A few days ago we brought you news that the classic Goldeneye 007 is now available on Nintendo Switch after years of licensing issues with developer Rare. And that’s all well and good. The best James Bond video game ever made, originally released for the Nintendo 64, being available on the company’s latest handheld console – as well as Xbox Game Pass – is a rush of sweet, sweet nostalgia. And it would have been a big, successful port for the Switch, if Nintendo hadn’t absolutely cooked it.
Already complaints have been piling up about the Nintendo Switch’s Goldeneye controls. Forget about even using the Nintendo Switch’s dock to stream this on a TV. And you don’t even bother with online multiplayer – one of the primary reasons a lot of people were excited about the return of Goldeneye 007. The awkward controls, which are overly sensitive, are currently being lambasted across the internet by furious gamers unhappy it’s all been mapped.
While there are different controller configurations you can choose from via the pause menu – the “1.2 Solitaire” option is a bit more logical for the Switch – it seems Nintendo has made the grave error of keeping the Nintendo 64 controls. Which makes absolutely no sense for something as fundamentally different as the Nintendo Switch.
The smoother framerate and 4K visuals (assuming you’re playing this on the new Nintendo Switch certainly make the Goldeneye 007 port a compelling prospect. Yet, this is only the N64 version upscaled for the Nintendo Switch. There’s no trace of work to make it more like a modern FPS, hence why people have been so frustrated with the controls, especially given you can’t, by default, use both joysticks for more natural, intuitive movement and aiming.
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With aiming overly sensitive, it makes it incredibly tough to properly shoot at your enemies. It feels clunky even, and that takes away from the whole experience. Nintendo has really dropped the ball on this one.
But not all is lost. Already there are ways to make playing Goldeneye 007 on Switch a smoother experience. You’ll have to swap the order of the sticks, which will align them properly. But to do this you’d have to first exit the game and go into actual system settings on the Switch. It’s here you’ll find a button mapping menu that allows you to completely customise the controls to your preference.
Given the main issue is Nintendo’s own infrastructure, the main thing you’d need to do is get rid of the single stick function – which made sense with the N64 controller.
You can also enable a more cinematic widescreen through the in-game settings, which vastly enhances the experience of playing through one of greatest first-person shooters ever made. The process is detailed by YouTuber GameXplain below.
Then, and only then, does the online multiplayer mode, exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version, make any sense.
For details on how to purchase a Nintendo Switch Online membership, which is required to download Goldeneye 007, head to our original news piece here.
