Freshman year of college was a huge gaming year for me. A few of us had Nintendo 64′s with the two biggest games of the day: Goldeneye and WCW vs. NWO Revenge. Countless nights were spent with friends hovered around the television pounding away at the odd shaped N64 controller. We even had custom cardboard dividers made to tape the TV so no one could see your section of the FPS world in Goldeneye. Yep, it got that competitive. When I heard that Activision was remaking the cult classic, I had my doubts. The Wii has never been the premiere platform for first person shooters and I worried that the game wouldn’t translate well to 2010. Well, I was wrong. Goldeneye 007 is a hit.

The single player campaign of Goldeneye 007 is what really drew me in — it’s a faithful yet updated reproduction of the Nintendo 64 original, keeping many of the nuances and intricacies of the maps and locations that we all grew up loving. Some of the level design and control aspects that would be frustrating in 2010 were tweaked and updated for the better. As someone who played the original numerous times, the updates make the game feel current while still keeping the nostalgia factor the entire way. With that said, if you never liked the original game, you probably still won’t like it. But if you’re in that boat, there’s something wrong with you. The graphics look good for the Wii, although I would have liked to see it in HD… oh well. Daniel Craig lends his voice to the Bond role as opposed to the original Pierce Brosnan, bringing many other new voice acting roles with him. The result is a slightly grittier feel than the N64 original, but it’s one that makes the game even better and more current.

The local multiplayer is as solid as the single player component, with many new maps and a few nods to the classics, but the online play didn’t impress me. This has more to do with the Wii’s lackluster online system itself as opposed to what Eurocom was able to do with their lobby system, but it didn’t impress me nonetheless. It’s difficult to play with friends and there’s no voice chat — two key factors that many of you are looking for in an online shooter. If you can get three other friends to come over and play, you’ll have more fun than trying to play online.

With support for both the Wii Remote and Classic Controller, both of which are done very well, it’s clear that Goldeneye 007 is the best first person shooter on the Wii. There’s a good amount of replay value in the single player as additional required objectives are including with each ascending difficulty level. Multiplayer is good if you play locally, although I’m sure a lot of you will prefer firing up Call of Duty: Black Ops or Halo: Reach online instead. A few framerate issues keep it from being a top notch performer, but you’ll definitely have fun with the game regardless. For anyone who grew up with Goldeneye on Nintendo 64 or anyone looking to pick up the best FPS on the Wii, go grab Goldeneye 007.

[A copy of the game was provided by the publisher for review purposes.]