What is the best James Bond video game?

[Rhindle The Red]

The James Bond film series is the longest running series in film history and one of the most successful. Naturally, this (and not the success of the novels) has led to many video game adaptations over the years. While there were console and computer games in the first decade, it was the release of GoldenEye for the N64 that catapulted the James Bond brand name into the limelight as far as video games are concerned.

 

What do you think is the best of the lot? Which best captures the feel of the James Bond series? Which is your favorite? What do you think makes a successful Bond game?

[+Psionic]

Wow...I didn't know half of those games even existed.

[segasaturn]

I only own 2 James Bond Games.

 

James Bond 007 for the 5200

and

James Bond: The Duel for the Genesis

 

and out of those, I think that The Duel is the Best.

[superdevil]

The James Bond film series is the longest running series in film history and one of the most successful.

 

 

It's definitely one of the most successful, but nowhere near the longest. Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Godzilla, and Dracula have been around a lot longer.

 

Anywho, I think From Russia With Love is the best game in the series. Goldeneye is one of the most overrated games in decades. It was fine for the time, but nearly unplayable by today's standards. It hasn't aged well, and I think a lot of glowing sentiment owes more to nostalgia than it does the game itself.

 

The main thing you hear about Goldeneye is the multiplayer. The multiplayer in FRWL tops Goldeneye, as does the rest of the game.

 

Besides, SEAN FREAKING CONNERY returns to the James Bond role for the first time 25 years, what more could you want?

[AtariLeaf]

I had no idea there were that many Bond games. I think the N64 Goldeneye wins this by a landslide. Its THE game people think of when you think James Bond and Video Games.

[Rhindle The Red]

It's definitely one of the most successful, but nowhere near the longest. Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Godzilla, and Dracula have been around a lot longer.

Well, I'm willing to concede Godzilla is a slightly longer running film series so far (1954 - 2004 vs. 1962 - 2008), though I think the decision (three times) to intentionally cease production with no clear indication if or when they would start up again breaks it up a bit. (And btw, James Bond *did* make his live action debut a few weeks before Godzilla made his. The "Casino Royale" episode of Climax! aired on October 21, 1954, while Godzilla opened on November 3 of the same year.)

 

On the other hand, while Sherlock Holmes, Batman, Dracula, Tarzan, Superman, etc. have all had films made about them over a longer period, they are not all part of the same *series*. Batman, for instance, can be broken up into the serials, the '66 movie, the Burton/Schumaker films and then the Nolan films. Four *different* series, not one.

 

So, James Bond is the longest film series *in continuous (and current) production*.

[Zwackery]

Hi, I would like to take this moment to plug this book:

 

James Bond Phenomenon - 2nd edition

 

 

I wrote chapter 19. It had to be cut down quite a bit, but the longer, original version will be available elsewhere at a future date.

 

Contents

Introduction / Christoph Lindner

Part I: Reading 007

1 The Moments of Bond / Tony Bennett & Janet Woollacott

2 Narrative Structures in Fleming / Umberto Eco

3 Licensed to Look: James Bond and the Heroism of Consumption / Michael Denning

4 Criminal Vision and the Ideology of Detection in Fleming's 007 Series / Christoph Lindner

5 'Entertainment for Men': Uncovering the Playboy Bond / Claire Hines

Part II: Screening 007

6 A Licence to Thrill / James Chapman

7 The James Bond Films: Conditions of Production / Janet Woollacott

8 Creating a Bond Market: Selling John Barry's Soundtracks and Theme Songs / Jeff Smith

9 Doctor No: Bonding Britishness to Racial Sovereignty / Cynthia Baron

10 Hard-Wear: The Millennium, Technology, and Brosnan's Bond / Martin Willis

11 Body Politics and Casino Royale: Gender and (Inter)National Security / Colleen M. Tremonte and Linda Racioppi

Part 3: Re-thinking 007

12 'Under the very skirts of Britannia': Re-reading Women in the James Bond Novels / Christine Bold

13 Pussy Galore / Elisabeth Ladenson

14 Britain's Last Line of Defence: Miss Moneypenny and the Desperations of Filmic Feminism / Tara Brabazon

15 Dial 'M' for Metonym: Universal Exports, M's Office Space and Empire / Paul Stock

16 Kamasutra Bond-ing / Ajay Gehlawat

17 James Bond's Penis / Toby Miller

18 'The World Has Changed': Bond in the 1990s - and Beyond? / Jim Leach

19 Shaken, Stirred, Pixellated: Video Gaming as Bond / Stefan Hall

[moycon]

Wow I haven't heard of most of these games and the only one I think I really played was the 2600 one and one I had on the GC. (I cant recall it's name.)

 

No I never played the N64 one!!!

 

EDIT : I take that back. i did have one on the Com64. I think it was View to a Kill but man except for the voice in it that said "Damnit you failed Bond" That game sucked.

