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Two 'Goldeneye' Rereleases Have Been Announced At Today's Nintendo Direct, Confusing Gamers

September 13th, 2022 - 3:32 PM EDT by Adam Downer

8 comments

(Nintendo / Rare)

A strange story has quietly developed in the video game world today. While gamers have been hyped about the imminent releases of Fire Emblem: Engage and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, both Nintendo and Microsoft announced rereleases of Goldeneye 007. One might think that means both the Switch and Xbox are getting the same game, but that doesn't quite look like it will be the case.

During today's Direct, Nintendo capped off its section about titles coming to its lineup of N64 games by revealing a port of Goldeneye.

At nearly the same time, Rare LTD announced that Goldeneye 007 would be coming to Xbox Game Pass.

What's fascinating about this is that Goldeneye 007 doesn't appear to simply be a release for both the Switch and Xbox Series X/S but rather a port that will have different features depending on which console the player uses.

Nintendo's Goldeneye will likely be a simple port of the original game, but they have promised the addition of online multiplayer — which any Switch fan knows can often be a dodgy experience. For the Xbox version, Rare promised "achievements, 4K resolution and a smoother framerate – even in split-screen local multiplayer" — but not online multiplayer.

Rare noted it has partnered with Nintendo to ensure a simultaneous release of the Goldeneye port on Xbox and Nintendo, but players were still confused as to why the game will be different depending on which console they own.

Still, regardless of port differences, a new generation of players will be able to experience one of the most influential games of all time, even if it hasn't quite aged to modern standards. Now if they could just get to work on a port of Nightfire …

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Comments 8 total

smolbirb

Sep 13, 2022 at 11:28PM EDT

I've never had the chance to play the original goldeneye, and I cant save enough money to buy all the old consoles to play older classic games. I'm looking forward to having the chance to playing it, but I do understand if any OG fans of the game feeling disappointed at the exclusivity of features. frankly I hope this doesn't persist in future re-releases of old games. we already have enough of that nonsense with pre-order versions versus delux versions verses collectors editions ect.

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Leemaster777

Sep 14, 2022 at 01:02AM EDT smolbirb

I've played Goldeneye, and I'll tell you, it's more of a curio nowadays, a benchmark of what console FPSs could be.

The controls are awkward and weird, and the N64s controller definitely didn't help in that regard. Hopefully a modern controller with some button-mapping might fix some of the issues it had.

The multiplayer was one of the bigger selling points back in the day, but nowadays, would probably be described as "quaint", if we're being generous. And every multiplayer match basically had the start with the gentlemen's agreement of not picking Oddjob. Unless you wanted to be that guy.

And the graphics, while good for the time, just makes everyone look like they're made of cereal boxes nowadays. And it doesn't even have the cartoony artstyle that other N64 games, like Mario and Zelda, had, to make it a bit more palatable in the long term.

I mean, I'm still probably gonna buy it, but people without nostalgia for it, or people that aren't super-interested in game history and preservation probably won't like it as much.

Honestly, Rare's spiritual follow-up, Perfect Dark, is a much more complete and well-crafted game all-around.

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Salnax

Sep 14, 2022 at 06:37AM EDT Leemaster777

If you emulate the game and play it with dual analog sticks or with mouse and keyboard controls, the game suddenly becomes much better. It still hasn't aged as well as some early 3D games or FPS's, but it can be worth a dip if played that way.

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winton overwat

Sep 14, 2022 at 09:11AM EDT Leemaster777

>And every multiplayer match basically had the start with the gentlemen's agreement of not picking Oddjob.

That will probably be fixed if we get a way to actually aim

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seacliff

Sep 13, 2022 at 09:34PM EDT

The Xbox version also has widescreen and other enhancements, while the Nintendo Switch version is a straight up port with netplay.

Give and take.

1

Steven The Pirate

Sep 13, 2022 at 09:50PM EDT seacliff

Goldeneye has always supported widescreen, no reason it shouldn't work on the Switch version too.

3

seacliff

Sep 14, 2022 at 05:04PM EDT Steven The Pirate

Sorta, kinda.

Any widescreen option before games went HD is more of a trick than actual support. The N64 doesn't actually support a widescreen resolution, so games with that option just squish everything in a 4:3 resolution and let the display stretch it out. The resolution is still 320×237. The results look okay, but Icons and 2D Menus in particular will have a lot of artifacts.

Doesn't really take much from there to understand why actual native widescreen support is superior.

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