The Switch port of GoldenEye 007 has seen some changes due to an update to the Nintendo Switch Online service. GoldenEye 007 has been seen as one of the lesser N64 ports on this platform, and it's unclear if this update will change that.

GoldenEye 007 was one of the biggest hits on the Nintendo 64 when it originally launched on that system in 1997, and has been hailed as one of the greatest video games ever made. It served as a pioneer for first-person shooters on consoles and many state that it still holds up remarkably well even 26 years later. Most recently, Goldeneye 007 was ported to Xbox Game Pass and Nintendo Switch Online, although the latter version has been deemed a less than perfect translation of the original.

In particular, this version was criticized for various texturing and sound issues, although some of the former were patched out in the latest update. As reported by Graslu00, a content creator who primarily focuses on GoldenEye, the texturing has improved in 007's Dam area, as well as the Bunker. However, the sound quality is still poor, possibly even worse than before, and there were several poor textures that were left untouched even after the update, in addition to caverns still being locked at 15 frames per second and the lack of controller support aside from the Switch's custom N64 controller.

The latest addition of N64 games to Switch Online brought some changes to GoldenEye!

- Texture tiling on Dam fixed
- Dark textures on Bunker fixed
- The audio quality is... worse?
- Smoke is still broken on some maps
- Caverns still running at a locked 15FPS
- + on Next Tweet... https://t.co/5zdRFqwOxn pic.twitter.com/hsIa66DxoL

— Graslu00 (@Graslu00) August 8, 2023

Likewise, many in the replies were disappointed in these touch-ups, with Graslu00 assuming that these texturing improvements were just a side effect of a wider patch that came with the NSO rerelease of Pokemon Stadium 2. The consensus between the user and their commenters is that GoldenEye 007 is best played either on original N64 hardware or via emulation on PC.

Nintendo is always updating its hardware and software, so the likelihood of some remaining glitches being fixed in the future remains reasonably high, but that remains to be seen. Given how ambitious the original version was, and the fact that some of GoldenEye 007's original dev team has expressed their disappointment at not being able to help with the port, hopefully improvements come sooner rather than later.

Goldeneye 007 originally released for the Nintendo 64.

Posted: Aug 13, 2023 9:39 pm
Related Forum: Gaming Discussion

Source: https://gamerant.com/nintendo-switch-online-update-goldeneye-007/