Most Popular Shooter Game In History Revived By Nintendo And Xbox
Arguably one of the best video games ever made, Goldeneye 007, is now available on Nintendo Switch and Xbox.
Each year that Danjaq LLC renews its James Bond trademark filing, the gaming community discusses “new and irrefutable proof” of the greatest hit game—1997’s GoldenEye 007 for Nintendo 64—getting a remake. Unfortunately, each subsequent year has proven the gaming community wrong, but 2023 apparently has a surprise for us all; the legendary game is being revived by both Nintendo and Xbox—the unlikeliest of pairs, considering previous disputes over licensing.
According to IGN, GoldenEye 007, which was originally released for Nintendo 64, has made its way to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service and already became available for players to enjoy. What’s even more entertaining is the fact that the game was also released on Xbox consoles due to the history of licensing issues surrounding the game. Unfortunately, the re-released game is a port of the originally released title and not the one Xbox remastered and shelved due to licensing.
Still, there are some improvements to both the Switch and Xbox game versions. Namely, the Nintendo Switch version of GoldenEye 007 has online multiplayer capabilities allowing two to four players to enjoy the game simultaneously. The controls are the greatest change due to differences between the Nintendo 64 controller and the Switch’s Joy-Cons.
The biggest of them being the longevity and durability of the former. Transferring controls from N64 to Switch was challenging as GoldenEye 007 retained its original controls. This means that certain controls could be mapped to specific buttons only.
Additionally, N64 had one analog stick, whereas the Switch has two. Luckily, Nintendo did a solid job, and despite some discrepancies, the controls work just fine. They just take some getting used to, and if you ever needed a reason to buy an N64 controller for Nintendo Switch, this is it.
Unfortunately, custom control mapping isn’t supported by the GoldenEye 007 game. Xbox, on the other hand, wins in terms of controls but lacks the aforementioned multiplayer mode, which is a Switch Exclusive at this point and requires access to the Switch Online lobby interface.
The controls on the Xbox version of the game are fully customizable, which removes any discomfort during gameplay. There were some changes to the control layout, but other than that, Xbox clearly did a better job of modernizing the controls compared to Nintendo. Another noteworthy difference between the two versions is the lack of cheat codes on the Xbox’s version of GoldenEye 007, in favor of additional 55 new achievements, which somewhat coincides with our previous report regarding one of the most famous FPS games in the world.
In fact, we previously discussed Danjaq LLC changing its original trademark filing category to “downloadable electronic game content” in one of our previous annual remake discussions. Considering that the original GoldenEye 007 wasn’t actually downloadable, it would seem that the change in filing did yield some results, though not the ones the gaming community has hoped for. Something is always better than nothing when it comes to classics, and we can only hope that the aforementioned companies are testing the water before an actual remake release.
