GoldenEye 007

(Activision for Wii)
By Mike Delano

GoldenEye 007 is definitely a bizarre release: It’s the odd one out from the new Bond adventure, BloodiStone, being released at the same time on the HD consoles. Instead, it’s a reimagining of the Nintendo 64 classic, except with Daniel Craig retrofitted in to replace Pierce Brosnan in an attempt to inhabit a middle ground between the appeal of modern Bond and the fuzzy feelings brought on by nostalgia for the 1997 original. As probably the best first-person shooter on the Wii, however, it’s probably best not to look a gift horse in the mouth. The campaign gets better as it progresses, and the satisfying gunplay (provided you play with the Classic Controller, as nature intended), destructible environments, and large levels bring back fond memories of another shooter, the PS2/Xbox hit Black. Multiplayer also shines, benefitting from almost the full Modern Warfare treatment, from XP rewards to unlockable guns to highly customizable loadouts and match types. It’s a crowded holiday season for shooters, to be sure, and by early 2011, it’ll be a full-on FPS avalanche, but the excellent campaign and best-on-Wii multiplayer make GoldenEye 007 too strong a package to pass up.
(www.activision.com)