It’s been 26 long years since Rare’s GoldenEye 007 exploded onto the Nintendo 64 and redefined the first-person shooter. The game delivered stunning graphics, detailed levels, and a variety of mission objectives that went way beyond Doom and Quake‘s ‘blast enemies and get to the exit’ design.
Since that first release, GoldenEye 007 has remained in limbo, with the rights to the game split between Nintendo, Rare, MGM and Eon Productions. Now Microsoft has untangled that knot and GoldenEye 007 is making a triumphant return on Xbox and Switch on Jan. 27.
Whether it’ll still hold up for players after almost thirty years of first-person shooter gameplay evolution remains to be seen, but either way, it’s nice to be back creeping around the Facility carefully doming guards with a silenced Walther PPK (and also without having to wrangle the famously unwieldy N64 controller).
But while GoldenEye 007 is the peak of James Bond in video games, it’s by no means the only good entry in the franchise. So, here are eight games we’d love to see return on modern consoles.
The World is Not Enough (2000)
Despite massively over-delivering with GoldenEye, Rare didn’t return for a direct sequel, instead channeling its knowledge into Perfect Dark. Bond continued on PlayStation in the decidedly mediocre Tomorrow Never Dies tie-in game, though there was a marked return to form with Eurocom’s 2000 The World is Not Enough.
Based on Pierce Brosnan’s third movie, this took heavy inspiration from GoldenEye 007 with expansive levels featuring a variety of gadgets and complex objectives. We’ve always loved Bond games that focus on espionage rather than straight combat, and this game delivers on that front. Even so, it’s always lived in the shadow of GoldenEye 007 and suffered from a terrible frame rate on PlayStation and N64.
A re-release on Switch Online or the PlayStation store could make it buttery smooth and we’d love to re-experience this somewhat underrated game at its best.
007 Racing (2000)
Let’s be clear, 007 Racing is by no means a classic. It tells a very silly car-focused plot starring Brosnan’s Bond and his supporting characters, even by the original PlayStation’s standards the graphics aren’t great and was rightly met by very mediocre reviews on its original release.
All that said, we have a soft spot for 007 Racing due to its very enjoyable multiplayer modes. This takes cues from games like Vigilante 8 and Twisted Metal and sees players racing classic Bond cars around arenas while trying to blow each other up. There’s also the ‘Pass the Bomb’ mode, which is like tag but played with Aston Martins and with explosives. It’s shallow but goofy Bond-themed fun and while we wouldn’t go out of our way to buy a remaster, we’d love to see it included as part of a Bond game revival bundle.
Whether it’s aged well is up for debate, but it made for some good drunken party play two decades ago.
James Bond 007: Agent Under Fire (2001)
Now we’re cooking with gas. Agent Under Fire was the first attempt to make a full-on Bond adventure as a video game rather than crow-barring the plot of a movie into a series of levels. The original plan was to get Roger Moore involved, though when this fell through, they decided to go with a brand-new Bond played by future Game of Thrones and The Dark Knight actor Andrew Bicknell.
Either way, this is an explosive and very fun ride, with the game taking advantage of the increased beef of the then-new PlayStation 2. Twenty years on, some of that shine has worn off, though it still tells a supremely fun story centered around a rare female Bond villain.
James Bond: Nightfire (2002)
A year on from Agent Under Fire, developer Eurocom was only getting more ambitious with the franchise. Nightfire is positioned as a full-blown entry in the Pierce Brosnan canon (though Brosnan only provided his likeness, with Maxwell Caulfield doing the voice).
This game cranked up the action once again, now combining first-person-shooter action with driving levels. It also featured its very own Bond theme, courtesy of Canadian trip-hop vocalist Esthero. For the time it was a very ambitious project and, if you can look past the dated graphics, feels like a genuine Pierce Brosnan Bond movie.
But while Nightfire almost got there, its sequel absolutely nailed it.
