Written by: Ian

 

 

 

The last time someone slapped the name 'Goldeneye' on a game, it was an unmitigated disaster, and probably the reason EA gave up the Bond license. So, after a few years without a Bond film, does this "GoldenEye 007" remake live up to expectations?

 

The hype is possibly even higher because this is a Nintendo exclusive as well, so here goes...

 

 

The story is similar to the Goldeneye film, and also the Goldeneye game, but takes several liberties with both, adding and taking away, to make it clear that this is a re-imagining, rather than a remake. Right from the first mission, you’ll see very different elements, not just the fact that you play as Daniel Craig’s Bond, and that the game is set in the present day, rather than right at the end of the Cold War. To be honest, the new story makes the plot seem a little more relevant to this day and age, and allows for the use of Craig’s more violent Bond character, whilst still keeping all of the best moments of the game and film involved at least to a certain extent.

 

 

Goldeneye comes to the Wii with a variety of different control schemes, all of which don’t feel totally right. The Wii-mote controls feel laggy and unresponsive, as if they were crying out for Motion Plus support. If you play with a GameCube controller, then there aren’t enough buttons, meaning melee/action is done with the inconvenient Z + B combination. The classic controller is probably the best option available, but the snap settings by default are ridiculously good, so you probably want one of those, and then to turn the setting down, or off, to stop any challenge from being removed.

 

 

The general gameplay has been updated to give it more of a Call of Duty feel to it, including door breaches, different grenade types, and respawning health (other than on 007 Classic difficulty). However, some elements have been retained, like different objectives for each difficulty level. The single player probably lengthens the levels a bit too much from the original (many take at least 30 minutes), but these are minor gripes.

 

There are a few Wii-specific flaws again, like the fact that the melee/action button is the same, so Craig operates lifts and switches by smashing them with his gun, and the motion blur, which is pretty naff, and stops you from seeing just about anything.

 

 

However, what you do get is a fun 6-7 hour campaign, with decent replay value, that relives the best parts of the original game, whilst still adding some decent new parts, and bringing back significant parts of the film that didn’t make the cut into the original game.