Edited February 11, 2009 by moycon

[rpgfaker]

Man..Rare is the best for making Goldeneye 007. A real masterpiece. It could easily make it into the top ten games that had a major impact on the industry.

 

Too bad EA just cashes in on the license with mediocre offerings..

 

Oh and just for the record the gameboy James Bond 007 is a great game too.

Edited February 15, 2009 by rpgfaker

[Nightwing]

Goldeneye 007 hands down in the best Bond game ever made.Nothing else comes close.

[Nukey Shay]

I can't believe that the PB version (BTW versions) was even included in the list. The game stunk even in it's day. If you had a time machine, even before it's day.

[Galactus]

Goldeneye 007 hands down in the best Bond game ever made.Nothing else comes close.

 

Goldeneye was good but Everything or Nothing on GC is better, IMO.

[Wickeycolumbus]

Goldeneye

[jboypacman]

I know most will go with Goldeneye for the N64 but i always like the 2600 version of James Bond it has that "Moon Patrol" thing going for it so it gets my vote.

[Lauren Tyler]

I'm sorry, but I have to go with GoldenEye 007.

 

A lot of people love it for the multiplayer, but there's more to it than that. GoldenEye was more than just a first-person shooter. It introduced the concept of mission objectives, where one mistake could blow the whole mission. Not only was it more than just a first-person shooter, but it also made you feel like you were actually James Bond himself.

[Lemmi]

i was like the 2nd or 3rd vote in this poll and i picked PB 007 only because its the only one ive played, and i even own the goldeneye n64 game but never played it

[+Psionic]

Hi, I would like to take this moment to plug this book:

 

James Bond Phenomenon - 2nd edition

 

 

I wrote chapter 19. It had to be cut down quite a bit, but the longer, original version will be available elsewhere at a future date.

Cool...I wouldn't mind reading that.

[Trip_Cannon]

Wikipedia states James Bond: The Duel (1993) as the first Bond game not to be based on a movie or book so what is The Stealth Affair (1990) based on?

[kevincal]

I honestly don't like the single player mode in Goldeneye 007... I just found most of the objectives a pain in the ass and I hate failing missions and having to redo the level.. Ugh. I have no patience for that...

 

WITH THAT SAID, Goldeneye 007 was the peak of multiplayer gaming greatness for me and my friends in the late 90's. Myself and many other friends played Goldeneye for atleast a year straight nearly every day. It gets my vote as best multiplayer game ever. (for me anyway)

[Shawn]

Goldeneye 64 for sure.

[shadow460]

Although eclipsed by other games (Perfect Dark, Unreal Tournament, etc), Goldeneye is the best Bond game I have ever played.

[Zwackery]

Hi, I would like to take this moment to plug this book:

 

James Bond Phenomenon - 2nd edition

 

 

I wrote chapter 19. It had to be cut down quite a bit, but the longer, original version will be available elsewhere at a future date.

Cool...I wouldn't mind reading that.

Here's the opening paragraph of the chapter:

 

In Ian Fleming & James Bond: The Cultural Politics of 007 (2005), Andrew Lycett asks, "Where does Bond begin and end – in Fleming's mind, in the British spy novel tradition, in the many fan pages and websites devoted to his cult status? Does the cultural franchise of Bond rest on the novels or the films?"[1] To Lycett's list, one must add video games. Beginning with the earliest adaptations for the home console market and moving through the rise of home computer gaming in the 1980s to modern console releases beginning in the 1990s including GoldenEye 007, James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing, and most recently From Russia with Love, over 20 video game titles feature Bond. Over their shared history, the Bond franchise and the video game industry have intersected in many ways, sometimes fruitfully and at other times unevenly. If we accept the premise that "while James Bond is very much a human being, 007 is a technological construction," what does 007 as a gaming character share with his cinematic and print brethren?[2]

 

 

[1] Andrew Lycett. "Foreword". Ian Fleming & James Bond: The Cultural Politics of 007 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005), p. xiii.

 

[2] William McKinney. "James Bond and the Philosophy of Technology: It's More than Just the Gadgets of Q Branch". James Bond and Philosophy: Questions are Forever (Chicago: Open Court. 2006), p. 187.

[darthkur]

...I picked PB 007 only because its the only one I've played, and i even own the goldeneye n64 game but never played it

 

 

That goes for me as well. Although I have tried Goldeneye the whole 3D/first person perspective thing doesn't do well with me.

[otaku]

The James Bond film series is the longest running series in film history and one of the most successful. Naturally, this (and not the success of the novels) has led to many video game adaptations over the years. While there were console and computer games in the first decade, it was the release of GoldenEye for the N64 that catapulted the James Bond brand name into the limelight as far as video games are concerned.

 

What do you think is the best of the lot? Which best captures the feel of the James Bond series? Which is your favorite? What do you think makes a successful Bond game?

 

n64 goldeneye man I played that a ton.

[ericwierson]

Loved playing N64 Goldeneye with my friends and family back in the day.