To celebrate the release of Dr. No (Young, 1962), the first of the James Bond movies (Various, 1962 to present), October 5th is known as “Global James Bond Day”. This year, I’m spending every Saturday commemorating cinema’s longest-running franchise, and one of the most recognised and popular movie icons.
Released: December 1992
Developer: The Kremlin
Also Available For: Game Gear and Master System
A Brief Background:
Although videogame tie-ins have a reputation for being rushed, bugged, and unfulfilling titles, James Bond/007 seems to have fared quite well in videogame endeavours. Obviously, everyone knows about the best-selling GoldenEye 007 (Rare, 1997), but Bond’s headlined videogame titles since 1983. He’s featured in racers and adventure games, but is most notable for this third- and first-person escapades. In 1987, Timothy Dalton took over the famous role, starring in two reasonably successful, if polarising, Bond movies. Although Dalton signed a three-picture deal, legal issues stunted his return and he was ultimately replaced in the role, though his likeness was used for this videogame, the first Bond game to feature an original storyline. Developers the Kremlin and publisher Domark actually had previous experience adapting Bond’s adventures, but James Bond 007: The Duel attracted mixed reviews that criticised its short length, repetitive gameplay, and sharp difficulty curve.
My Review:
James Bond 007: The Duel is a 2D, sidescrolling run-and-gun with mild platforming elements. Naturally, players assume the role of the famous super spy and are tasked with journeying across five levels in the battle against Professor Gravemar, a maniacal terrorist who not only threatens the world with his satellites but has built a cloning machine to resurrect Bond’s greatest enemies as his personal guard. After an absolutely awful pixel art rendition of Timothy Dalton, garish title screen, and mildly impressive MIDI recreation of the iconic Bond theme, players can customise their controls, pick from three difficulty levels (“Normal”, “Hard”, and “Manic”), or play the game’s tunes in the sound test. By default, A sees Bond jump (with 007 frequently performing an impressive and wholly uncharacteristic somersault), B sees him shoot his signature Walther PPK, and C tosses any grenades he acquires from Q Cases hidden in each level. Bond’s combat and traversal options are a bit limited; he can climb ladders, shoot diagonally up and down and whilst on ladders or when jumping or crouching (though he can’t shoot straight up or down). Furthermore, he flies backwards comically when shot, takes fall damage and will even die if he falls from a great enough height, and has frames of animation when ducking or picking up ammo and items that leaves him wide open to attack.
Each mission is preceded by a map screen of the professor’s private, heavily guarded island. After flying in on the Thunderball (Young, 1965) jetpack, Bond must navigate a large ship rescuing hostages. On “Normal”, Bond starts with four lives and must rescue three hostages (all scantily clad babes); he has limited ammo, reloading his gun when he runs out, and his health is measured in hit points. Players can replenish Bond’s health by rescuing hostages, and every goon they gun down and mission they complete will earn them points to increase their standing on the high score table. Unfortunately, there’s no indication of where the hostages are, so you’ll need to search high and low, hopping from platforms and lifeboats and avoiding falls, being shot to death, or being crushed by a falling submersible. Thankfully, there’s no time limit and any hostages you’ve rescued will stay rescued if you lose a life. Unfortunately, while you have unlimited continues and hidden checkpoints in each level, you’ll have to replay the stage from the start if you use a continue. Bond can hide in doorways to avoid enemies and bullets by pressing up and, though his sprite isn’t very detailed and lacks idle animations, Bond does switch his gun between his hands when you turn from left to right. Enemies appear to respawn as you play and, once you rescue all the hostages, you’ll need to find a bomb and then frantically search for the exit against a tight one-minute timer. Sadly, I wasn’t able to achieve this; although I found an optimal route to rescue the hostages and defuse the bomb, I would either slip and fall to my death or be throttled and tossed to my doom by the brutish Jaws before I could even find the exit.
James Bond 007: The Duel has a strange presentation. It’s very bright and colourful, with a jaunty soundtrack, and the backgrounds remind me of James Pond 2: Codename: RoboCod (Vectordean, Intellectual Software, Consultants Limited, 1991), which is a strange fit for Bond. The background scrolls as you move but is otherwise completely static; it also shifts up and down as you hold those directions, which can be quite disorientating. You need be careful not to fall into the water as, while you can grab ladders to climb out, the current will take you towards a frenzy of sharks. I gave the game a good shot, but it can be very unforgiving; if you’re shot, Bond is so slow to get up and often aims diagonally downwards rather than crouching, meaning it’s easy to get stun-locked in a continuous cycle of being shot at until you’re killed. With no passwords or cheat codes to mitigate the difficulty, and the level forcing you to restart from scratch when your lives are exhausted, I was neither able to defeat or bypass Jaws in this playthrough. Looking ahead, it seems more competent players can beat the game in about twenty minutes and Bond will traverse vines, dodge spike pits, battle Baron Samedi (who tosses bones at you) and encounter a massive futuristic tank in the jungle, avoid being roasted alive by lava and fireballs and encounter Mayday (who launches at you with flying kicks) and a claw-machine in a volcano, and gun down scientists, dodge flame bursts and take down Oddjob (who tosses his hat a painfully short distance) and a flame-shooting mech in the shuttle base. The game’s final level is dedicated to a boss battle against Jaws. Yes, rather than take on the mad Professor Gravemar, Bond faced Jaws once more, with the brute now piloting a mech that spits grenades and sports a scorpion-like tail. Defeating Jaws earns you another terrible piece of sprite art and a brief credits sequence, with no story text being included in the game at any point.
I know that James Bond 007: The Duel was only a mediocre title, at best, but I suddenly felt the urge to add it to my Mega Drive library and give it a go. I was hoping it would be a tough, but generally enjoyable platform shooter than I could maybe breeze through using a cheeky infinite health code or abusing the infinite continues, but it sadly didn’t go that way. This is a game that requires a great deal of patience and persistence from the player; I have no doubt that I probably could do better with a little more time, but the lack of passwords means you basically have to complete it in one sitting, which isn’t an appealing prospect. Although the game looks good, it has a very confused presentation; the large pixel art is dreadful, the locations are garish and cartoonish, but Bond and his enemies look pretty good despite their lack of detail. I liked seeing Bond’s enemies pop back up and little Easter Eggs like the jetpack and the map screen changing as you progress, but the gameplay is very clunky and repetitive. Every level requires the same functions from you (rescue hostages, disarm bomb, reach exit, battle bosses) with no variety beyond a greater emphasis on vertical exportation. Perhaps with a little more to do, some additional weapons, and some useful codes, James Bond 007: The Duel could’ve impressed me more but as is, it’s a little too punishing for me to sink my teeth into right now. But perhaps you’ve beaten it. Perhaps you enjoy it as a hidden gem for the Mega Drive. Perhaps you had no difficulty blasting through it and besting Bond’s resurrected baddies. Perhaps you think I should try harder or give the 8-bit version a try. Perhaps you prefer a different Bond game. Whatever you think, drop a comment below.
Dr. K's Waiting Room 