Game Review: James Bond 007 (Game Boy)

James Bond 007

• Publisher: Nintendo
• Developer: Saffire
• Release: Game Boy, Februrary 1998
• Genre: Action
• Players: 1
• Save: Battery, 3 files
• Rarity/Cost: Common, US$5-10

There have been so many James Bond-licenced video games over the years, dating back to the Atari 2600, that if I tried to cover them all I'd never finish the 007 Golden Jubilee within the year like I promised. So, I will stick to ones that have an original story, not adapted from a book or movie, and ones that I have a personal history with. Like this one: the Game Boy release simply titled James Bond 007.

James Bond 007's engine is based off of the early Legend of Zelda games, in particular Link's Awakening, despite being handled by the then-fledgling developer Saffire. What this means is that the maps are presented in an overhead perspective, and divided into individual screens. Weapons and items can be assigned to the A and B buttons at will. But unlike the Zelda games, wherein the dungeon levels are strewn about an overworld you can pretty much explore at will, this game is more traditionally structured as a series of series of separate levels. Your quest, so to speak, takes you to China, Kurdistan (a region in Turkey), Morocco, Tibet, Russia, and more. And since Link's bow, bombs, and boomerang wouldn't fit well with 007's image, we get new weapons and items, including a pistol, machine gun, hand grenades, and a rocket launcher (which for all intents and purposes, behaves more like a shotgun, with no splash damage to worry about). But most of the time, I prefer to save ammo and stick with a machete. You can also find an assortment of gadgets and other tools, including night-vision goggles, a grappling hook, and a satellite map, as well as body-armour vests. The catch with these is that you have to have them set to one of your two active item slots in order to work, so you'll have to go back to the equipment menu (Select) every time you want to change your weapon, instead of loading both slots with weapons. Just a minor inconvenience, really.

Not only weapons, but tools like night-vision goggles come into play.

James Bond 007 also makes a big deal about trading random items; whereas these were the territory of side-quests in the Legend of Zelda games (Biggoron Sword, anyone?), in this game they are mandatory in order to advance. The best/worst example lies in the Black Market section of Marrakesh, where you must handle five items, starting with a chicken and ending with a pair of night-vision goggles. You have to look through a mess of merchants' tents in order to find the next person to trade with, and many of these tents are empty. Not that the action sequences are perfect, either. Much like its bigger brother, Goldeneye on the Nintendo 64, the enemies' AI is... limited. Although characters can move in any direction, they can only face directly up, down, left, or right, so use their "blind spots" to your advantage. And pathfinding? Forget about it: even if a particular enemy has the ability to follow you, they will only move towards you in a straight line, unable to move around objects. If you've got grenades, you can have some fun with this quirk, especially in the Russia level.

One thing I've noticed when doing all the film reviews for the James Bond series is that the movies feature much deeper plots than the video games, and initially, James Bond 007 is no exception. Personally, I'd point out the fact that are more and better writers for the silver screen than for the digital realm. Although this discrepancy has been narrowing in recent years, this was certainly not the case for the Game Boy, circa 1998. All you need to know about the plot is that there's an arms-dealing cartel led by Zhong Mae, the Chinese Bond Girl, and Odd Job, apparently resurrected after Goldfinger (Canon?  What canon?), and they don't even dwell on that a lot. However, things do kick into high gear near the endgame, where the villain, the Russian general Golgov (not to be confused with Gogol from the movies) has not only prepared an army to conquer the West with in the midst of their mutual disarmament, but has given arms to multiple warring factions in Kurdistan, so they will thin themselves out and become easier to conquer. All this coming after 007 takes down a disagreeable leader (who did previously capture agent 008), so I can't help but be reminded of the Iraq War in hindsight. Not to mention, the territory of Kurdistan also covers parts of Iraq and Syria. Eeesh. Harsher in Hindsight, much?

A fake door in the first level.

So, let's change the subject. This game has a heavy emphasis on picking up clues from other people, not just to build up the story, but to find out where to go and what to do. For those of us less skilled in the critical thinking department, I'm bringing back the old Sticking Points segment, this time as part of the review in a vain attempt to make the article appear longer. So, what wisdom would I wish to impart upon thee?

