James Bond 007

"This ain't no Goldeneye..."

A big fan of Zelda and Bond, I eagerly bought this game when it first came out. Unfortunately, I was left very disappointed. I really don't know how this passed Nintendo's quality control department.

Story 6/10

The story is mildly interesting. When the game starts, Bond must find 008 in Turkey, where 008 has been missing for quite some time while investigating an arms smuggling ring. Many characters from the movies are present, including M, Moneypenny, Q, Jaws, and others. Unfortunately, they're all poorly used. Q rarely gives any useful items and most characters aren't well developed. The story can also be a little boring sometimes. My biggest gripe in the game is the way the Bond license is used. Many things about the game just don't feel Bond-y, if that's a real word. However, there is a Bond girl...

Gameplay 6/10

Controls are simple: Control Pad to move; Start for save menu; Select for weapons/item menu; and A and B are assigned with either weapons, guarding, or items. Controls are responsive, but hit detection is very bad. Bullets and other ammo are often very small, resulting in a lot of misses. Punching and hacking also miss often for no real reason. Weapons range from punching, to machettes, to grenade launchers. Items range from shields, vests, and exploding keychains. Actual gameplay is pretty boring. Fighting enemies and bosses is more of a hassle than exciting. The puzzles range from easy to VERY easy to ridiculously stupid. The game just isn't very fun to play.

Graphics 5/10

The graphics in James Bond are pretty uninspired. The human sprites look very distorted, and aren't animated very nicely. Some of the bigger bosses look good, but they also lack any real animation. The backgrounds lack any real detail or style. The cutscenes during the ending are nice, though, even though they don't show Bond's face.

Sound FX/Music 8/10

Music is the only category in which James Bond is good. The familiar Bond theme is in the game, and the rest of the music is good enough to be in a Bond soundtrack, in my opinion. Some tunes are slightly annoying, but it's not so bad that you have to turn the volume down. The sound effects, however, are pretty boring and nothing you haven't heard before.

Replay Value 4/10

Nothing much to replay, really. The game isn't interesting or fun enough to play through a second time, even with 2 different endings (the second ending is pretty lame). The card mini-games are sort of fun, but I'd rather play the real thing (the computer cheats).

Buy/Rent?

I'm actually pretty sorry that I spent $29.99 on this game. If you're still intent on buying it, get it used or at a cheaper price. It might be a good rental if you REALLY need to satisfy your Zelda or Bond craving, but I bet it'll leave you disappointed instead.

Overall 6/10

Overall, it's a very, very mediocre game that does nothing to satisfy the tastes of Zelda or Bond fans. If you want a Zelda game, stick with Zelda DX. If you want a Bond game, stick with Goldeneye. It's not the worst game on earth, but it's close. But that's just my opinion....

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 11/01/99, Updated 08/05/01