Pyramid Review
James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game
Published by Cheapass Games
Designed by James Ernest
Illustrated by Cheyenne Wright
112-Card Deck, Small Rules Sheet; $15.00
Once upon a time there was a card game. It was a cleverly designed little card game. It was a popular card game. But not everyone liked the card game because they felt it infringed on their intellectual property. So they told the card game that it had to change its name. Which was a shame because everyone else thought it was a fun name. But the card game had no choice and that was the end of that. Fortunately the card game was not without brains, and decided to give itself a whole new name. One that would not make certain people angry.
First released in 1997 under a name that dare not be mentioned, James Ernest's Totally Renamed Spy Game returns in an all-new format, in full color, and still poking fun at the genre conventions of certain series of films about a British super spy. Most important of all, it does this without reference to the central character of said film series. The central idea in the new edition remains the same as it was in 1997. What happens every time a super spy breaks into the lair of a criminal mastermind? He gets caught and the criminal mastermind locks him up inside a deathtrap. But does he push the button, pull the lever, or activate the countdown that will send the interloper to his certain death? Of course not. This is an opportunity for the insane evil genius to extol his own . . .
This article originally appeared in the second volume of Pyramid. See the current Pyramid website for more information.
Article publication date: April 1, 2005
Copyright © 2005 by Steve Jackson Games. All rights reserved. Pyramid subscribers are permitted to read this article online, or download it and print out a single hardcopy for personal use. Copying this text to any other online system or BBS, or making more than one hardcopy, is strictly prohibited. So please don't. And if you encounter copies of this article elsewhere on the web, please report it to webmaster@sjgames.com.