Secret Agent

Like many people that grew up in the 90's, I found this game in shareware compilations. Years later, I can finally enjoy the other episodes of the series. Or the complete game, not sure which is which. Secret Agent is a simple platforming game : Find and destroy the radar dish, find the TNT sticks to escape, find a floppy to disable a laser barrier, use coloured keys to open doors, use a teleporter. Why is there a radar dish deep inside buildings? Why don't you escape the building from the way you came in? Why blasting the escape door rather than finding a key? Who cares! The game is simple, but not basic. You start on an overview map and must clear different levels scattered on it to access the final level. Thanks to this idea, the levels are quite short, which is good for playing in short sessions; also because there are no save points in the levels. The level design is varied, as well as the graphic design. There's no copypasting of levels, and most levels have their own feel and design. Some are open and feel industrial, there are vault-like levels, industrial levels, laboratory levels... However, it's not perfect. Some parts are infuriatingly hard in an otherwise very easy level. Many jumps requires pixel perfect jumps, where your character sprite literally hangs in the air. Some jumps on floating platforms can be tricky due to the primitive physics. And of course, since the game was released, we have been spoiled by 30 years of refinement in platformers. But it's still a solid retro experience that is well worth trying at least once.

Now in 2024, I've finally purchased the complete game! A great 2D-platforming / shooting / getting-keys-to-open-a-door kind of game. I played the free shareware version of this game in the 90's on a DOS computer and to me it still holds up very well today, being just as fun as it was back then. There are some cheap trial-and-error deaths where if you go the wrong way, or jump on the wrong platform, you cannot complete the level. In that case you just have to die and start again. The sound is great despite having no music, just simple blips and bloops. It may just be nostalgia, but when I hear those sounds in a quiet room, it is very hypnotic helps me focus on the game, taking me back to a simpler time.

Appogee was able to make quite interesting platform games - simple but enjoyable

I loved this as a kid, or at least I played it a lot. It's clearly very dated and a bit frustrating. There's some creativity and it doesn't take too long so I've enjoyed revisiting it, but it's not all that well designed. An inconsistent combination of annoyingly difficult parts with cakewalks.

Excellent platformer which is still fun to play in 2025. Nice bright colours, fun level design and cool spy setting.