Another classic Apogee platformer
Secret Agent 3 is a clever and inventive effort from Apogee, a company who really nailed the adventure/platform genre with their Commander Keen and Crystal Caves series. This one spoofs James Bond and spy movies in general, and sees brave hero Agent 006 on the trail of a terrorist organisation which has stolen the plans for a deadly new weapon. It's your job to infiltrate their headquarters, making your way through the various sections in order to reach the big boss and retrieve the plans before the weapon can be turned on an unsuspecting world. Along the way, you'll face all sorts of henchmen including robots, as well as various traps like lasers and spikes, so you'll need to keep your wits about you at all times. You have a weapon which comes in handy but which only has limited ammo so again it has to be used carefully. You can take a few hits before you lose a life but even so, this can be a tricky game, requiring perfect timing and jumping skills, but things are rarely unfair. You've also got some fun powerups like boost boots and magic goggles which reveal hidden platforms and all of this clever stuff adds up to a supremely enjoyable old-school platformer. Like most Apogee games from this period, Secret Agent 3 is nothing staggeringly original, it's just put together with such care and attention that it makes lesser games look like amateur affairs. The levels are cleverly designed and rarely less than good old-fashioned fun to play, with some neat little puzzles to solve, while the visuals are just brimming with character. Really, when you get down to it, this is what games should be about: good solid entertainment.
