Spyhunter has always been one of those games that treads a fine line with me on being just entertaining enough to play, before I'm remembered of why it drives me nuts. Get seduced by the chiptune Peter Gunn theme, the sheer speed of the game, and the awesome weapons. reality shortly smashes me in the face, as the punishing difficulty and its dogged stubbornness to NEVER end renders me sent to a padded room where I'm fed bio-solid foods until I'm sane enough to consent to treatment.

Developed by Bally Midway and released in 1983, Spyhunter is an arcade classic and one of the granddaddies of tough quarter-munchers in its heyday. It's seen a ton of home ports on a lot of computers, the NES version retains most of the same features from its arcade predecessor. The notable omission was the pedestrian system, where you weren't allotted points for striking innocent people. 

A vertical scrolling racer, Spyhunter is pretty self explanatory; roll forward, survive, and get pesky enemies off your back with the various gadgets you upgrade your sports car, the G-6155 Interceptor with, and it controls fine. I do have a problem with the vehicles varying from feeling very heavy to incredibly light in the snap of a finger.

There's no introductory difficulty adjustment, every enemy vehicle you attempt to pass is as angry and aggressive as a nest of bald-faced hornets as they attempt to run you off the road. I can only survive for a little bit, even after putting in tons of practice, I've only seen past a few screen changes. I don't even know how many transitions there are supposed to be before they loop. It might be determined by which path you take, following the forks in the road.

Growing up, the three weapons (smokescreens, oil slicks, and surface-to-air missiles) to aid you in situations were pretty sweet upgrades, providing I live long enough to get a chance to use them. The helicopters, I was always fine with dispatching, it's those stupid armored cars that gave me the most headaches. Nothing really in the way of bosses, just waves of big mad thugs who want you dead.

There's nothing in the way of music, which is a little infuriating and acceptable at the same time. The Peter Gunn theme has been drilled into my head, thanks to this game, to the point that I'm more likely to reference Spyhunter than the Blues Brothers whenever I hear it. In almost all cases, the company I'm surrounded by will have little idea of what I'm talking about. 

The graphics are pretty decent, and Spyhunter has no slowdown or graphical clipping. Minimalist as it is, this is a pretty clean Nintendo port of the game. Maybe not much in variety of what you have to stare at as the player "progresses", but it's not that different from a Rad Racer or Twin Cobra. 

Sure, this game makes me plenty angry, and I have beefs with it, but Spyhunter also has a quality about it that gives it some replay value. It's a home port that works fine on the 8-bit system, a game that someone can kill some time with before going to an engagement. The action is quick, and it's serviceable as some fleeting fun. Still too damn hard.