Xbox Game Pass has officially updated its selection of games to include one of the highest-rated video games of all time, GoldenEye 007. Licensing issues made it extremely difficult for GoldenEye 007 to ever get a re-release, but now it's finally available to play on platforms other than the Nintendo 64.
Developed by Rare and published by Nintendo as a Nintendo 64 exclusive in 1997, GoldenEye 007 has the distinction of being one of the most critically-acclaimed video games ever made. The Nintendo 64 version of the game holds an impressive 96 overall rating on review aggregate site Metacritic, with a great deal of praise for the game's atmosphere, memorable moments, and of course, its incredibly fun split-screen multiplayer mode that helped revolutionize FPS games on consoles. While the graphics and controls are certainly showing their age, there's no denying the impact GoldenEye 007 had on the gaming industry.
Considering GoldenEye 007's importance to the FPS genre and gaming as a whole, it's always been a shame that the game has been trapped on the Nintendo 64 all these years. That's finally changed, with GoldenEye 007 readily available on Xbox Game Pass and as a freebie to anyone that owns the Rare Replay collection. The Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pack has also added GoldenEye 007, and while that's the only version with online multiplayer, the Xbox release does have some added bells and whistles to take into account.
GoldenEye 007 on Xbox includes 4K resolution, improved frame rate, and vastly improved controls. The Nintendo 64 version of GoldenEye 007 only had one analog stick to work with, but the Xbox version has two for players to work with. While the lack of online multiplayer or matchmaking in the Xbox version of GoldenEye 007 is definitely a disappointment, fans otherwise seem happy to have the game readily available to play through Game Pass, with the game holding a strong 4.5/5 star rating from Xbox user reviews.
GoldenEye 007 is perhaps the highest profile Xbox Game Pass addition for January 2023, but the month is not over. On January 30, the console version of Roboquest is being added to Xbox Game Pass, whereas Age of Empires 2: Definitive Edition, Inkulinati, and JoJo's Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R are all coming on January 31. Microsoft has also announced some of the new Xbox Game Pass games for February 2023 as well, so subscribers have plenty to look forward to in the weeks ahead.