007 Games Part 10: The World is Not Enough (GBC)

Super AiG's Guide to Every (old) James Bond Game Ever, Volume 10 

Game 22 - The World is Not Enough (2001)

Formats: Game Boy Color.

Only one Bond game today, the Game Boy Color adaptation of The World is Not Enough, released a year after the PlayStation and N64 games. I can only hope that the rest of the game matches the... quality of its title screen.

Nice to see they remembered the gun barrel shot.

But there's two things I'd like to criticise here. First, pixel Bond forgot to fire his gun at the camera, which I feel is a pretty important element to the scene. Second, where's the Bond music? I don't know what this beeping is meant to be, but it's not the Bond theme.

Okay my mission is much the same as it was in the other versions of the game. A Swiss banker called Lachaise has earned himself a fortune by selling a report taken from a dead MI6 agent, and Zombie Dench has sent me to his bank in Spain to find out who killed the agent, and convince him to return the cash.

Oh and there's no voices this time, in case that's something you were wondering about. I've been spared from having to listen to ultra low bit rate John Cleese voice samples.

Uh, I'll take your word for it.

You know, this actually seems alright so far. Bond is reasonably animated as he strolls around in his blue jumpsuit and the graphics are fairly good for a Game Boy Color. He can even walk diagonally! The music is alright too, though it doesn't sound like anything I remember from the movies.

It's a little weird though how the building is entirely deserted. Where's the receptionist and all the security guards?

There doesn't seem to be much point to exploring this floor, as there's pretty much nothing here to collect or interact with. Well okay I found a computer board looking thing hidden in one of the rooms, but I've no idea what that's for.

And now the music seems to have progressed into some terrible off-key Bond theme inspired wreck of a song. But I shall tolerate it. For England.

Hey maybe there's something in... damn.

Turns out that there's nothing else down here but locked doors, but fortunately that computer board I picked up for no reason was actually the key to the elevator, so I can escape to the next floor.

After wasting so much of his time on the ground floor, Bond's decided he's sick of me steering him around, and is automatically walking from the elevator into Lachaise's office by himself.

I'm not entire sure that 'LOCKED' message was intended to flash up in the middle of this cutscene, but whatever. Now I know I'm locked in here at least.

Lachaise appears to be surprisingly willing to part with a suitcase full of cash, but is less eager to rat out his associates. Which makes sense considering it got him assassinated in the last two games. Maybe he'll be more lucky in this version.

Nope. Lachaise falls over and dies for some reason, and now I've got a gun pointed at my head. Time to break out my secret agent martial arts.

Yeah! I'm gonna poke this bastard until he's seeing stars, then I'll turn the wrath of my kung-fu finger towards his witless accomplice.

Or maybe I'll just pick up that convenient gun icon and shoot them both.

I'm starting to think I was better off fighting hand to hand. This gun is so ridiculously slow that I was just able to stand at the bottom of the screen, shoot that guy standing down the corridor, then run all the way back up here before the bullet hit him.

Plus it took Bond forever to even get around to pulling the trigger after I pressed the button.

Screw it, I'm just ignoring these goons from now on. It takes something like four shots to kill them, and five hours to fire each bullet and it's just not worth the time investment. I thought the golden gun was supposed to kill in a single shot! Fortunately the enemies are far too stupid to be a threat to me, so I can just walk past them, and step around their bullets.

Now then, where the hell is the way out?

It won't let me use the elevator I arrived on, so I suppose I should look for some stairs.



LATER.

Ah, I must be making some progress now. This area looks totally different to the corridors near Lachaise's office.

Crap, it just leads right back to where I came from! What a total waste of time.


LATER.

I have found the stairs! Okay, that was floor number four, so I only have to find my way around... two more floors, and then I know my way around the ground level already.

I almost hesitated before walking in front of the security cameras, but then I remembered what I was playing and ignored them like I do everything else.

Hi, I just came down here from Lachaise's office to let you guys know that you are doing a damn fine job. But keep an eye out for that sneaky British agent, he could be anywhere in the building by now.

Idiots.

BUT THEN! An explosion tears a chunk out of MI6 HQ. Turns out that the money Bond brought back was booby trapped with a bomb. Oops.

Damn, the bank security guards followed Bond home, and now they're wrecking his office. Moneypenny's going to be so pissed off.

That blue cross over on the right is a  health pick up by the way, though I doubt I'm going to need it.

Oh, he's so angry that I'm going around pressing all these buttons, and there's not a damn thing he can do about. That last switch I pressed opened up a door so I'm hoping this will do the same.

No, the door's still shut. I can't see any other switches around though. Maybe I have to kill all the enemies before they'll let me through?


LATER.

All this searching for switches started getting a bit much for Bond, so he needed to stop for a hug. I've switched to fists because bullets were taking way too long, but this means I need to get in close where the enemies can actually hit me back. I guess I'll need that health kit after all.

But in the end killing all the enemies changed nothing. The door is still closed, and I still have no idea what I'm doing here. Only one thing left for me to do then...

Yes, really! Really really.


The sad thing is that this probably isn't the worst James Bond game I've played or even the worst I have yet to play, but it's still pretty bad. I can't expect much from Atari 2600 or ZX Spectrum games, but by 2001 they should have been able to manage better than this.


Tomorrow I make the jump to sixth generation consoles with Agent Under Fire!