Review: GoldenEye 007 Remaster – Shaken Yet Stirred?

Anybody you talk to about first-person shooters will eventually bring up RARE’s iconic Nintendo 64 game GoldenEye 007 at some point. The game was popular among many people on the N64 for many reasons, including being tied to one of the biggest movies released a few years earlier. GoldenEye was released in theaters in 1995, while the game came out on the Nintendo 64 in 1997. But GoldenEye the game is most notable for being one of the bigger FPS multiplayer games on the console and pushing other developers to include split-screen multiplayer into their games. So the idea of a remaster or rerelease of the game on modern consoles would get a lot of attention. But is GoldenEye on the Xbox Series consoles and Nintendo Switch as good as fans wanted it to be?

The giant elephant in the room for GoldenEye 007 on both platforms is online multiplayer, with the Nintendo Switch having it and the Xbox version not. Before anything else, if you care about playing this game online with other people then the Switch version is what you’ll most likely get. However, this comes at a few costs. The Nintendo Switch version has online multiplayer but suffers from the same issues as many other Nintendo Switch games online, including classic games of the Nintendo Switch Online service.

Getting into an online match with others will also be a hassle, depending on your internet connection and how many people you will find online. Some people have been vocal about the difficulty of getting into matches, but once you’re matched up with others things go exactly as expected. The game still plays out with a 4-player split screen format, so you’ll have everyone peaking at each other’s view, but that is part of the fun. If you played GoldenEye multiplayer back in the day then you’ll feel right at home, while everyone else may or may not be OK with how primitive the game feels to play today.

At the same time, the Switch version of GoldenEye outputs the game at a standard resolution that can be stretched to widescreen format. But the biggest hurdle for Switch owners, outside of only getting the game through the Switch online service, is the controls. By default, the controls for GoldenEye 007 on Switch will feel weird and awkward from the start. Luckily, you can remap the controls how you like by creating a new control scheme by going into the settings for the game and changing things up. The sad truth is that you shouldn’t have to do this at all, especially for a game that is as highly regarded as this.

But what about the Xbox version on Xbox Game Pass? While there is no online connectivity for GoldenEye 007, the game does have 4K Ultra HD support and native widescreen resolution. In addition to that, the control scheme is similar to what you’d find in modern first-person shooters now, which works out for everyone. For Xbox owners the game also has a list of achievements that you can go for which touch on nearly every aspect of the game, 00 Agent difficulty included. You can still play multiplayer split-screen matches locally, so if you want to get friends together and relive the good times together it’s still possible.

As far as the content of the game itself on both platforms, everything is pretty much the same. Nothing more or less, this is GoldenEye as you remember it. If you were hoping to find anything new or cut content from the original release, you’re going to be disappointed. One major issue that both versions have is the pixilation of the text that appears on the screen, which can look illegible at times. Despite the perspective being stretched out, the text in menus and during gameplay isn’t cleaned up. This might not bother most people who know this game inside and out, but it is notable throughout the entire experience.

Whether you grew up with GoldenEye 007 on the Nintendo 64 or not, you most likely heard of the legendary status it has within the gaming community. Does this rerelease of GoldenEye live up to the hype that people have built up over the years? Probably not for some, but that doesn’t take away from the legacy the game has within the first-person genre. Certain aspects of the gameplay haven’t aged too well because of the advancements we’ve gotten in video games since the days of the N64, especially the clunky movement and pacing in some sections. But this is still GoldenEye with all of the bells, whistles, and shortcomings that were there. It’s unfortunate that there’s no definitive version of the game between both the Nintendo Switch and Xbox Series consoles. Where you decide to play it will ultimately come down to what you value most, visual fidelity or online connectivity.

Did you grow up playing GoldenEye 007 back in the day? Were you excited about the release of this classic game? Post a comment with your thoughts about GoldenEye 007 and let us know!