James Bond is no stranger to video games, but has only lived up to the prestige of his films once with GoldenEye 64, a game beloved for its pioneering first-person-shooter design, generation-defining multiplayer, and absurdly good soundtrack.
Although the Bond games that followed it never received the same level of acclaim, they still enjoyed some success. In a medium fixated on coming up with new ways to make firing guns and employing gadgets fun, it’s no surprise that Bond games sustained interest through multiple eras. The fantasy of being a secret agent–James Bond in particular–is enduring, and the wish-fulfillment opportunities video games present are unmatched.
GoldenEye 64 aside, Bond games haven’t been where innovations happen in the spy game genre. However, the effectiveness with which they realize the fantasy of being a globe-trotting, gun-toting, silver-tongued cop in a tuxedo has often offered good markers of how the action genre’s design and tastes around it have evolved. After 2004’s Everything or Nothing, however, Bond games became mediocre tie-ins, nostalgia bait, or both.
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