"Game Boy outing leaves Bond shaken, not stirred."

I'm sure everyone realises there's a drastic difference between the Nintendo 64 and the Game Boy, so understandably you wouldn't expect the great GoldenEye to be replicated on the handheld. Instead, Saffire gives us an interesting Bond-themed adventure game, using a similar top-down interface to the Zelda series along with the familiar characters and plot of the James Bond series.

James Bond 007 obviously puts us in the shoes of James Bond, our favourite agent in Her Majesty's Secret Service. Instead of being based on an existing Bond plot, James Bond 007 creates an original plot involving an arms smuggling ring that takes Bond's investigation to exotic places such as the Middle East, China and Russia. Featuring in this composite storyline are our favourite heroes and villains: Q, Moneypenny, Jaws, Goldfinger and Oddjob, among others.

The gameplay is almost identical to The Legend Zelda: Link's Awakening, being from top-down perspective and allowing Bond to equip various items onto his two equipment slots, which are activated by pressing the A and B buttons. Initially, Bond can only punch and block, which is more than enough for repetitive combat against unarmed foes. The system is actually way too simple: hold the block button until the enemy performs a flying kick that takes them across the screen, and follow up with a punch. You can't take a proactive approach and beat them up first; no, the game forces you to block flying kicks and counter-punch several times per enemy, several times per area.

Thankfully, the annoying block/punch combo is quickly superseded by a decent variety of weapons. Bond can equip machetes, which can hack away at enemies like Link's sword; as well as pistols and assault rifles for long-range combat. Grenades can be found and used to instantly kill a group of enemies, or be thrown across inaccessible terrain to kill enemies on the other side. The player can chose a combination of offensive weapons, or they can select a variety of defensive items, such as bulletproof vests and titanium shields to deflect bullets. There are some other interesting gadgets, but those are reserved for certain points in the game. Item switching is done through a simple menu while paused. It's fundamentally straightforward, but the game isn't creative enough to use one button for more than its assigned purpose.

There are a few boss encounters throughout the game that are usually immune to regular weapons and require some Bond-style ingenuity to defeat. For example, Oddjob throws razor-sharp bowler hats at you, which must be deflected with a titanium shield to hit Oddjob. Jaws, obviously enough, can only be defeated by using a series of industrial magnetic cranes.

There really isn't much more to James Bond 007, however. The graphics are little more than small sprites that look the same, although the areas are varied enough. The sound contains the Bond theme but little more than uninspired, repetitive background music. The gameplay is in turn repetitive, mainly punch/block or dodge/shoot techniques that work all the time against every foe. It's a decent game to pick up and play, but there's nothing about James Bond 007 that makes it an excellent or even just a good game.

Graphics: 6/10
Sound: 4/10
Gameplay: 6/10
Replay: 4/10
Overall: 5/10

Reviewer's Score: 5/10, Originally Posted: 12/20/06