I was introduced to Nintendo 64 through the GoldenEye game based on the 1995 Bond film. In high school, we played tournaments after play practice. When I saw Activision was remaking it for the Wii, of course I pre-ordered it.
The game arrived in November. I found it far more difficult than the 64 version, but that’s not my only complaint. James Bond in the Wii remake looks like Daniel Craig. He wasn’t in the GoldenEye film; that was Pierce Brosnan.
It’s possible my hang up comes from the fact that I am a Pierce Brosnan fan in general. I was introduced to the Bond franchise with Brosnan as the face. What disappoints me with GoldenEye for Wii are the differences in the game because of the appearance of Craig. However, for some game fans, there were already inconsistencies in the first GoldenEye game, therefore those of us with trepidations should quit our complaining. According to Evan Elder Eller at VGChartz, Pierce Brosnan never fought Oddjob or Mayday, who both appear in the 64 version, so this game was already a stretch.
This brings up a discussion of licensing and use of likeness in an actors’ contract, a discussion not lost on the video game’s fans. Craig Harris writes at IGN:
Like it or lump it, for GoldenEye 007 Activision has ousted Pierce Brosnan in favor of the current Bond, Daniel Craig, for the role of 007. Whether the switch is due to lacking the likeness rights or simply Eurocom and Activision wanting to take a huge risk with such a massive design change may never be known. The Craig rendition of Bond is one of the biggest alterations to the character, giving the Ian Fleming spy a much more brutal, thug-like personality than his Connery/Moore/Dalton/Brosnan precursors, and with this single change comes a ripple effect: all the existing roles have been recast, some characters have been removed, and key moments – while true to the GoldenEye film – have been altered to work within the Daniel Craig style of Bond.
It's interesting that a simple change in likeness can change an entire game.
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