20 Remakes and Remasters That Are Worse Than The Original

Nintendo 64 owners were blessed in 1997 with exclusive access to one of the best games of all time. GoldenEye 007 adapted Pierce Brosnan’s first Bond movie as a first-person shooter, and quickly went down in history for all the right reasons. It doesn’t just have killer action, levels and story, but also used to be one of the essential party games for any console.

And so, as a twofer, the remaster of the game ought to have been an easy win: on the one hand, it’s a modern reimagining of the 1995 film with Daniel Craig as the lead; on the other, it’s an update of the iconic N64 game. And, in many senses, it was a success. The graphics and animations are way better than the original game, the modern shooter mechanics are more intuitive and easy to get into, and online multiplayer expands the action out of your living room.

But it lacks several key qualities that made the original a classic in the first place. Remaking the game in the contemporary shooter mode somewhat misses the point of the original, edging the title closer to Call of Duty than a classic Bond game. Plus, Brosnan’s Bond feels like an essential component to this game and era, and to make it more like the gritty Craig titles and scrub Bond #5 from it feels like taking a pneumatic drill to Mount Rushmore.

We’ll stick with the N64 version, if you don’t mind.