James Bond 007 Game by Saffire Reviewed by The Avardancer Size: 4 Megabits Save: Battery 3 Slots Released: 1998 Works with: Any Version of Gameboy **************************************************************************** Opening Snide Remarks: DO NOT confuse this with GoldenEye or Tommorrow Never Dies! This is a completely NEW James Bond adventure! It has surprise guest stars like... Ohh, I can't tell you; I would be ruining it. Well, 007 regulars like M, Q, and M16 show up as well. The game has two endings. (Though the second is really just the first with a twist.) It's a top-down RPG by Saffire and liscensed By Nintendo. At first I wonder why Rare couldn't have done the game. By the way, there is no Official James Bond Movie liscense in this game. **************************************************************************** Gameplay Descripion: Plays like an action/adventure game should. Fans of Final Fantasy Adventure, Legend of Zelda: "Link's Awakening", and Fortified Zone will flip for this! The bosses are a little easy; if you play agressively and take the time to find LOTS of weapons. The game is VERY challenging in parts. There's even variations of play like three card games. There are also puzzles to solve and people to talk to. There's also a good bit of a interaction with the people. (NOT THAT type of James Bond interacton, foo'.) Hardcore Bond fans will love the jokes, and guests. (Of course to get some of the jokes or recognize some of the guest stars; you'll have to watch a great deal of James Bond films. You can ignore the Pierce Bronson ones though. Because Pierce Bronson ISN'T Saffire's idea of James Bond.) It's fun, engaging, and it's real good too. By the way, the enemies have a strange Artificial Intelligence about them; so you may have to be nimble and sneaky. (I like to hide behind a piece of scenery and toss a grenade at some of them or don my heavy bullet proof jacket and blitz them with a machete. Don't blitz the guys with Rocket Launchers unless you have to.) The Gameplay is story driven. The story is classic James Bond material. The game does however suffer from not having any real sense of replay value. Once you go through and find the hidden ending. (Which is pretty easy to find. Just don't listen to that guy when he says not to..... never mind. I won't ruin it.) There are some VERY frustrating parts of the game. (The desert....) And some of the later puzzles are simplistic at best. It's pretty fun though. Liked: The long involving gameplay and story. Hated: Little replay value, that desert. **************************************************************************** Graphics Description: No James Bond actor was modeled for this game. So James looks like; well, he looks like a mixture of all the best James Bond actors. In fact, he looks like something concieved in a comic book; and that ain't bad. (A 007 comic book... what an interesting idea.) Graphics are well concieved and there's actually a little bit of 3-dness to some of the graphics. Your machine gun looks like a machine gun, your rocket launcher looks like a rocket launcher. All enemies are noticeably well done; you can tell what weapon they are carrying. (Uh oh. That one has a long cylinder with a small pole on top of it! He's got a rocket launcher! Better use caution.) There are really good graphics on practically everyone in the game. Some good examples of the graphic depth is the crows eating that dead guy, the guy peeling the potato, the belly dancer, that girl in the harem who was waving at me, the belly dancer, the fishing guy, the fire breathing guy, the belly dancer, Q, the belly dancer,etc. There's a startling amount of detail in the people. The graphics get better on Super Game Boy; even though a ton of detail is visible on the Game Boy. I didn't notice the flies, and bugs (Insects, not glitches.) until I put the game in the Super Game Boy. Very nice border. Classy Black and White SGB pallete. I do however wish that some more "color" was added to the Super Gameboy "enchancement". The border for the Super Game Boy is James Bond's watch. :) Liked: Detail and excellent animation. Hated: You can not change the Super Game Boy Pallette. **************************************************************************** Sound/Music Description: Sound is a little stiff, cut and dry. My favorite sound is the one that the machete makes. Swoosh! Swoosh! Over all, the sound is okay. Nothing to write home about. Though I like the "Swoosh! Swoosh!". Oh, well. Swoosh! Swoosh! The James Bond theme is there and it's all good. The other music is forgetable though. Well, some of it sticks in your head. Good Stereo sound.I like it, and I can only think of one track of music that I detest. I love the beat of the James Bond Theme. The music in the game feels unneeded in spots. Too bad that Rare didn't make this game. Liked: Swoosh! Swoosh! The James Bond theme! Hated: Some of the music... bites. **************************************************************************** Play Control/Game Design: I really didn't get used to pressing select to bring up the equip screen; I kept pressing start. (But, that's pretty good; because Ialways remembered to save my game.) James moves like he should have analogue control. Very smooth. Kind of touchy. Dead on accurate. There is a slightdelay between shots. (You can't rapid fire very well. I think that's supposed to simulate loading the gun. Like ie. you must wait about half a second before you can fire the Rocket launcher again.) This makes it slightly realistic. Very fast moving, even with lots of enemies on screen. Sometimes though, you can misfire your gun. :( The game is a hodge-podge of action/adventure/rpg elements; but it is still executed nicely. The game does the trick the first time through and is well designed; but lacks a bit in replay value. Liked: The game design is great! Hated: Some of the little aspects of the play control... **************************************************************************** Improve: Let Rare make it next time! It could use some color. Saffire did a very good job; but Rare could do a better job.. RIYL: Link's Awakening, Final Fantasy Adventure, Fortified Zone. **************************************************************************** Final Words: If you LOVE James Bond get this NOW. If you love long games, and RPGs; you should check out this game. It's worth every MoneyPenny. (She's in here too.) Good sense of dry humour. It's a wonder that this gota K-A rateing. (One girl I met wanted me to go skinny-dipping with her and some of the lines James Bond has are a little suggestive.) The plot is simple; but stretched out; with a few nice twists. Bond's love interest(?)is a flake. (As all James Bond women seem to be.. James actually has a line in the game ridiculing that effect.) Addictive and worth your time. The normal ending is a little cheesy as all James Bond endings are. The villians have good lines. The text is well written; and way better than the text of some games. (Final Fantasy Tactics anyone?) The best part is the low price of this game. Well worth a purchase. This one could catch on and become as hard to find as GoldenEye. Check my ratings. The one nagging thought in the back of my head about this game though is "Why didn't Rare make this game?". Saffire did an excellent job with this game; but I still can't help but feel that Rare should have had a part in the development of the game. **************************************************************************** Score Gameplay: ***** Graphics: **** Sound/Music: *** Play Control/Game Design: **** Personal Opinion: **** Total: 20 out of 25 Final Score: 80% **************************************************************************** Currently Known Codes: Enter any of these names as your name to play the hidden card games. BJack = Black Jack Redog = Red Dog Baccr = Baccarat