Last week, a video game miracle was accomplished with the release of GoldenEye 007 on Nintendo Switch and Xbox. As amazing as it is to relive this classic first-person shooter on modern platforms, not everyone is necessarily overjoyed.
Former Rare employee and GoldenEye 007 composer Graeme Norgate recently took to social media to share his thoughts on the state of the latest emulated releases, claiming that the “old team” wouldn’t let anyone down – adding that “a labor of love is always better value” :
Graeme Norgate (@Norgani): “It’s sad to think that Goldeneye for Switch and Xbox was contracted to 2 different developers. You could have brought the old crew back together for another show. We wouldn’t let you down. A labor of love is always better value than money for friends”
Video game designer David Doak, who also once worked on GoldenEye 007, offered his own thoughts on not being “invited” to the party, in response to now deleted Rare tweet. Several other members of the OG team also chimed in jokingly:
David Doak (@drdoak): “Obviously it’s great to see a re-release of GE007 and I hope people have a lot of fun with it! But yeah, it’s a bit of a bummer that we weren’t invited.”
Code Istics was the team behind the Xbox version of GoldenEye 007 (having previously worked with Rare on games like the Killer Instinct reboot), while the Switch version was handled by Nintendo Europe’s R&D department. As the game developer and YouTuber pointed out A modern vintage playeras a result “there is really no parity between these versions”.
As for the Xbox release, Code Istics has publicly answered questions about this version of the game – explaining how it didn’t always make the final decision on certain things. He even talked about the framerate of the Xbox version, which you can learn more about on our sister site Pure Xbox.
After Norgate moved on from Rare, he worked on the spiritual successors TimeSplitters and TimeSplitters 2. He then got involved with the Crysis series as audio director and has since also contributed to the odd Rare release.
In our updated GoldenEye 007 review, we said the title was old and flawed, but still a masterpiece. And despite some criticism, there seem to be plenty of players enjoying the return of this iconic shooter.
