New ‘Goldeneye’ and ‘Blood Stone’ Trailers Remixed, Not Stirred

We all know the man, the legend, the myth, Mr. James Bond likes his martinis shaken, not stirred. And now we know the fine people at Activision prefer Bond remixed, not stirred –  as they dropped two new trailers for their upcoming Bond games today.

One is a trailer for the upcoming Wii reimagining of the classic Goldeneye and the other is a re-cut “Istanbul” trailer for the upcoming HD Bond game, James Bond 007: Blood Stone. The Goldeneye trailer offers up some behind-the-scenes details, while the Blood Stone trailer proves no matter how you cut a trailer, the Bond theme always gets your heart pumping.

First up, Goldeneye. Now don’t worry, the Blood Stone trailer is coming too, but since it is a re-cut version of an older trailer, I decided to put Goldeneye front and center. But if you must, feel free to scroll down now. I won’t be mad, in fact, I won’t even know.

The new Goldeneye trailer gives us a peak behind the scenes with the guys over at Eurocom, the game’s developer, dropping new details on how they decided to approach the N64 classic. Check it out, then we can talk about it, cool?

So…what is your take? I like a lot of what they are doing with the game. I actually think a reimagined Goldeneye is a great route to take. I mean, sure Perfect Dark on XBLA was fun and it was cool to see the hi-res graphics, but really, I do not think I am alone in saying the game did not hold my interest that long – after the initial nostalgia wore off.

However, in the case of Goldeneye, at least gamers will have some new stuff to explore, even if it seems somewhat familiar. And I think that is the key. The game needs to keep enough of the original’s charm while still providing that new/updated experience. If we were talking about baseball stadiums, the new Yankee Stadium does a good job of walking that line.

But the trailer also highlights a few problems I see in the game. For one, cutting back and forth between real people, when the developers are talking, and in-game action really points out the jaggedness of the graphics and reminds us this is a Wii FPS after all. Actually, one of my favorite comments in the trailer does the same thing, when they say, “I think it will blow away anything that you have ever seen first-person-shooter wise on the Wii.” Did you catch that? Hear that last part? I think those are the problems–it is on the Wii, is a FPS, and drops the same day as Blood Stone.

While the nostalgia factor might be high with Goldeneye, I am just not sure it will be the preferred method for Bond fans to get their fix – even if Blood Stone is not a FPS. Though, that golden classic controller might be hard to resist. At any rate, with two Bond action games dropping on the same day, one for my HD consoles and the other for my Wii…I already know which one has the initial advantage for claiming my dollars. Am I alone in that regard?

OK, so with that in mind, now take a look at the re-cut Blood Stone trailer.

Come on, that was pretty awesome. Sure, M’s lip syncing might look a bit off in the trailer, but at least the cutting back and forth between the stylized-bright-colored intro sequence and the game footage does not feel like a slap to the face. It has high speed driving (it is Bizarre Creations after all), shooting, fistacuffs, slow motion explosions, and the theme pumping.

I realize that might have come across as sarcastic, but seriously, I think this trailer does a great job of setting the tone of the game and letting players know what they should expect. Of course, none of that matters if the gameplay fails to deliver on those expectations, but trailers are about building hype and, for me, this trailer does just that.

What do my fellow Ranters think? Are you stoked about the new Goldeneye? Are you excited about Blood Stone? Do you want both, or does neither get your pulse racing? With no new Bond film in the works, I am excited and hopeful that one, if not both, of these games will scratch that Bond itch for me.

Goldeneye sneaks into our lives and then starts shooting stuff up on November 2 for the Nintendo Wii and DS, along side Blood Stone for the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC.