The Best of Bond: Looking Back at the Greatest Games Featuring 007

This past Friday saw the North American release of Spectre, the 24th James Bond film, in theaters. Not only is the idea of if Daniel Craig will return for a fifth outing as 007 up in the air, but currently so is who owns the license for the video games featuring Ian Fleming's debonair, dashing, and skillful Double-0 agent.

With the new film still fresh on everyone's minds, it only makes sense to think back on some of James Bond's best video game outings with this special article. From obvious favorites to lesser spoken about titles, these games featuring 007 give players a license to kill AND thrill.

GoldenEye 007 (N64)

We start this look back with a game that is without a doubt the most popular game featuring Ian Fleming's super spy, GoldenEye 007 for the Nintendo 64. It was with this game that Rare not only put the Nintendo 64 on the map for first-person shooters, but the studio also made it apparent that FPS games weren't just something that PCs could do exclusively. While the controls are greatly antiquated today (looking at you, C buttons that serve as a second analog stick), the game holds up relatively well for a game that released in 1997. With varied mission objectives, great levels to explore, clever enemy AI, and a masterful multiplayer that was a last minute addition, GoldenEye 007 deserves the acclaim it received back in the day.

The World is Not Enough (N64)

Lovingly called TWINE in some gaming circles, The World is Not Enough was one of EA's first outings with 007, and it very closely leaned towards the foundation laid by Rare's GoldenEye. After all, if the Walther PPK works, why fix it? EA's game offered brilliantly designed missions from a myriad of familiar locales and moments throughout the Pierce Brosnan-starred picture. The multiplayer was also mighty fun, though it didn't reach the same level of popularity as GoldenEye. The multiplayer had a large amount of well designed maps, spots to camp, areas to take cover in, and sported a wide variety of characters to choose from. The World is Not Enough remains a worthy entry to check out for any Bond fan that still has their Nintendo 64 hooked up to a TV.

James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (PS2, GCN, XBX, PC)

Everything or Nothing is an interesting case, as it not only eschewed the well known and beloved first-person perspective of GoldenEye, a game that every 007 game is measured against to this day, but it featured a wholly original story. Everything or Nothing played as a third-person shooter, offering James Bond, voiced by Pierce Brosnan in his last acting role as the MI6 special agent, the ability to hide behind, use, and leave cover, exercise hand-to-hand combat, and use a variety of compelling gadgets through his mission to stop Nikolai Diavolo, voiced by Willem Dafoe. The mission variety in the game was amazing, much like the missions themselves. You could do 007 moments in each level to make for some really cool set piece sequences that rewarded you for doing them. Outside of traditional missions, players could drive Bond's Aston Martin V12 Vanquish, as seen in Die Another Day. Overall, Everything or Nothing is a tremendous title which has an immense amount of originality, sharp gameplay, and enjoyable multiplayer to make it contest GoldenEye 007 as best Bond game ever.

James Bond 007: From Russia With Love (PS2, GCN, XBX, PC)

Thankfully, after the obvious cash-in on the name GoldenEye with the less-than-excellent GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, EA's last offering featuring James Bond was From Russia With Love, an inspired entry in the 007 line of games. After development and marketing was complete, Activision took the James Bond video game license over. Nonetheless, what a way for EA to cap off its work with the license by getting Sean Connery to return to the role of 007 after over two decades, incorporating both his voice and early likeness. This third-person shooter followed the story of the 1957 novel by Ian Fleming and the 1963 movie of the same name, only changing a few things like added scenes for more action for the player and the removal of criminal organization SPECTRE, changed to OCTOPUS for the game. While From Russia With Love does not hit the same highs as Everything or Nothing, it does tickle one's nostalgia for classic Bond and give players a healthy helping of solid action gameplay.

007: Quantum of Solace (PS3, 360, PC)

We'll be delving into the HD versions of 007: Quantum of Solace for this entry on the list of best Bond games. Quantum of Solace was the second movie in the Bond series that had Daniel Craig in the lead role, but it was the first game that Activision released with the Bond license in hand. The game was a first-person shooter that let players play through missions throughout both Casino Royale, Daniel Craig's first starring role as James Bond, and Quantum of Solace. Not only were the missions well designed, but the gameplay was quite excellent too, using the Call of Duty 4 engine, which excited some while putting off others. SuperPhillip Central's stance is that the overall game is an excellent one, though it doesn't rival the best the James Bond license has seen, it is quite good regardless. The online multiplayer had numerous modes to participate in, earning players credits to boost their arsenal of weapons and gadgets in true Call of Duty style.

James Bond 007: Blood Stone (PS3, 360, PC)

With EA's Everything or Nothing, an original story was made specifically for a video game starring the cast of the James Bond movies at the time. Activision opted to go for this approach with Bizarre Creations' James Bond 007: Blood Stone. Here, another new story was penned specifically for this video game, and voice talents Daniel Craig, Dame Judi Dench, and Joss Stone lent their voices to the game. Featuring a compelling story, fantastic third-person shooter gameplay, and an agents versus mercenaries multiplayer mode, Blood Stone had everything for the Bond fan looking for a highly capable new game to enjoy. Perhaps the only negative outside of some rough patches in the game is that the story will never see a proper conclusion, as the developer was shut down by Activision soon after the development of the game was complete. Thus, we have a cliffhanger that will never be solved, especially as the Bond video game license is not in Activision's hands anymore.

