy Hunter. The game really is for the system/era a solid conversion. It doesn't take much to get used to using the accelerator and steering on the d-pad. Also there were more Spy Hunter games, one just by that name alone came up and a sequel before the Duane went nowhere release, also another hit the GBA and the last one I think was a 3DS release.
There were a ton of Spy Hunter ports, check the Battle of the Ports channel for the full story. And I thought they did a great job with the throttle in the NES port. The car sticks at one speed until you change it; no mashing the up button forever and ever. My biggest complaint is how much they nerfed the missiles.
the version of sh on midway arcade origens on the ps3 is the reason I'm considering buying a steering wheel and foot petol set.
Armoured Scrum Object sounds like something to do with Rugby.
That Spy Hunter music just sucked you in at the arcade.
Great video! Does any Spy Hunter home port include any kind of simulacra for the cabinet lights?
Spy hunter is an excellent arcade game and I will play the nes version. 😀👍🎮
Mmm. That's good scrum object.
Scrum-diddly-umptious, even!
I just noticed SHEELD and CANON upgrades on the pause screen in Alpha Mission. Have these typos occurred in any Micronics games? Might be a missing link
I get that it was an arcade port, but damn, as famous as spy hunter is im really disappointed it only got a 5 min blurb - could have been its own episode at least.
Is there any chance this amazing series will be put on Blu-Ray in the future. I'd love to be able to place it next to my NES library.
I mastered this at 720p so I don't think a Blu-ray would work out.
@@JeremyParish DVD then?
YES ZANAC IS COMING UP I think it may be the best shooter on the NES, even above Gradius and Life Force, and let me tell you I love Gradius games.(Quasi-sequel The Guardian Legend is also great, but it's more than "just" a shooter.)
Would anyone else be more interested in hearing about the background of games like these rather than how bad they are over and over?
Maybe these games should try being less bad.
Was thinking the same thing. Spy Hunter was a cool game and we were all glad to have a home port on our nes.
Oh gosh Zanac so close
Spy Hunter had a similar version to this on the Colecovision. Essentially the exact game. Do not think k the steering wheel peripheral worked but the super action controller did and the colored trigger buttons corresponded with the special weapons of the car. Not far behind this port and loads better than the Atari
I've always enjoyed Spyhunter, and I play it couple times a year oh, it's a little too easy though ;I can basically play it until I'm sick... I enjoyed playing it in the arcade, but I prefer the NES port to the Midway collections stuff on PS2 , PSP, or iPhone....it controls better....solid stuff imo. If you find it hard I would recommend that you go just slow enough for the cars to not overtake you, going high-speed makes you die quickly, but slow down a little and you can just basically play a long long time.
5:03 Don't let the local neighborhood youtuber find out or else he'll take your gamer card, because apparently it's a crime now.
Overall, another fun episode! Spy hunter has been sitting in my bin for the past few years and I should give it a try sometime, being a fan of scorechasers like that. Battle Formula is to hit Switch and other systems next year via the SUNSOFT Collection, so I'm eager to see if the sequel is of the same quality as other Tokai games like Silius. Played Alpha Mission via the SNK 40th and found the NES port to be poopy even though it's not Micronics.
A crime? It's weird but for some weird reason I can't bring myself to care about the gatekeeping opinion of openly racist bigots...
@@JeremyParish i honestly don't know why that discourse even happened. It's silly to get mad at people who play retro games with modern QOL stuff if they want to, since it really just makes it more accessible. Plus without savestates, I can't save my high-scores in any of the NES/TG16/Genesis/SNES scorechasers since 80% of them had no save batteries for that! Why shouldn't they be considered a great addition? It's bewildering that it's even a controversy but I guess that's what can happen when gatekeeping is pushed.
For those out of the loop (and posterity) Mike Matei recently tweeted something to the effect of "If you use save states or cheats to beat a game don't act like you legitimately beat it." I'm probably getting that wrong but it was worded in a manner that was seen as pretty offensive and unprompted by anything. This same Mike Matei is also known for drawing racist cartoons.
@@subtlewookiee it sounds like the only thing he's proud of in his life is when he beat some video games as a kid 30 years ago and is desperately trying to hold onto that to make himself feel better. It's a bit sad really. Video games are for fun, to relax, and most people once they're not kids anymore stop caring about being the best in the arcade or the best at beating games among your group of friends, surely.