• When fighting the unarmed guards in China and the sumo wrestlers in Tibet (it makes sense in context), hold your Block button until they attack. After they hit, return the favour with a punch of your own. This is the only way you can deal damage to them, while they're stunned.
• The temple in the middle of the China level may seem like a dead end, but go to the northern room and examine the wall on the right, across from the woman on the other side. See the picture to right for details.
• At Q's lab in England, examine the chair just above Q twice. It will fly off and crash into the wall, leading to a secret room with an item called the M.A.R.B.L.E. This does nothing except give you an alternate ending.
• In Kurdistan, just before the cave with Iqbal and 008, cut the plant in the northeast corner of the screen, and follow the secret path behind it. The screen to the east hides a man who will give you a jeweled egg. In Marrakesh, you can trade it for an underground pass, allowing you to use a more convenient set of tunnels.
• In Marrakesh, you are required to play casino games to advance the story. Blackjack and red dog poker are available. You'll start off with US$1,000, and you can re-start at this amount any time you lose it all, so don't be afraid to bet big. In fact, I would suggest doing so to save time; you need a total of $2,500 to get into the back room, play baccarat, and eventually get Mr. Fez to join in.
• You'll lose your med kits at the end of the Marrakesh level, and your weapons and armour at the end of the Tibet level, so plan accordingly.
• In the Secret Base, an enemy in the northeastern-most room will drop a shield when defeated. Beware, he has a rocket launcher and takes 3-4 times the normal amount of hits to bring down. The shield can block bullets (but not rockets), and is a major, if not crucial, help for the final level.

The running time for this game is somewhere around a couple of hours, perhaps less if you're good at reading into the clues. It's long for a portable game, but short for a save-enabled game, so take that as you will. I can't find much to complain about or applaud in the visuals department, but the sound design is another story. Certain events cause the music to slow down afterwards, and it's not as if this is a glitch, it feels programmed in; why, I'll never know. And the composer has seen fit to cram cues from Monty Norman's theme into the score wherever possible, how 'bout something more original, pally? Well, much like its music, this game takes parts of something we know and love, in this case The Legend of Zelda, and adapts it in new ways. Whilst it's not terribly exciting until the end, it fits happily into one's expectations for a Game Boy game, circa 1998.

Control: 3 out of 5
Design: 3 out of 5
Graphics: 3 out of 5
Audio: 2 out of 5
Value: 3 out of 5
The Call: 70% (C+)

IchigoRyu will return in
The World Is Not Enough

Sticking Points: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Game Gear)

Sonic Month may be over, and the franchise may be settling into its third decade, but my adoration -- and coverage -- of the franchise will never end. (Let's hope.) With the wealth of material provided to us within these two decades so far, you may very well pretend that Sonic Month is still going on. So, allow me to let you celebrate for real, by giving you the knowledge to beat Sonic the Hedgehog 2 for Game Gear and play it for all it's worth. For this new installment of Sticking Points, I'll turn my focus towards those two aspects which contribute the most to this game's difficulty: the Chaos Emerald locations and the bosses.

Under Ground Zone
Chaos Emerald: In both Acts 1 and 2 of this Zone, there are two parallel paths: an upper and lower path. You start out on the upper path at the beginning of both Acts, but if you fall to the lower level, there aren't any ways to get back up. Your reward for sticking to the top in Act 1 is an extra life item, and in Act 2 the first Chaos Emerald. Note that you'll encounter a mine cart on your way to the Chaos Emerald; to make the final jump, you'll have to bail out in mid-flight.

