Review by: Danielle Riendeau

Last year, Goldeneye 007 gave Wii owners a reason to play something other than a platformer or party game on their console. A hardcore shooter – and a full reboot of one of the most beloved FPS games of all time - it was a thrilling experience. This year, the same game has arrived on the HD consoles, complete with a nice nip/tuck up-rez of the graphics, but somehow, a bit of the magic has been lost.

It’s a rock-solid game that benefits greatly from the more traditional FPS controls -the Wii version was tweaked beautifully, however, the controls never felt “perfect” with a Wii-mote and nunchuck – and it’s never looked better. However, it does look a bit plain next to other modern shooters, and considering that at least some of the appeal came from being a big fish in the Wii’s small pond, as well as the nostalgia factor (especially for Nintendo fans), it has to work harder for its goodwill.

This is a more or less straight port with slightly cleaner graphics a few new modes thrown in for good measure. If you played last year’s version, you know you’re in for a treat – the classic N64 game and the cheesy (but still kind of awesome) 1995 flick of the same name are used as “inspiration” for the singleplayer campaign, which spans several meaty missions. Bond (the blonde, badass Daniel Craig version) trots the globe seeking out contacts, using his one and only gadget (a smartphone with an app for everything from hacking to taking intel pics), and shooting or subduing the living hell out of thousands of guards. The shooting is competent; with a nice stealth move available to you for sneaking up on baddies with silent kills, and the guns all feel appropriately beefy (even your silenced Walther PPK packs a decent punch).

Story wise, the game follows the basic plot points of the older game and flick. You start off with your buddy, agent 006, in a Russian weapons facility; from there you investigate the possibility of a secret organization called Janus that happens to be harboring an ultra-powerful EMP weapon—the eponymous “Goldeneye” satellite. Most of the schlock has been toned down from the film (and the characters’ likenesses are all new), so it all plays like a modern, no-nonsense action thriller – just like the most recent Bond movies. It’s fun, fast-paced, and slickly presented via in game cut scenes and short, funky mission briefings.

Multiplayer is as fully-featured as it was on the Wii, complete with stats that allow you to level up over time and an assortment of well-balanced loadouts. On the 360, you have the added element of a massive playerbase well used to playing FPS games (this is good or bad depending on your position). It’s still fantastic for old-school style split screen multiplayer (local only), and it’s ridiculously easy to find a match in any of the main game types when you brave the uncertain waters of Xbox Live. I’m admittedly awful at online multiplayer shooters, so I basically spend the matches getting killed, but I still found myself enjoying a good romp in the online jungle.

There’s nothing to complain about aside from the plain visuals (the up-rez helps, but it also serves to show how visually spartan the Wii game had to be to run so well on the hardware). This was a very good game last year, and it still holds up, despite not being the truly impressive achievement that it was on the Wii. There’s no need to re-buy if you have already experienced it, but if not, this is a solid reboot of a true classic.