GoldenEye 007 (2010) is a first-person shooter that Eurocom developed and Activision published for the Wii. It reimagines the 1995 Bond film GoldenEye and remakes the 1997 Nintendo 64 game of the same name. Nintendo announced it at its E3 2010 presentation, and it shipped in November 2010 next to another Bond title, Blood Stone.
Critics did not rate it as highly as the Nintendo 64 original, but reviews were positive, and many called it a return to form for the series. The praise landed on its gameplay, campaign, voice acting, multiplayer and controls.
Daniel Craig Replaces Pierce Brosnan
Pierce Brosnan played Bond in the film and in the 1997 game. The 2010 version swaps in Daniel Craig’s likeness and voice. The plot was rewritten to match the style of the first two Craig-era films, which meant cutting Q and Miss Moneypenny.
Judi Dench returns as M, voice only. Rory Kinnear returns as Bill Tanner. Every other main character from the film gets a new face and a new voice while keeping the original name.
Bruce Feirstein wrote the screenplay for the original movie, and he wrote the updated single player storyline for the 2010 game.
Arkhangelsk and the Chemical Weapons Facility
The story sits between Quantum of Solace and Skyfall. M sends MI6 agents James Bond and Alec Trevelyan into a chemical weapons facility in Arkhangelsk, Russia. Intelligence ties the site to a terrorist cell that has been targeting British embassies.
The mission goes awry when General Ourumov shoots Trevelyan. Bond detonates explosives he had placed throughout the facility and flees Arkhangelsk by aeroplane.
The plot skips the film’s nine-year jump after the opening. The Cold War is over, and the story is built around that.
A Phone Call, a Helicopter, Siberia
An intercepted call from Ourumov links him to Russian gangster Valentin Zukovsky, who is chasing a helicopter modified to survive an electromagnetic pulse. Zukovsky points him toward an arms fair in Dubai.
Onatopp and Ourumov steal the helicopter. Zukovsky cannot stop them, but he plants his smartphone aboard, and MI6 tracks the aircraft to a remote base in Siberia.
Bond fails to stop the theft of a GoldenEye weapons satellite, which Ourumov detonates. Bond rescues Natalya Simonova, and the Russian army then arrests the two of them.
Splitscreen Returns to the Shooter
Multiplayer is the reason people still keep the Wii disc. Splitscreen returns to the first-person shooter: four players in the same room, on the same screen. The range of characters, modes and weapons produces more than 500 split screen combinations.
There are 40 unique characters, including eight classics: Oddjob, Jaws, Scaramanga, Baron Samedi, Dr. No, Rosa Klebb, Red Grant and Blofeld. There are 17 special game modifiers, among them Paintball, Melee Only and You Only Live Twice.
The arsenal covers Bond’s signature P99, automatic and sniper rifles, and proximity mines. Online multiplayer supports up to eight players with unique modes and an XP system for unlockables and achievements.
| Feature | GoldenEye 007 (1997, Nintendo 64) | GoldenEye 007 (2010, Wii) |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | — | Eurocom |
| Publisher | — | Activision |
| Bond likeness | Pierce Brosnan | Daniel Craig |
| Splitscreen players | — | 4 |
| Online players | — | Up to 8 |
| Unique characters | — | 40 |
| Game modifiers | — | 17 |
| Screenwriter | — | Bruce Feirstein |
| Q and Moneypenny | Present | Cut |
| Release | 1997 | November 2010 |
Mishkin, the Train, Statue Park
Russian Defense Minister Dmitri Mishkin interrogates Bond and Simonova in Saint Petersburg, believing them responsible for the GoldenEye blast. Ourumov kills him and abducts Natalya. Bond commandeers a tank and pursues Ourumov to a train, confronting him over his plan for the GoldenEye satellite. Onatopp betrays Ourumov and kills him.
Bond helps Natalya off the train and goes to a meeting at Statue Park. There he learns Trevelyan survived his execution at the hands of Ourumov and is now Janus, the mastermind behind the GoldenEye theft. Trevelyan leaves with Natalya, who is instrumental to his plan.
Nigeria, the Supercomputers, the Tower
Bond infiltrates a solar facility in northwestern Nigeria and tricks Trevelyan into destroying his own supercomputers, stopping the plan to use the satellite to destroy London and erase evidence of stolen finances. Bond overloads the facility control room and shoots Trevelyan, sending him off the tower. Simonova and Bond escape by helicopter, kissing in the aftermath.
What the 2010 Remake Gets Right
This paper’s view: the campaign is a strong return to form, and the voice cast carries it. Craig’s Bond reads as a blunter instrument than Brosnan’s, and that suits the material — a judgment, not something the source states.
The exclusion of Q and Miss Moneypenny is the one real loss, in this paper’s reading. The gadget economy leans on a smartphone and proximity mines instead.
The splitscreen matters most to this paper. Four players, one screen, 500 combinations — that is the argument for keeping the Wii disc. Online play for eight is a fine addition, but it is not the draw.
An enhanced port, GoldenEye 007: Reloaded, arrived in November 2011 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. The source notes its release in November 2011 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3; this paper makes no quality claim about it.
GoldenEye 007 (2010) holds up, in this paper’s view, because a Bond game is a set of rooms and rules shared with a friend who will absolutely pick Oddjob. That is opinion, not a fact the source supplies.
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