Boss: *sigh* ...We've hit our first sticking point in the first Zone already. Basically, this boss is a robot pincer which you cannot harm directly, but rather let a series of bouncing metal balls hit it. At least it could qualify it easy on the Master System version, where all the balls bounce low and are easily jumped over. But on the Game Gear, the balls have three patterns: two that bounce high and one that bounces low. and those high-bounce patterns are way tough to dodge. The best advice I can give you is to stand on the kink where the slope deepens, and react to the balls the best you can. Oh, and Robotnik will fly in on his jet-car to deliver the final blow; jump over him and you win. Good luck

Sky High Zone
Chaos Emerald: For the longest time, this was the hardest Chaos Emerald for me to find. Long story short, it's in midair at the top of the level's midpoint. Given the prevalence of hang gliders in Act 2, you would think this is the way to go, but believe me, it's all but impossible to get it this way, however there is a far more reliable, if roundabout, way to get the Emerald.

Along the middle of the entire level is a row of clouds. At some point, you can walk on these clouds. Jump off the right of this "platform" and onto a small cloud with a spring hidden on it. Go right off of this and you should land on another cloud platform. Jump off the left of this platform and try to land on another cloud spring (Hint: it's under the second-to-left column of a cloud). Bounce right off of this and you should hit the second Chaos Emerald.

Boss: You'll start out this fight by facing two waves of small robot enemies. Beat these and you'll fall through the clouds. There are four little yellow nubs which spawn more of these monsters; break these and boss itself will appear: a long-necked bird robot. Hit it anywhere, but avoid the fireballs it shoots, and if you fall behind it, don't let it crush you against the edge of the screen!

Aqua Lake Zone
Chaos Emerald: There are two pipe mazes in Act 2: one at the beginning and one in the middle. In the second pipe maze, just hold Left all the way. This will take you to a small room with the third Chaos Emerald. One of the easiest to find, really.

Boss: A robot seal which inflates and bounces balls on its nose, then attacks you with them. To deal damage, jump on one of these balls when it's blowing one up. Easy, if a little tedious.

Green Hill Zone
Chaos Emerald: In the middle of Act 2, you'll roll down a slope and land on a platform with springs on it, surrounded by a wide field of spikes. Hold Right and land on another platform of springs. After bouncing off of that, hold Right for about... yay, three seconds to land on a high-up platform with the fourth Chaos Emerald.

Boss: The trek to this boss, which involves a lot of springs and spikes, is harder than the boss itself, a sumo-wrestling pig robot. ...Yyyeeeah. This boss will curl up in a ball and move in one of three ways: jumping, directly sideways, or down along the valley in the arena. Jump over or run under the boss depending on how it moves - touching it even while curled up will kill Sonic - and attack it while it's upright. You don't have too much of a window of time to attack it, but just don't try anything daring and you'll do fine.

Gimmick Mountain Zone
Chaos Emerald: Early on in Act 2, you'll go up a slope. At the top, jump to the left and you'll go through a false wall. Follow this path up and over to get the fifth Chaos Emerald.

Boss: A robot pig with retractable spikes on its back. It will charge at you to attack; jump over it and it will hit the wall, causing its spikes to withdraw temporarily and some rocks to fall from the ceiling. Dodge these and hit the boss before its spikes come out again.

Scrambled Egg Zone
Boss/Chaos Emerald: The boss is named Silver Sonic, and I shouldn't have to describe this any further. It uses jumping spin attacks and dashes just like Sonic. Hit it when it's upright, real simple. If you have all five Chaos Emeralds before fighting Silver Sonic, it will give you the sixth Emerald upon its defeat, but if you don't, the game will end when you beat it, and you won't be able to experience the...

Crystal Egg Zone
Boss: Yup, it's Robotnik time. You fight him in a small room looped by a pipe. Robotnik's attacks include flower-shaped bullets that spiral out from the center of the room, lightning bolts that travel along the floor, and an electric flash which engulfs the entire room. Fortunately, you're invincible when traveling along the pipes, so just be patient and you can win and rescue Tails.

Sticking Points: Winter Olympic Games '94

The reason LordKaT started "Until We Win", his video series of walkthroughs for the most famously hard games of old, was to exorcise the demons of his childhood.  Now that he announced he was ending UWW (with a bang, if I say so myself: Comix Zone), my timing couldn't be better for launching my own series of text walkthroughs, dubbed "Sticking Points.  The first installment of Sticking Points is indeed something which gave me no end of trouble when I played it as a lad.  I'm talking about Winter Olympic Games: Lillehammer '94 for the Game Gear.  I have more to say about this game, like how I came across it in the first place, but that might be better suited for a traditional review.  Look for it soon.


