James Bond 007: The Duel

The new Bond combines swell animation with huge, cavernous levels. This game held my interest beginning to end, with long levels and a very challenging quest, nice detail on the bosses too...Better than the movie, sorry Timothy.

The game does feature classic Bond villains such as Odd Job and Jaws through its four levels, but in an age where it was hard to translate license dreams into video game reality, The Duel is incapable of being anything more than a sub-par entry in an over-saturated genre filled with better products.

Really, this game's biggest flaw is it's failure to capture the James Bond magic. Despite the return of fan-favorite villains and some oblique level homages (the jungle level could be Live and Let Die, the boat level may have been inspired by For Your Eyes Only, etc.), there's nothing about this game that really sets it apart from most shooters except for the Timothy Dalton likeness on the title screen. I couldn't even really recommend it for fellow James Bond diehards; since the brilliant Goldeneye 007 is readily available for the N64, we're not exactly for want of decent 007 video games. If you're a Genesis completist or find it at a pawn shop for...maybe a dollar or so, you might not want to pass it if you're into self-inflicted aggravation. But after your performance review, Commander Bond, we're going to have to revoke your licence to platform. Indefinitely.

You know things are going to be bad when the James Bond picture in the intro is not Sean Connery or even Roger Moore, but the likeness of Timothy Dalton. This is the perfect example of how a company can completely miss what is so cool about a license, James Bond is more than a guy gunman who jumps really high in the air. Heck, not even that most of the time. Thankfully the Duel was forgotten as quickly as Timothy Dalton's career!