E3 '10: Goldeneye - Be Careful What You Wish For

It's the remake everybody wished would happen, and based on my hands-on time on the show floor, Goldeneye is going to continue to be the remake that everybody wishes would happen. Don't get me wrong, Goldeneye is a fun Wii FPS, but let's get the dirty facts out of the way first: this is not a remake of the N64 classic Goldeneye. Though it will share the same story as the film and game, the levels will be completely new, and at times focusing on completely different scenes than the original game did. The new levels don't only apply to the single player mode, with all new multiplayer maps in place as well. We've seen spiritual sequels before, well Goldeneye on Wii is a spiritual remake.

At E3, Activision is only showing the multiplayer so far, which is admittedly the most crucial part of Goldeneye. The Activision representative handed me a Wii classic controller and asked if I was familiar with Call of Duty's controls. Now, having just come from seeing The Conduit 2, an FPS that makes the most of the Wii remote for accurate shooting, being handed a classic controller was a bit jarring. After all, if it's just going to use a standard controller then why is it on the Wii? However, I was assured that there would be a Wii remote and nunchuck control option in the final game, but the developers wanted to make those controls perfect before setting it before the public. I can respect that, but the lack of Wii remote on the show floor was still unsettling.

As for the game itself, I can't say I'm impressed. Without the classic levels to fuel my nostalgia and without the Wii's pointer controls implemented, Goldeneye felt like a fairly generic shooter. With the exception of classic Bond characters and Oddjob's hat throwing attack, there wasn't really anything to make Goldeneye on the Wii seem like Goldeneye. And with a lacking feature set compared to modern shooters like Battlefield, Call of Duty, or fellow Wii title Conduit 2, I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to get excited about Goldeneye on the Wii.

I realize that it sounds like I'm just being bitter that Goldeneye isn't a straight remake and that it doesn't yet fully use Wii controls, but that's not really my biggest gripe with Goldeneye. What really bothers me is that there really isn't much else to say. If it had been named anything else then it would be seen as an average, if not wholly original, shooter. But the name Goldeneye ups our expectations. Is that fair? No. But isn't it a better question to ask: if the name raises our expectations so much, why use it? Either Goldeneye has lots of tricks up its sleeve, or else we may be looking at another Goldeneye Rogue Agent.