GoldenEye 007 (Wii, PS3, 360)

Announced at Nintendo's 2010 E3 press conference, GoldenEye 007 got the remake treatment with plenty of updates. A sampling of some of these include Daniel Craig as James Bond, levels and pieces of story redesigned to make sense for Craig's version of Bond, destructible environments, a mobile phone instead of a watch being used to contact MI6, take photos, and so forth; regenerating health, updated AI, and yes, online multiplayer. The Wii and PS3 versions are the preferred way to play GoldenEye 007 (known as GoldenEye 007: Reloaded on PS3 and Xbox 360) as they offer IR aiming to make for better precision and, depending on who you talk to, more fun aiming than what dual analog allows. GoldenEye 007's 2010 outing brought a lot of good memories of the Nintendo 64 classic while offering plenty of new content and updates to make it feel fresh and worthy of playing in this century.

Top Five James Bond Games

The 23rd installment in the longest-running movie franchise has breached theaters in the U.K., and many are calling it a grand film. In celebration of that and the 50th anniversary of James Bond, comes what I call the five best James Bond video games on the market. Trust me -- this will be a better ode to Bond than 007 Legends, though that shouldn't be too arduous of a mission anyway. So lock and load your Walther PPK, take your drink shaken and not stirred, and get ready for these five terrific Bond games.

5) 007: Agent Under Fire (PS2, GCN, XBX)

The first of two James Bond games on this list that were not based off of movies or books, 007: Agent Under Fire was a last generation title featuring a Bond not modeled after a film likeness. The game featured run and gun action, plenty of gadgets from Q to tinker around with (or to actually complete missions with), as well as driving and on-rails segments. To say that Agent Under Fire was lacking in gameplay variety would be a lie even a spy like James Bond couldn't say with a straight face. Alongside the solo missions, there was a staple of most Bond games -- full multiplayer. And like any good multiplayer game, Agent Under Fire had the option for bots. Why games made in 2012 cannot have a feature a PlayStation 2-era title had is beyond me, but I'm sure one of my readers out there will set me straight!

4) GoldenEye 007 (Wii)

When you try to create a re-imagining of a classic game, it becomes incredibly difficult to get your game out of the classic's shadow. While Eurocom's 2010 GoldenEye 007 on Wii did not surpass Rare's 1997 classic, it did run close with it, offering an alternate take on the film's story with current Bond Daniel Craig in the driver's seat. Eurocom's retelling of the GoldenEye story was altered with new plot points to make sense in the more modern world. Also, alongside the updated story were updated levels and environments that could be destroyed. The Wii remote added some of the greatest first-person shooter controls on a console with pinpoint precision and accuracy. It was just a breeze aiming and shooting enemies. And when the enjoyable solo campaign was not the player's cup of tea, they could hop online with up to seven other players across ten well-made maps for a license to frag. Why the game is not higher on this list is because this version of GoldenEye felt more like Call of Duty than entirely a Bond game.

3) James Bond 007: Everything or Nothing (PS2, GCN, XBX)

Like Agent Under Fire, Everything or Nothing featured a wholly original plot attached to it, but unlike every other game on this list, Everything or Nothing was played in a third-person view. The game would be Pierce Brosnan's last performance as James Bond (I'll always love you in that role, Pierce), shortly after Die Another Day. Joining him was an all-star cast: Dame Judi Dench, Willem Dafoe, Heidi Klum, and Richard Kiel who reprised his role as Jaws. The game had a mix of stealth, cover-based gunplay, gadgetry, and even some well done driving sections in Bond's Aston Martin. I was amazed most by how well EA managed to spare no expense on the production values while creating a game that looked and felt like James Bond through and through. Adding in some two player cooperative gameplay, and Everything or Nothing made for itself an incredibly rewarding Bond experience.

2) 007: The World Is Not Enough (N64)

The second game developed by Eurocom on this list of the top five James Bond titles, 2000's 007: The World Is Not Enough was based on the 1999 movie of the same name (well, nix the 007 part). After Tomorrow Never Dies' negative critical response, Eurocom opted to send Bond back to his first-person lineage as a certain well-known and loved 1997 Nintendo 64 game made popular. The final product was EA's attempt at creating a GoldenEye-like game with mission objectives that needed to be completed in order to finish a given level. TWINE was a fantastic first-person shooter with over a dozen solo levels spanning familiar locales of The World Is Not Enough, and three difficulty settings which added in harder enemies and more objectives to complete. Thrown in for good measure was a multiplayer mode which could fortunately be played with bots as well as human opponents, which offered an immense amount of fun as players hunted one another across the well-designed maps, one even taking place high in the sky on a plane. TWINE was a terrific Nintendo 64 shooter that hit home the point that James Bond was a force to be reckoned with not only in his films but in his video games as well.