It's odd that I'll have to start off with the first menu in the game, but there's no in-game indication as to what it does.  This is the language selection screen; the eight flags here represent eight possible languages you can set the menu text to.  By default, the cursor will hover on the United Kingdom flag; this refers to English.  Just press 1 or 2 and advance to the main menu.  From here you can select one of three modes, plus options.  Full Olympics takes you through all 10 of the game's events in a row, Mini Olympics lets you run a program of only the events you want, and Training is just that: practice an event as long as you wish.  Before starting either Olympics mode, you can set your name (press 1), gender (2), and nation (Left/Right).  Press Start once you're done making these changes.


This game has ten events across six different sports, which are listed below in the order they appear in Full Olympic mode:

1. Downhill (Alpine Skiing)
2. Luge (Sled)
3. Moguls (Freestyle Skiing)
4. Super-Giant Slalom (Alpine Skiing)
5. Ski Jump
6. Biathalon
7. Giant Slalom (Alpine Skiing)
8. Short Track (Speed Skating)
9. Bobsled (Sled)
10. Slalom (Alpine Skiing)

Since some of the events are so similar, I'll cover them grouped by sport instead of individual events.  The tips I present will cover all the events in a sport, but I will point out differences when they pop up.  While I'm at it, this game was ported to other consoles, including the Genesis and Super NES (hence my use of the Genesis box art at the top of this entry), but the content within all the ports are identical.  Button names refer to the Game Gear and (Europe-exclusive) Master System versions; I am not sure what their counterparts are on the other consoles.

Alpine Skiing
At the beginning of each skiing event, before starting down the slope you get to choose from one of three steering control setups.  The first two turn your skier clockwise or counterclockwise when you hold Left/Right, and the third aims him in whatever direction you press the D-Pad.  I prefer the first option, but try them all out for yourself, preferably in Training, until you find one you can get used to.  Holding the 1 Button makes your skier crouch for more speed, but you may have to let go if you can't react fast enough.  The 2 Button makes your skier hop, which is useful if you need to continue from an emergency stop and nothing else.  Regarding the actual skiing, the top-down, isometric perspective doesn't give you much time to react to the next gate you must pass through.  As a general rule, follow the contours of the snow, and don't be afraid to turn to a near-horizontal angle even if it will cut your speed.  Hitting a gate counts, but if you miss one gate, you'll be disqualified once you finish the run.  Should this happen, save yourself some time by crashing into a bank of trees and ending the run prematurely.


Out of the four events in alpine skiing, Downhill is the longest yet easiest, with the gates farthest apart compared to the Super G, Giant Slalom, and Slalom.  Regardless of your skills in the other courses, it would be worth slowing down part of the way in the Slalom (release the crouch button, or do a sharp turn) - the track is that tough.  In addition, the Giant Slalom and Slalom courses have to be raced twice in a row; skiers are based on the sum of their two run times.  Failing either run, whether by missing a gate or crashing, ends the event prematurely.  I'm not a fan of this setup, but we'll get into it more in the review.  Note that the Luge, Moguls, Ski Jump, and Bobsled also follow this setup.

Sledding
The two sledding events, Luge and Bobsled, use the same track.  The biggest difference lies in how fast they go.  To start up in both events, you have to mash buttons 1 and 2 until gravity starts pulling your craft.  Strangely, I couldn't get past this simple step in the Luge event - the second event in the Full Olympics.   Sounds like a silly thing to mess up, right?  Not if you're like me and didn't have the instructions.  See, whereas the Bobsled gets started with just one push of either button, the Luge does not.  So I would press the button once and get nowhere fast, thus rendering this event and the Full Olympics mode unplayable.  ...Yeah, I got better.  Once you get started, your only controls are Left and Right which steer your craft.  Keeping your speed up is everything in these events; in order to do that, you have to stay in the center of the track as long as possible.  In turns, this means hovering over the border of light and shadow whenever possible.

