The GoldenEye XBLA epic hits the streets
Xbox World 360 becomes the first printed magazine to spill the beans
It finally happened. Xbox World 360 has taken the story of GoldenEye 007’s cancelled Xbox Live Arcade adaptation to the news stands, so even casual gamers and people who are not part of the nerdy online forums can read about it. Over the last days, their online neighbours Computer and Videogames have been teasing the audience with glimpses of a new screenshot from the mourned GoldenEye XBLA. It all was a way of feeding people’s hype up to promote an upcoming special report set to be published on the April’s issue of Xbox World 360. Now the day has come and the magazine is already out there. It offers complete coverage of all the recent events, and except for some minor mistakes, they describe it exactly the way we described it two months ago in our “Never Say Never Again” article.
All the infamous plots and usual suspects are there: The Penny Arcade user who leaked the first data (back in November, not December as they write), Activision’s involvement on the cancellation, the unbelievable new features of the game, Reggie Fils-Aime’s role on the story, the secret deal with Nintendo to release a Virtual Console version and even Satoru Iwata’s final decision (which has never been confirmed and it was pure speculation coming from the Penny Arcade user, even though XW360 quotes it as if it was literal).
The magazine claims to have played the game and even offers the first hands-on impressions ever published. “The new 3D character models collapse and die just as they always have,” acknowledges the writer, “sound effects and music are also ported over without any changes.” Although in terms of graphics the improvement seems to be as astonishing as all the screenshots always showed us: “Explosions and flame effects have been remade from scratch, and rows of trees and new in-game objects add a sense of presence to areas without affecting gameplay.” This facial lifting appears to be especially dramatic in the Jungle level, from which XW360 sadly didn’t get any screen captures.
As for the controls, the RB allows the player to change between the HD version and the N64 look anytime during play. “GoldenEye feels as if it were born for the 360’s pad,” they say, right before noticing the lovely idea of having the control schemes named after “a new set of Bond girls.” Even considering that the N64 custom was to move the viewpoint with our left hand, Rare has wisely adapted this control to the more practical way of the modern times. “Left stick handles movement, right is your look stick.” A is the action button, B and Y change the weapon and X reloads. And as expected, the right trigger fires and the left one turns on the free aim mode.
As a closing comment for their article, the people from XW360 ask their readers to send their support and complaints to Rare and Nintendo respectively. They even help with directions so everybody can drop their bombs in the same place. What they don’t say is that the funny dialogue over a black screen that accompanies the paragraph (“Do you expect me to remove this Nintendo logo screen?,” “No, Mr Bond, I expect you to die,” paraphrasing Auric Goldfinger in probably the best line of dialogue of the entire Bond film series) is in fact an internal joke at Rare made up by the guy who was working on the remake of the intro, when he realized that now there was a pretty awkward Nintendo logo spinning around at the beginning of a game developed by a Microsoft-owned company. If anybody out there still thinks that the communion between these guys and James Bond wasn’t the best match since Spielberg/Lucas and Indiana Jones, please shut up.
Other stuff that XW360 don’t mention in their article but that we are well aware of is that the game was developed in just one year by just 8 people; Dam, Depot and Frigate levels are selectable as multiplayer arenas (even the fabled Citadel was considered just “for the fan reaction”) and the N64 version isn’t technically a port, but a rather smart graphic filter use that makes the new game look the old-fashioned way.
Still, it is important to emphasize the consequences that reports like the one published by XW360 may have in Nintendo’s public position on the issue. Back in the day, when we wrote our “Never Say Never Again” article, we were asked by our sources to disguise the information by using a hypothetical tense, as if they were simple deductions. We knew that we were publishing the truth and that we could just describe everything as corroborated statements, but we decided to play fair. Now, with XW360’s article already supporting our story, there isn’t much to hide anymore.
What XW360 has told the world may have not been as fresh and revealing as promised for anybody who followed the story online, but it certainly helps a wider gaming community to understand the great injustice that is being made with GoldenEye 007. And we celebrate that. Hopefully, there will be even more to come in the next days.
Somehow related news
- An Epic Piñataphilia ()
- Nintendo still holds legal power over GoldenEye 007 ()
- Goldeneye 2010 is coming to the Wii ()
- James Bond will return in November ()
- GoldenEye 007 XBLA remains cancelled ()
8 Comments
I don’t know, Grant. But i think Nintendo is getting back with that attitude of “I’m the winner, and I don’t care about the others”, the same attitude that made them lose the first place, back in the 90s, with the original PlayStation.
Comment by Héctor Sikaffy — 03.Mar.08 @ 6:00 am
@Grant McLachlan Easy question, Nintendo would have had a Goldeneye requiring another controller, without online, at a gorgeous 480i resolution and, probably without the new textures.
On the other side, it seems like the Xbox was getting the best Goldeneye ever, looks like a good point for Ninty.
(Sorry for my english)
Comment by Jorge Glez — 03.Mar.08 @ 8:08 am
I think they were both going to get the remake actually. Someone at the top, who knows for sure it’s all rumour, had it canned and now we all can’t play this game. Hopefully, it does come back to see the light of day. If not, hopefully then Rare remakes Perfect Dark and includes as much of Goldeneye 007’s multiplayer functionality into that game as they can. I will miss the singleplayer, no doubt about that, but at this point I will take what I can get.
Comment by I Call 9MM — 09.Mar.08 @ 3:12 am
“I don’t know, Grant. But i think Nintendo is getting back with that attitude of “I’m the winner, and I don’t care about the others””
That defines MicroSoft to this day, especially with their legal troubles in Europe… At least Nintendo had a change of attitude.
Comment by Angryaztec — 25.Mar.08 @ 1:19 am[...] statements that had nothing to do with us. We sent them a conciliatory e-mail and we published a flattering review of their educational GoldenEye report. The answer, just a few days later, was the lack of an answer itself, with the sole exception of a [...]
Pingback by MundoRare | Nintendo still holds legal power over GoldenEye 007 — 05.Oct.08 @ 5:30 pm[...] MundoRARE Enviar a: Meneame Fresqui del.icio.us [...]
Pingback by GOLDENEYE NO LLEGARÁ AL LIVE! | xblog360.es — 26.Aug.10 @ 1:45 am
Why can Nintendo and Microsoft just have the game on both the Xbox Live Arcade, and the Virtual Console, they would both sell like hotcakes anyways.
Comment by Grant McLachlan — 03.Mar.08 @ 4:18 am