GoldenEye 007's celebrated arrival on Xbox and Nintendo Switch has since been tempered by the drawbacks present in the up-scaled port. Nostalgia has only been able to take GoldenEye 007 so far, and frustrated players are now questioning why the recently leaked 2008 remaster was not released instead.
1997 saw one of the best movie tie-in games ever made with the release of GoldenEye 007, based on the similarly titled 1995 James Bond film. Developed by Rare and published for the Nintendo 64, GoldenEye 007 became lost to the passage of time, only retrievable through the use of emulation, a tragedy for the third-bestselling game on Nintendo 64. Microsoft acquired Rare in 2002, and it would take six years before rumors of an Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) remaster started circulating. Set to introduce online multiplayer, the remaster was inevitably canceled because a licensing agreement was unable to be finalized by all stakeholders, even though it only required a couple of months to be ready for launch.
2021 saw a playable ROM image of the XBLA remaster leak online, and it is seemingly superior to the version released last week. A video comparing the two side-by-side was uploaded to Twitter by Pure Dead Gaming, who stated that "serious questions need to be asked about why they didn't release the remaster that they had already made." It is undeniable that the unofficial Xbox 360 release both looks and plays better, boasting significantly improved textures and a higher, more consistent frame rate.
The Xbox Series X version is capped at 30 frames per second which, although true to the original, has been fixed by fan-made mods for years. Additionally, the low-resolution text that has carried over makes it difficult to tell how much ammo is left. Absent from Xbox, the Nintendo Switch does include online multiplayer for GoldenEye 007.
If nostalgia is insufficient to tempt gamers, then perhaps an upcoming James Bond title from the makers of Hitman would prove more convincing. IO Interactive is famous for its master assassin Agent 47, and the bald killer no doubt played a role in the studio acquiring rights to the James Bond IP. Although little is known about the game, dubbed Project 007, it will allegedly feature an original story and a new James Bond, distinct from the several actors that have played the character throughout the decades.
GoldenEye 007 was first released for the Nintendo 64 in 1997. It is available now for Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.