1) GoldenEye 007 (N64)

After you have rolled your eyes and said "how unoriginal of a choice for number one", get cozy and read why I have picked the 1997 classic as the number one Bond game. GoldenEye 007's history is quite interesting. It started in development going towards an on-rails shooter. The development team then shifted gears toward making something more akin to a first-person shooter. The fruits of Rare's labor turned into one of the most successful Nintendo 64 games and one of the most important console games in industry history, despite being released two years after the movie it was modeled after. It made first-person shooters on home consoles a viable idea, and Halo, Call of Duty, and all FPS games that followed it have GoldenEye 007 to thank. Like the game it inspired, TWINE, GoldenEye 007 had various solo missions that could be played on one of several difficulties. The harder the difficulty, the less ammo was around, the more bullets enemies could withstand, and the more objectives needed to be completed. And that multiplayer mode that became the popular go-to attraction at many a slumber party? It was added in late in development as if it weren't important at all. It seems every James Bond game has to live up to the standard GoldenEye 007 created. That's for good reason, too. As Carly Simon so famously sang, "Nobody does it better."

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We have reached the end of our mission. Time for us to part ways until next week. In the meantime, feel free to list what James Bond games you have enjoyed the most over the years.

Best Levels in Gaming History - Volume Three

Welcome to Tuesday at SuperPhillip Central. Once again it's time to unleash another load of Best Levels in Gaming History. A reminder to all of you to vote on July's new poll. It's all about sports games. Like 'em or love 'em, they're a tremendous source a revenue for the industry. Regardless, today we're once again taking a look at the best levels in the history of gaming. This is part three, so let's get this party started!

Bowser's Galaxy Reactor: The Fate of the Universe - Super Mario Galaxy - Wii

Watch out, kids and kiddettes, as there's spoilers for this final level of Super Mario Galaxy. The last challenge of Super Mario Galaxy features some of the most death-defying and complex level design in series history from spotlights that alter the gravity when you are inside them to dangerous planets made up of deadly lava, ice, and quicksand. There's a section where blocks materialize, drawing a path for you to run through, wall jump, and pass between lava bars. The closing section has to be my favorite as it's a gigantic 360 degree tube consisting of Bullet Bills being shot at Mario and Thwomps which wish to crush Mario beneath their tremendous girth. An impressive final romp, indeed.

Direct link here

1-5 Sunset Shore - Donkey Kong Country Returns - Wii


Sunset Shore is a gorgeous level thanks to the silhouette effect as noticeable in these screens. The level itself isn't too difficult, though you need to purchase a key from Cranky Kong to access it. There's five hidden puzzle pieces to collect here from hidden alcoves to ground-pounding platforms to situate them to enable DK and Diddy to leap on them. The only caveat to Sunset Shore is that seeing enemies is more difficult as they tend to be camouflaged by the power of silhouettes as well.

Underground Uprising - 007: The World is Not Enough - N64


This hostage rescue mission takes Bond, James Bond, into the trenches of London's subway system to take care of a little bomb problem. Immediately the action gets intense as terrorists fire at 007 as he runs down the escalators, going lower and lower into the subterranean depths of the subway. After rescuing the hostages and after several flights of steps downward, James must time his run through a tunnel where an intermittent train speeds through, an instant kill if Bond gets hit by it. Timing this just right, Bond can sneak his way through to a small storage room to the inside of a subway. Eventually Bond reaches the bathroom where the bomb is located. A mini-game is played to disarm the bomb. After this, it's just a skip and a jump to the end of the level.

Freezeey Peak - Banjo Kazooie (N64)


Brrrrr! It's mighty cold here! From the high heights of the gigantic snowman with pipe in tow to his swirling red and yellow scarf to the Christmas tree to the smaller snowmen chucking snowballs at Banjo and Kazooie, there's a lot to see and do. Mumbo-Jumbo will turn the pair into a walrus so Wozza will happily invite you into his cave. If platforming isn't your cup of iced tea, you can always run a race against the father of three bears. Freezeey Peak offers a great glimpse of a winter wonderland, and that's why I chose it as part of this list.

City Escape - Sonic Adventure 2 (DC)


Trick out through the city streets of City Escape. Rollin' around at the speed of sound. Got places to go, gotta follow your rainbow. And follow it you shall as you trick off ramps, ski down slanted streets, and run from a crazed truck. City Escape is the first level in Sonic Adventure 2, and it offers a lot of thrills and chills as Sonic the Hedgehog runs from G.U.N. forces confusing Sonic for Shadow the Hedgehog. Grind rails, hand out some homing attacks to enemies, and roll around the city streets of this excellent opening level.

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So ends another installment of Best Levels in Gaming History as inspired by GameTrailers' series. Have a level you love that isn't listed? Let it be known in the comments.