Game Boy Review: James Bond 007 (1998)

Our first Game Boy review, and no better way to do it than to take a look at one of the most curious games in the James Bond franchise. Keep your eyes on Code Redd Net for more 007 coverage in the very near future.

It's always nice to play something a little bit different. Ever since GoldenEye broke out on the N64, the 007 franchise has stuck fairly close that first-person shooter model. Sure, there were a few misfires with third-person action, such as Tomorrow Never Dies, and a few hits, such as the inimitable Everything or Nothing, but overall the series has stayed within a pretty limited range of first- and occasionally third-person shooters. James Bond 007 for the Game Boy has its fair share of action, no question, but it's much more Zelda or Pokemon than anything else, as there's far more puzzles to solve and items to collect than thugs to gun down.

008, not 006.

Most of the plot and dialogue is recycled wholesale from old Bond films, including key villains Oddjob and Jaws, and there's just enough of a simplistic gun smuggling subplot to tie it all together. On your travels to find the source of the smuggling, and to locate the missing 008, you stop in mainland China, Marrakech, the Sahara Desert, Tibet, and a super-secret final base. Most of your time in-mission will be spent in trying to track down the right people and to collect the right keycard or item. Some of the puzzles you have to solve range from absolutely dumby-proof to esoteric, and many times an ally will only hand over the proper keycard when you've spoken to him twice, which can be quite irritating to find out after spending an half hour wandering around the level once again. Too often the puzzles to be solved only require persistence and not intelligence. I found that running alongside the walls would often yield the location of secret switches much more efficiently than solving the riddles by wit. Combat is kind of odd, too: pressing the select button brings up an inventory where you can assign an item to either the A or B button, such as a pistol, a rocket launcher, a very un-suave machete, or a pair of fists. Shooting can be difficult and slow, and bullets seem to take an hour to reach their target. Though later stages require more ammunition in order to get through the levels, earlier stages have a bit more variety to recommend them. I particularly enjoy laying the fisticuffs down on the streets of Marrakech, then ducking into the casino for a game of Blackjack. For me, this is the principal appeal of James Bond 007: you don't just shoot baddies, you go undercover, you partake in a little high-stakes gambling, you have to find a way to survive without water in the Sahara. There's not much to do once you beat the game, and it won't take long to do so, but upon completing your mission the game rewards you with passwords to unlock the gambling mini-games. So, not only do you have a solid, if unspectacular, Bond experience for your next flight or bus ride, you also have the best baccarat simulator around. It's worth picking up if you're a Bond fan with a mind for something different.