Moguls
This is a freestyle skiing event where you zigzag down a series of small hills, the titular "moguls".  During the run you are expected to not only make it to the bottom as quickly as possible, but jump off the bumps and perform tricks.  You ski down automatically, but have to press Left and Right in time with each turn point to move faster.  To jump, press 1 or 2 with any direction on the D-Pad whenever you're above any of the right-hand moguls.  You have to be exact with this timing, because if you're too late or early, your skier will take a smaller jump, crash, and be disqualified.  The contestant with the best total of speed, turn, and air points wins, so for best results, take a jump at every fifth or sixth jump point.  Playing this event in Training mode adds beeps whenever you hit a jump point so you can practice your timing.

Ski Jump
This is a complicated event, and I had to do a whole mess of experimenting in Training mode to find the winning formula.  First, you have to push yourself down the ramp manually (press 1 or 2).  The torch on-screen indicates wind speed, but since there's no direction indicator, start when the flame is at its shortest.  Second, press 1 or 2 again just before you take off from the ramp; and I do mean as late as possible before going airborne.  Third, while you're airborne, your skier will lose balance and shift left or right.  Press Left/Right to correct this and stay as balanced as possible.  This will build up your style points.  Fourth, about a second before landing, press 1 or 2 one more time to land safely.  Fail to do so and you'll crash; it's not an instant disqualification like in the other events, but you'll take a severe cut to your style points.

Biathalon
If you don't know, the Biathalon combines cross-country skiing and target shooting events.  In this game's interpretation of the sport, there are five skiing and four shooting segments, with the types alternating between the two.  In the skiing sections, you'll see a bar on-screen with a slider moving back and forth between both ends.  To make your skier go faster, you have to manipulate the slider with Left/Right or 1/2.  If you can, get the slider to stop in the colored edges of the bar without hitting the end for best results.  In the shooting segments, you simply move the cursor with the D-Pad and press 1 to fire.  You have to hit all five targets, and you have only five shots to do so, but missing a target only adds one second onto your time.  The challenge lies in how the cursor moves slightly on its own, as if to simulate muscle fatigue.  It may seem unfair, but honestly without it, the shooting parts would be way too easy.  Note that in the final skiing segment, you have to mash 1/2 in order to move instead of using the other control scheme.

Speed Skating
The final sport, and second-to-final event, puts you on an ice rink against three other skaters with the goal of completing four and a half laps before everyone else.  Mashing 1/2 moves you forward , and since you'll spend a good 45 seconds straight doing this, find the best way to hold your Game Gear or controller and prepare for a little fatigue.  While turning corners, you'll drift to the outside, so you need to steer with Left/Right.  The trick is to avoid hitting other skaters and the inside wall, which will slow you down considerably.  It might even be worth letting yourself drift outside to avoid getting boxed in by other skaters.


And that's it for the events.  See you in four years!

Sticking Points: Track & Field II

First of all, I would like to make a correction to my review of Track & Field II. When I brought up the fact that you have to play a harder version of Championship Mode after going through it once, I said you were unable to continue if you failed an event the second time around. I only said that because I couldn't get to what would have been the first milestone. But, I recently bought myself a decent turbo controller (the SNES Super Advantage), and it worked well enough to take West Germany all the way to the end. Now that I have finally beaten the game, I would like to retract what I said before and officially state that you are indeed allowed to continue in the finals. As in the preliminaries, you are given a password after every third event. It's just that the game ends immediately after failing an event instead of waiting for the next checkpoint. I admit it's something I wish the game did before, since having you go on if you were already doomed to a game over didn't make sense to me.

Well, now that I got that out of the way, I figured it would be a good excuse to take an in-depth look at all the events found in this game. Some are good and some are bad; the rating of 60% that I gave this game reflects that.

Fencing: A simple versus-fighter game. The first player to land five hits on the other wins. You stab with A, holding Up or Down to aim high or low, and block by holding B. It's not a very polished game, as was nearly every fighting game before (the first) Street Fighter II. The easiest way to win is to always aim low, so skill isn't as important as luck.

