Goldeneye 007 (DS) Review

Please put on your nostalgia goggles now.

You're going to need them. Activision isn't the first company to try capturing lightning in a bottle by invoking the name of Goldeneye. No one is envious of n-Space's position either. While they're weathered, experienced hands have churned out quite a few DS-bound first-person shooters, a port of a remake of Goldeneye for the Nintendo 64 has to be a daunting task. The responsibility of introducing new generations to the classic first person shooter title rests squarely with them.

Goldeneye 007 for DS puts Daniel Craig in the role of Bond and attempts to remake the original plot with modern gameplay. Apparently, modern gameplay means the players control of the first-person camera is taken away more often for more cinematic killing and exposition and the ability to aim down the sights. This might translate into some interesting set pieces, but it really drags down the general flow of gameplay.

Longtime Goldeneye fans will be disappointed that their favorite classic moments aren't quite there anymore. While the graphics are impressive for the platform, they bog down the framerate and general gun play. New Goldeneye players will be turned away by the same issues.

Easily the biggest problem with the game is the way it becomes too much like Time Crisis. After touching the button on the bottom screen to aim down the sights, players have to touch it again to exit. Double tapping up on the D-pad causes the player to run. This combination means the general rhythm of the game devolves into running from room to room, clearing each as you enter the door.

The narrative holds up as an acceptable adaptation, but Goldeneye 007 is fighting for your hard-earned, nostalgia-based buying on a multiplayer front as well. The DS version supports up to six players over the Nintendo Wi-Fi connection. Getting a group of your friends together for stylus-controlled first-person action can be hard enough as it is, but I also experienced a lot of trouble matching up with random players as well.

Still, for a handheld shooter on the Nintendo DS, players could do worse than Goldeneye 007. The campaign is long and entertaining, albeit a little too much like a shooting gallery at times. Once you've finished the main storyline, there's a time trial mode that lets you replay your favorite level for XP, which can then be spent on cheats.

If you ever went back and played Goldeneye 007 on Nintendo 64, you'd recognize just how far first-person-shooters have come, certainly in their console forms. But there's a reason that the franchise has not drifted onto the handheld. Rather than letting this franchise rest, developers and publishers want to tread on the grave of a game we'd mostly like to rest in peace.