GoldenEye 007 is finally coming to Nintendo Switch and Xbox Game Pass
After a decades-long legal battle, the remastered James Bond classic is launching on 27 January
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Your support makes all the difference.Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 is finally coming to Nintendo Switch and Xbox Game Pass on Friday 27 January.
The remastered version of Rare’s legendary 1997 shooter will be exclusively available to players with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership (£34.99 per year, Nintendo.co.uk) or an Xbox Game Pass subscription (from £7.99 per month, Xbox.com).
The re-release of Goldeneye 007 on Switch and Xbox has been a long time coming, and is the end result of years of legal wrangling. One of the Nintendo 64’s classic titles, the game was developed by Rare, a studio now owned by Microsoft. Throw in the James Bond name and you get a tangled licensing nightmare, which scuppered earlier attempts to re-release the game in any form.
Dusted off for 2023, the Switch and Xbox versions of GoldenEye 007 feature everything that made the original so memorable – from the full single-player campaign to its groundbreaking competitive multiplayer mode, which was the highlight of countless sleepovers.
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Online multiplayer modes will be exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version of the GoldenEye 007, which uses the authentic, original graphics. The Xbox version is a “faithful recreation” of the game and has been upgraded slightly, with smoother framerates, a sharper 4K resolution, and split-screen local multiplayer. Both versions will be playable in widescreen and with modern analogue stick controls.
Nintendo started making classic N64 games available on Nintendo Switch back in 2021, though most are only available if you subscribe to the premium-version of Nintendo’s online service, the clunkily named Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack membership. That costs £34.99 per year and unlocks a bunch of free games, including GoldenEye 007.
Nintendo Switch OLED: Was £309.99, Now £289.95, Amazon.co.uk
On the lookout for a Nintendo Switch console? The best price we’ve found on the Nintendo Switch OLED is at Amazon, where it’s about £20 cheaper than the RRP.
There are two editions available as part of the offer – the white model, and neon blue/red model. Both feature the same hardware but each joy-con (the detachable controllers on each side of the console) comes in a different colourway. The neon blue/red model is slightly more expensive (£298.50, Amazon.co.uk).
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