Regarding the "why" behind licensing and releasing a game as old as Spy Hunter in 1987, I always just assumed things like that were done because publishers just needed to get anything out the door those days. Gotta use up those yearly release slots to make sure you're getting your money's worth out of that licensee status.
Plus, in 1987 I'm guessing games that were even remotely competent were making pretty decent profit. Why not license a relatively old game for (I assume) a little bit of cash and save yourself the cost of designing something totally new that may or may not catch on?
Agreed on the general awfulness of Nowhere to Run, but the 2001 reboot of Spy Hunter was rather nice.
My experience with spy hunter as a game is largely limited to a freeware clone made somewhere around 2000ish.
Basically the same game, but it's implemented using 3d graphics - yet more or less retains the original perspective.
But... 3d for the sake of 3d was common in the late 90's, early 2000's... So...
Whatever.
Fun enough, as far as it goes.
Is it just me, or does the voice in this video seem slowed down slightly? Like it's on 0.8x speed or something?
It's not. I was just sick and exhausted when this was recorded.
I always like the idea of Spy Hunter. . .right up until I play it.
Compile's shooters were pretty much 20 steps ahead of everything else in this era... except for Recca '92 I guess.
You don't like Carnival 92? That game is sick, one of the best Showcases of NES graphical prowess ever
Alpha Mission has an "e#" meter at the bottom and I looked like you got hit and the number reduced, meaning it's not one hit deaths?
From my recollection, the energy meter in Alpha Mission indicates how long you can use a wing power-up. It drains on its own but you lose a large chunk of it if you get hit. If you get hit without a wing attached it's curtains for you.
I will play Alpha mission. 😀👍🎮
-Pidgeon stare intensifies-
I think Alpha Mission is a great game!😰
I've always found Alpha Mission to be pretty soulless. Spy Hunter on the other hand, it was fine for what it was. Not great, but I wouldn't call it bad, at least for the time. It was still fun and I do remember several of my friends owning it growing up. It seemed somewhat popular at the time. Sure, it was a few years old by that point, but many of us never got to experience the arcade game, so it was OK.
*SHEELD*
star force is actually own by tecmo
Look up "Tehkan" sometime and prepare to have your mind blown
@@JeremyParish ah i almost forgot it,sorry
Armored Scr(ot)um Object....
But what if: no
I played the shit out of Spy Hunter for nes back in the winter of ‘87(or ‘88). Now it can’t hold my interest for more than about 5 minutes.
What are you talking about? Super Spy Hunter although released at the end of the NES era and hard to find, was really good and far far superior to the 1st one. You should have not showed so much of the og and focused on the Super Spy. It was a very good game I enjoyed it.
This is not a Super Spy Hunter retrospective.
nobeac you don't seem to understand the point of this channel, which is to go through every single officially released game, (mostly) in order. He'll get to Super Spy Hunter eventually, that's its own video
Dont worry Jeremy, you're almost to 1988. Only 6-7 more years worth of NES games to cover.
I picked up alpha mission on NES for the first time a few years ago.... yeah it's not that great. I did enjoy Spy Hunter on NES growing up though... I never did finish it though. Even to this day I've never gotten to the end, but I just have it in my collection for nostalgia, haha.
This one of the first games I bought for my nes in like 87.
It sucked. Had about 5 minutes of gameplay before you got pissed and ripped it out of the system. The game is too OP.
Is there anything good to say about Alpha Mission?
Why yes, Alpha Mission II on the Neo Geo, a more fully realized sequel.
The only good thing about Alpha Mission is that I picked it up cheaply when I was a kid which softened the blow of its mediocrity. Also, I did enjoy coloring in the spaceships that were in the black and white manual in wild colors.
We had spy hunter. Not a good game, sub par at best.
Spy Hunter on NES sucked. I don't know why I bought it.🥺
Also, the same year the NES version of "Spy Hunter" came out, we got the infamous "Spy Hunter II" in arcades.
You know what's weird? The back of the Super Spy Hunter box describes it as a "Spy Hunter II derivation," but aside from the title I just don't see the resemblance. Super Spy Hunter is intense, fast-paced, and fun, while Spy Hunter II isn't any of those things.