The developer that helped bring 1997's GoldenEye 007 to modern consoles has defended its rather buggy port of the game, calling the issues experienced by some a "side-effect of it being [an] emulation" of the Nintendo 64 original.
Following complaints from the community calling out frame lags, glitches, and "unplayable controls" (opens in new tab) on the Switch and Xbox, developer Code Mystics Inc. tweeted (opens in new tab) that these "graphics quirks" are an expected consequence. We might consider these bugs annoying (and the excuses a little flimsy), especially when comparing the game to modern first-person shooters, but Code Mystics want to remind us that "GoldenEye was breaking new territory on the N64."
In short: this is exactly what the game was like back in the day, and therefore it's exactly what you'll get 26 years later.
Some of the notable issues players have been running into include infuriating cases of broken collision, as seen in this Tweet (opens in new tab) from @skDanT where his character seems stuck in the character model of an NPC.
But there are some perks to GoldenEye 007 being an emulation: all of your favorite old strategies for sneaky sniping and in-game shortcuts might still work. This seems to be the case for a popular, cheeky hat-shooting maneuver (opens in new tab) that Twitter user @AnthonyAllenYT demonstrated, commenting that it "still works after 26 years" thanks to the game being an emulation rather than a remake.
Fondly remembered as one of the best N64 games, fans of the original celebrated upon the news that GoldenEye 007 was being brought to modern consoles this year. However, yearning for the past comes with a degree of sacrifice. In playing the GoldenEye 007 port on our Switch or via Xbox Game Pass, hopefully what we lose in modern features can be gained back in wistful nostalgia.
This probably says something really poignant about our obsession with gaming nostalgia in 2023, with two of the most played titles right now being remakes and emulations, but it's evidence enough that nostalgia still sells; "authentic" bugs or not.
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