James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (2003)
Everything of Nothing boasts Pierce Brosnan voicing James Bond, along with supporting mainstays Judi Dench and John Cleese with Willem Dafoe, Shannon Elizabeth, and Heidi Klum in supporting roles. This is Brosnan’s last performance as Bond and many consider this game his true ‘final’ adventure rather than the terrible Die Another Day.
Gameplay shifts to third rather than first-person, and the driving sequences use the Need for Speed engine. The whole thing adds up to quite a package, though we have to admit some sadness that casting Willem Dafoe as the villain in this probably meant he was out of the running to play an actual big-screen Bond villain.
Figuring out the rights situation for this game must be a nightmare, though we’d love to see an HD remaster triple pack of Agent Under Fire, Nightfire, and Everything or Nothing.
From Russia With Love (2005)
From Russia With Love isn’t a great game, though it deserves a re-release simply for its historic value. After years of working on the Brosnan Bond, EA wanted to stretch the scope a little further and decided to make a game focused on Sean Connery’s sophomore outing as 007, 1963’s From Russia With Love.
Somewhat incredibly, it even managed to pin down Sean Connery himself to play the role. Connery had since gone into retirement by this point and hadn’t played Bond in 22 years. When quizzed as to why, he had a refreshingly forward-thinking answer: “Video games are an extremely popular form of entertainment today, and I am looking forward to seeing how it all fits together.” The dump truck of money EA parked outside his Bahamas home probably also helped him make up his mind.
From Russia With Love would become Connery’s last major performance, so for that reason alone it deserves to be liberated from the PlayStation 2. Let’s see the rougher gameplay edges smoothed off and a modern port, please!
James Bond 007: Blood Stone (2010)
We’re now into the Daniel Craig era, by which time, the James Bond rights had switched to Activision. Even so, the general philosophy of creating an original Bond adventure that can (sort of) stand alongside the movies continues. This PlayStation 3/Xbox 360 romp is set between Quantum of Solace and Skyfall and attempts to maintain the gritty brutality of the Craig movies. Along the way, it teases the arrival of Spectre and features a very fun Bond girl in Joss Stone (who also provides the theme song).
Sadly Blood Stone didn’t perform as well as Activision would have liked and development on the sequel was canceled. We had a bunch of fun with this, but it’s difficult to play now as it was never made backward compatible and rights issues have seen it removed from digital stores. Bring it back!
007 Legends (2012)
We just love 007 Legends because of its goofy premise of Daniel Craig’s Bond hallucinating levels inspired by each era of Bond. Intended to celebrate the character’s fiftieth anniversary on the big screen, we have missions based on Goldfinger, On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, Moonraker, Licence to Kill and Die Another Day. The cherry on top was them adding Skyfall as free DLC once that film hit theaters.
It also boasts a stacked cast (sadly no Daniel Craig though), featuring Judi Dench, Rory Kinnear, Benicio Del Toro, Toby Stephens, Naomie Harris and a classic trio of villains in Richard Kiel (Jaws), Geoffrey Holder (Baron Samedi) and Harold Sakata (Oddjob).
As a game, it’s mediocre. As a celebration of 50 years of Bond, it’s pretty great. Like Blood Stone, this was unceremoniously yanked from sale once Activision lost the license. We wish it was available in a more accessible form with the Skyfall DLC included.
Dishonorable mentions
You may be wondering why we didn’t mention titles like GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, Casino Royale, and Quantum of Solace. The reason is, quite simply, because they’re absolute bobbins and there are Bond games far more deserving of returning to modern hardware.
There are also 8 and 16-bit games like Live and Let Die, The Living Daylights, Licence to Kill, and James Bond Jr. but they weren’t good even back in the day and one dreads to think how badly they’ve aged. Maybe a retro Bond game collection might be an interesting prospect, though perhaps some titles are best left in the past.
The future
While we’ll be getting back into GoldenEye 007 multiplayer with a vengeance this weekend, we’ll also be looking to the future, with Hitman developer IO Interactive’s ‘Project 007’ having the potential to be the best Bond experience yet. Watch this space for more.
