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Dont let Master Spy sneak past youThe tiger is out
The tiger is out
I could use a lot of words and phrases to describeMaster Spythat, when I read them in a game’s description, tend to put me off. Retro. “Hardcore”. Brutal. Platformer. Balaclava.
And yet I enjoyed it so much that I almost pitched a review a few years back. It’s tough, for sure, and I don’t think it’s the most approachable stealth platformer, but it feels fair. It doesn’t waste your time. If it had come out a few years earlier, it would probably have been pretty big. It can now be yours, along with literally over one thousand other games, as part of theItch Bundle For Racial Justice And Equality.
Watch on YouTube
Watch on YouTube
Does that mean it’s the best out of all of them? Ih. There are lots of best games in there. Let’s not worry about that. Let’s worry about those security tigers.
Trapdoors dropping onto dart tripping pressure pads while a guard watches. Not even one of the harder screens.
You areMaster Spy, an impeccably professional covert espionage enthusiast with prescient parents and aTeam Fortress 2-style permanent balaclava. You’re hired to recover some stolen take reels during a corporate dispute that perhaps inevitably turns out to involve robots, all-powerful hackers, and Japanese cyber-assassins in a tower full of tigers. Its 8-bit stylings suit all this classic 80s sci fi stuff perfectly.
Your only real tool is your cloak. I like that about it. There’s nothing to unlock, there are no extra gadgets, no XP, no character stats or special powers. From the first screen you have everything you need, save for skill. Press down or shift to cloak, press space or up to jump. Everything else depends on your timing and practice. Guards patrol each level, and it’s game over if they spot you while uncloaked. You can cloak indefinitely (though you move much slower while it’s on), but you can only avoid the guards, never hurt them or knock them out.
Get used to seeing this. But! The instant restart stops it feeling like a taunt.
It’s hard as hell but it introduces new threats at an excellent pace, and I never felt that I had anyone to blame but myself when I messed up. Over and over again. I’m terrible at it, but I kept on going, and not just because the plot is fun and its cutscenes are stylish as hell. You can even flip the difficulty up and down mid-level, outright cheating if you want to skip past certain bits. Master Spy demonstrates how easy it is for a game to be hard without being smug or cruel, and I admire that very much.
The Itch bundle has now raised over $6 million and is still running until Tuesday.Pay at least £4/$5and you’ll get over 1600 video games, tabletop game, useful game-making bits, and more. All proceeds will be split 50/50 between theNAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fundand theCommunity Bail Fund. If you already have it, seeour tagfor more recommendations.