Triple Jump: Since this is the first sport that involves button-mashing, this was a major roadblock for me, and we're only two out of twelve sports in! You mash A to build up speed, and when you get up to the foul line, press B to jump. Holding B for longer increases the angle of your jump; I recommend aiming for 45 degrees for each jump. This sport returns from the original Track & Field, and I imagine not much has changed.

Freestyle Swimming: This is another button-masher, but this time you have to deal with two buttons instead of one. A builds up speed, while B builds up oxygen. If your oxygen meter depletes, you'll stop for a moment to breathe automatically, which kills your chances of making the qualifying time.

High Dive: To start out, you select the type of dive you want to take (your choices vary between Forward, Backward, Reverse, Handstand, and Twist), but there's really no difference that I know of. Then, while you're in the air, you perform tucks and pikes by pressing B with Left or Right pressed. Ideally, you're supposed to stop just before you hit the water in order to get the best angle. The truth is, I have not found any consistent way to get high grades; I would even go so far as to call the judging completely random. At least you have four attempts to be lucky enough to get a qualifying score.

Clay Pigeon Shooting: There was a similar event in the first Track & Field, but it's much more straightforward this time around. Press B to manually launch your targets, the Control Pad to move a cursor, and A to fire. It's pretty fun, except for the fact that at 40 targets total, it drags on for a while.

Hammer Throw: Here's an interesting twist: instead of mashing a button to build up power, you "rotate" or hit directions on the Control Pad clockwise to swing the hammer around. Then, once your athlete starts flashing, hold and release A to throw it. Because of the control mechanism, I was able to score well on this even without a turbo controller, but it all goes wrong when you try to throw it. Unlike in the Triple Jump, you have to hold A for a while before the angle starts going up, and if your timing's off, it may not respond at all.

Taekwondo: Another fighting game, except this is possibly even more broken than fencing. The A button punches and B kicks, and you have to whittle down your opponent's stamina bar before he does the same to you. The problem is, every so often you or your opponent might collapse from a hit. It's not like in Punch-Out!! where you have to mash buttons to get back up; as long as your life isn't at zero, you'll always get back up. So, it's nothing more than a waste of time. Besides, the punches are useless; it's way more effective to just spam kicks. Two-player enabled.

Pole Vault: Similar to the Triple Jump. You start out by selecting your starting height, and (once again) you have to mash A to build up speed. Then you have to press and hold B when the blue tip of your pole is over a box on the ground, then release it when you're over the bar. It takes practice to get the timing right without being fouled out, but I got it down quickly. A successful jump will increase the bar height for your next at

Canoeing: This one is interesting. You have to go through a series of gates, mashing A to move forward and B to go backwards. Some of the gates make you enter from the back or in reverse; missing adds a 30-second penalty. Strangely, the qualifying targets are given in points instead of time. The physics are a little off, too; if you run into a wall while going too fast, your momentum going in makes it tough to get away.

Archery: This event plays completely differently than the arcade-oriented version in the first Track & Field. Mash A to build up strength and press B to fire the arrow. You don't need to be at full power to hit the closer targets, and in fact I would advise against it, too. The catch is that you also have to adjust your aim with the Control Pad, taking wind into account. The directional arrows in the wind meter correspond to the mimi-map at the top of the screen and not to the main view, but other than that there's not much wrong with this event.

Hurdles: Another revival from Track & Field, plus the closest thing this sequel has to a straight-up race. Mash A to run and B to jump over the hurdles. Oddly, the hurdles all have a shallow pool of water behind them, as if it were a horseback steeplechase. Still, there's to complain about with this event.

Horizontal Bar: Way to end on a low note. This, the final event in Championship Mode, combines nearly everything wrong with this game into one. It's a button masher, the non-mashing controls are poor, and like the High Dive, it's based on a grading system which seems to have no relation to what you just did. Building up power by mashing A changes the tricks you can do by pressing B, but loading your routine with high-powered maneuvers won't necessarily earn you the best grades. You can help things along by sticking the landing (press and hold Up just as you land), but really you'll be lucky to get at or above the qualifying mark.