Monday, December 16, 2019

Eric Vs. 365 - Day 169 - 007 The World is Not Enough PS1

James Bond games weren't really a "thing" until GoldenEye 007 released for N64 in 1997, after which point industry giants Electronic Arts and Activision both took a turn to try and cash in on the suddenly hot video game license but were unable to escape the massive shadow cast by Nintendo and Rare's classic. It wasn't for a lack of effort or money, either, as most of the games that followed in GoldenEye's footsteps were big budget "AAA" events, but they weren't as good as GoldenEye so players quickly tossed them aside. Re-visiting these games in 2019 and analyzing them through a lens that is 20+ years removed from when GoldenEye 007 was burning white hot has revealed something surprising, however - many of them aren't actually too bad. For day 169 of Eric Vs. 365, we take a look at The World is Not Enough for PS1. Read on for more and to watch gameplay.

Back in the 90's cable TV station TBS would have a "15 Days of Bond" marathon every year, usually during December, which is where I watched most of the Bond movies for the first time. It kind of hit at the perfect time because I wasn't a Bond fan at all until GoldenEye came out for the N64, but after playing that game (and watching the movie) I started watching all of them and enjoyed most of them. I eventually got the whole franchise on Blu Ray, of course, but I'll never forget looking forward to the big marathon every year.

With that in mind, I present my own little Bond marathon as we take a look at several James Bond video games over the next few days. At this point its only 6 games, but I hit some high points and was surprised by how good some of them are. I might do a few more later on down the line - specifically the Xbox 360 entries - but for now this is it. 

Today's game is The World is Not Enough for PS1. It is different from the N64 version - they were made by different developers - and is actually surprisingly solid. It feels more like a real spy game than just a rooty tooty shooty shooty like many of the Bond games from this era ended up as. There's lots of shooting, of course, but also lots of gadgets and different ways to go about doing things besides just shooting your way through. 


I had intended on also playing the N64 version of TWINE, but it doesn't work well with Project64 so, uh, yeah. Maybe down the road some time. I also want to note that I tried to play the Tomorrow Never Dies PS1 game but it was so putrid and terrible it wasn't worth making a video with.