GoldenEye: Rogue Agent Hands-On

Late last year, Electronic Arts released GoldenEye: Rogue Agent, the long-awaited follow-up to the 1997 Nintendo 64 classic. Though it met with somewhat mixed reviews, EA is now working on a port of the game to the Nintendo DS, which we got our hands on recently. In single-player terms, the game will be making the transition pretty much intact, and it'll even have the first wireless multiplayer mode yet seen in a first-person shooter on Nintendo's unique handheld platform.

Rogue Agent lives up to its name by casting you as a disgraced MI6 operative who's been expelled from the vaunted British spy agency and has subsequently fallen in with that nefarious businessman Auric Goldfinger. It seems Dr. No rather conveniently shot out your eye during some past skirmish, and in its place you'll receive a golden eye that grants you a number of special powers, such as the ability to see through walls, a limited energy shield, a long-range hacking ability, and even a telekinetic attack. All of these powers will be preserved in the single-player portion of Rogue Agent DS, which is identical to the console version in terms of storyline and pacing, and similar to it in terms of gameplay content, too.

We ran through the first couple of levels in Rogue Agent on the DS and found it to be a pretty accurate port of the original game, all things considered. Of course, the graphics quality has been significantly reduced, but on the upside, the frame rate is consistently quite high even in this early version, making for a relatively smooth gameplay experience. Multiple control schemes are available, the most basic of which lets you move with the directional pad and look up and down with the face buttons--functional, but a little clumsy. However, our favorite way to play should be familiar to any DS owner who's spent some time with the Metroid Prime: Hunters demo--this involves using the DS's touch screen to control your perspective, much like you would do with a mouse on a PC. Using the DS's thumb-strap nub to look around duplicates the feeling of playing with a mouse with surprising accuracy.

Aside from the eye powers, the most important gameplay mechanic in Rogue Agent is the dual-wielding ability, and this too has been reproduced properly on the DS. Essentially, the top screen displays the game action, while the bottom shows a heads-up display indicating your health, armor, available eye powers, and which weapons you have equipped. You start off with just a pistol and a grenade, but whenever you find a new weapon you want to use, you can tap the appropriate right- or left-hand weapon slot to equip the new weapon in that hand. Each shoulder button is used to fire the weapon in the corresponding hand, so running around and attacking with two weapons is a pretty easy affair once you get a feel for it.

The developers at EA Tiburon have also added a new story-relevant hacking minigame to complement the DS's touch-screen feature. You'll occasionally have to hack a computer interface to progress through the game, and you'll do this by playing a Simon Says-style minigame that requires you to tap the right colors on the touch screen in increasingly lengthy and difficult patterns. The catch is, while you're hacking on the bottom screen, the enemies are still taking potshots at you up top, so you'll have to think quick to hack your way through danger and move on.

Rogue Agent will have extensive multiplayer options for DS owners, even for those who don't own the game. With a single copy of the game, you'll be able to initiate a single-map multiplayer match for up to eight players by downloading the level to other DS consoles within wireless range. You'll be able to engage the full multiplayer experience for up to four people, all of whom must own the game--this will give you access to a variety of maps and more customization options for weapons and so on. Finally, if you're all by your lonesome, you can play against bots in a single-player deathmatch that's also fully customizable.

EA rightfully pointed out that when Rogue Agent hits in June, it'll be the only first-person shooter out on the DS, beating the anticipated Metroid Prime: Hunters to market by a good two months (as current release dates stand). DS owners looking for a solid shooter to play competitively against their DS-owning friends should keep an eye out for Rogue Agent to hit in just a few weeks.