GoldenEye 007 Hands On

The announcement of Goldeneye for the Wii was somewhat expected, but it still got a raucous reception when we saw footage of focus groups (real or imagined, hard to tell – pretty good acting if it was fake) talking about what Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64 had done for first person shooters. Words like “redefined” were used, as well as “classic” and of course, “multiplayer”. The interviewers running the group started asking, “What if we were to tell you a new game was in development?” Cue men in their late 20s flipping out.

I have already harped on about the cornucopia of delights crapped into my hands by Nintendo today, so I needn't go on. A such, this will be a pretty short write up, because my hands on experience was pretty short too. What they were showing on the floor when I was taken by Nintendo for a look around was four player split screen multi. Arguably one of the most fun game modes in a videogame ever, and certainly the best of the pre-millenium set.

Using a Classic Controller, the first and most obvious difference to the control scheme was dual analogue. The old three-pronged behemoth with its dubiuous ergonomics is long in the past now, and the ability to look and move with far greater precision is very much appreciated. Many of the other controls are intuitive – reloading, firing, running and throwing grenades (or if you play as Oddjob, your hat) all seem very natural and fluid.

From the trailer I was already aware that the graphics walked a pretty fine line between classic and just plain bad. There was a lot of shimmer going on in split screen, but the framerate was broadly pretty smooth for it. What is classic are the environments and weapons (at least the ones I saw). Of course I am not saying that everything looks just as it did back in the 90s, but there is that very genuine Goldeneye feel about it.

I would love to be able to bring you true impressions from the single player, but unless one of us manages to sneak in some time with it over the next couple of days, you're going to have to wait – this could be an abject failure on my part, but I'm not even sure if they're showing it. Plus, this game will ship for its multiplayer value ahead of anything else.

So it's almost all good news: Nintendo appear to have remained true to the original IP, and are gearing up to deliver a new game steeped in nostalgia. There might be a bit of a balancing act, but from what I played today, gamers can expect to be taken way back (in game terms, because actually it's not that long ago... really. I am not old.)

Even with Rare so far away from the project they're wearing Xbox t-shirts, the development team looks to be doing a pretty nice job. There can't be all that much to polish off, because the North American release date is for this holiday season.