Where is Bond, James Bond?

Time is a funny thing. The older you get, the faster it seems to fly by. Most of us in the video game world can associate times in our lives with games we were playing at a specific moment. For a lot of us, one of those distinct time periods revolved around the Nintendo 64 and Goldeneye.

Goldeneye changed everything. For the first time a legitimate first person shooter was on a console and the revolution had begun. Hours would turn into days and days into weeks. I’m not sure how much time I lost to that game and the dozens of FPS games that I would become addicted to in the coming years, but I always look back on that time period fondly.

We now find ourselves nearly 25 years removed from the release of Goldeneye which had me thinking…what happened to Bond games? How did they digress so much over the years and, with the upcoming release of No Time to Die hitting theaters this year, marking the end of the Daniel Craig era, is it time for a resurgence of the franchise? I think the answer is a resounding yes!

The world hasn’t seen a 007 game since Legends released back in 2012. Underwhelming at best and just plain awful at worst, this isn’t the way that Bond should last be remembered in the video game sphere.

The Bond License has been passed around from publisher to publisher since Rare released Goldeneye on Nintendo’s console. Though currently in limbo, this could be a huge license for the right publisher to acquire. Most recently Activision, who for the most part squandered it with mediocre rereleases and quick cash grabs, did have one highly underrated game in their catalogue…Quantum of Solace. I can’t be certain why this game wasn’t more widely loved. Maybe it was due to the underwhelming nature of the film it was based on, but this iteration of 007 was basically Call of Duty light created by Treyarch themselves. 2008 was the height of the CoD era and this game should have sold like hot cakes. For those of us that played it we enjoyed a less toxic experience than those on the Call of Duty servers, with all the same great gameplay and the Bond license to boot. I think back on that game and time in my life fondly.

Before Activison gave it a shot, EA tried it out. Unlike the way they’ve handled the Star Wars license, EA really did a great with the Bond property. This is highlighted by their FPS hit Nightfire and then dabbling with third person games like Everything or Nothing. EA brought the Brosnan and Connery Bond’s to life in a way we didn’t know we needed. Though not quite as tight as Nightfire, they even gave us a dark look at the Goldeneye franchise with Rogue Agent. Trying to capitalize on the success of its predecessor, the game was met with mixed reviews, but at least we had the opportunity to dive back into that world we loved so much.

It’s been nearly a decade since we’ve had any game that let us play as the world’s most famous spy and that’s a crime. As Daniel Craig wraps up his time as 007 and the series is inevitably rebooted again on the big screen, the time has come for some publisher to step up and take control of the license once again so that generations to come can have the opportunity to have their Goldeneye moment like we do so many years ago.