Developer: Publisher: JV Games EA Year of Release: Genre: 2003 First Person Shooter

Introduction:

Over the past few years the James Bond license has become one of the most lucrative game licenses available. Since the release of Rare's groundbreaking Nintendo 64 masterpiece publishers have been churning out many an attempt to topple Goldeneye from its 'best Bond game' crown. The two most recent console releases; Agent Under Fire and NightFire, proved to be pretty solid first person shooters, but they lacked the flair and great level design of Goldeneye. Determined to get even more money out of the franchise, EA set their sights on breaching the Game Boy Advance market with a portable Bond FPS. Developed by JV Games, the people behind the GBA's first FPS Backtrack, James Bond 007: NightFire has all the gadgets, weapons and girls a Bond game should have. And rather surprisingly, it actually plays very well.

Story:

007: NightFire revolves around the Phoenix International Corporation, a corporation responsible for the dismantling of warheads worldwide. Raphael Jake, international industrialist, all round nice guy (or so they thought) and the corporation's leader is suspected to have more sinister motives. In typical James Bond style, reliable intelligence has suggested that Drake is planning the theft of a top-secret missile guidance component that was intended for use on the U.S. Space Weapons Platform. James Bond is called in to search for evidence of Drake's involvement in the theft and ultimately put a stop to his evil plans of world domination. The story is hardly rocket science, but when have James Bond stories ever been deep and involving? What it does allow for is an adventure that spans through castles, power stations, island bases and the obligatory space-based setting. The story is told through 'cut scenes' that consist of a number of scrolling images and a little text at the beginning of each part of each mission. Being fairly lengthy, these story sections can become annoying, but impatient gamers can skip them at any time with a simple press of the A button.

Gameplay:

Guns, gadgets and girls; three elements that have made the James Bond series what it is today. And the good news for Bond fans is that this game features a healthy dosage of all three. The adventure in NightFire is spread over nine missions set in seven different locations. Each of these missions typically consists of two or three separate sub-levels. These levels consist of locations sprawling with enemy soldiers all armed with varying types of weapons. However, the action isn't solely based around shooting. For starters, Bond is equipped with a whole host of gadgets. These include a keychain stunner that can be used for a close-combat attack on guards, a wristwatch laser that comes in handy for breaking through locked doors and the cell-phone grapple, which is a compact grappling hook that gives players the ability to reach higher areas when possible. Mission objectives vary quite substantially too. There are some stages that have the player defending another character as they blast away at a seemingly never-ending onslaught of guards. Others feature more spy-based elements such as stealing data from computers and infecting systems with viruses. There are even a couple of stealth-based levels that have the player sneaking around avoiding detection by the guards and security cameras.

In additional to the FPS levels are two similarly designed levels with underwater and space settings. In these Bond is armed only with a laser weapon and must float through with different gravitational environments than the standard stages. These two levels are a nice break from the shooting action, although the water-based section really falls down due to an incredibly irritating design issue. Within the tunnels that Bond must swim through are the obligatory spinning propellers. There are three positioned throughout the stage and each one is faster than the previous one. Now, passing these obstacles wouldn't have been such a difficult task if they had given the player a reasonable dent in their health. But no, instead JV Games insisted on making the propellers an instant-death obstacle. That's right, one touch and Bond bites the dust and it's back to the beginning of the mission to try again. What also doesn't help is that the final propeller is spinning so fast that the player has very little chance of getting through alive.

With a good variety of mission objectives behind it, 007: NightFire also impresses with well-designed levels. Included in the game are closed in areas such as long, twisting office block corridors and passageways through an Australian castle. There are also plenty of levels set in large open-air environments such as beaches and power station exteriors. With such variety each mission requires a different approach. Whilst many of the interior levels concentrate more on fast-paced shooting the exterior stages are frequently inhabited by snipers lurking in the most unsuspecting and out of view places. This makes for the need of a much more challenging and strategic assault on the level. Fortunately, the player is given a substantial array of weapons to select from depending on which environment they are playing in. Weapons such as the standard Wolfram P2K and the Frinesi Special A3 shotgun are perfect for closer combat whilst the FA1 Clarion Assault Rifle and Winter Covert Sniper Rifle come in handy for picking off those enemies located in the distance. Whilst playing you adjust and find the weapon that best suits for playing each mission, this certainly isn't a game that can be rushed through guns a blazing with any weapon. Attempting to play the game with this strategy will inevitably end in death, every time.

And that brings us on to the subject of NightFire's difficulty level. Despite having two difficulty settings; Normal and Hard, the game is very challenging and unforgiving towards the player at all times. This isn't such a bad thing. Unlike a lot of the other FPSs out there you actually have to learn the structure of the levels, enemy movement patterns and plan an assault with a good degree of thought. Playing all the way through a mission can rarely be achieved on a first attempt. In fact, most of the levels will take at least four or five attempts in order for the player to become victorious. It's not all good news though; the game can also be immensely frustrating at times. Unlike the console versions of NightFire, which placed the player at the beginning of the subsection they are currently up to after they die, the GBA version will force you to replay the entire mission again. On some of the later missions which are longer and feature many enemies it can be incredibly annoying to keep playing through the same sections again and again only to be killed at the exact same spot every time. On the positive side when that final well-hidden sniper or powerful boss is disposed of there is always a strong feeling of achievement and the player can finally progress onto the next well-designed area.

One of the weaker aspects of the game is the enemy AI. At times it can be pretty good, with enemies chasing and accurately shooting the player as he runs for cover. However at other times the enemy AI seems almost non-existent. There are moments in the game where Bond can be surrounded by four or five guards shooting from a close distance only to discover that they are all a terrible aim and miss completely. Good if you're rubbish at the game, but not good at creating realism. Likewise, sometimes the player can alert the attention of a guard and all he'll do is run from left to right shooting aimlessly. On a similar note, there is a distinct problem with the spawning of guards after a key event has been triggered. Sometimes the task is handled relatively well with guards visually running on screen from the distance, but most of the time the player will find themselves completely surrounded by guards that have miraculously appeared from nowhere in an area that had been previously cleared of enemies. Again, this really doesn't help to suspend disbelief and can make the game rather annoying.

Control-wise, James Bond 007: NightFire has fared remarkably well on the Game Boy Advance's limited button set up. The controls do seem a little daunting at first since they utilize all of the GBA's buttons, and multiple combinations, but after a few attempts at the first mission they become a lot more familiar. The main action button, used to fire a weapon or use a gadget, is the A button. The B button is used in combination with up and down on the d-pad to jump and duck respectively. Like all decent FPS games there is the ability to strafe left and right using the L & R triggers; an essential feature for the stages occupied by many snipers. Changing weapons is the most complicated and uncomfortable task at first, as the player is required to hold down the B button and press either the L or R trigger to cycle forwards and backwards through their inventory. Again, with time it becomes easier to adjust to this button set up. Finally, the player can also look around in all directions by holding both the L & R triggers together and then pressing on the d-pad. A lot to take in, but what these slightly over-complicated controls do allow is a faithful and accurate recreation of a console FPS control setup allowing the player to jump, duck, strafe and look around, something that wasn't possible in early Game Boy Advance games of this genre.

Lifespan:

Nine missions may sound a little on the short side, but with those missions being made up of a total of 25 sub-sections, FPS fans will have a lot to sink their teeth into. NightFire is actually one of the most challenging games I've witnessed on the GBA so far, and despite its frustrating moments there is always an incentive to continue playing. That is, of course, until those all-important end credits have been reached. That said, even after completing the game there is more to keep perfectionists interested. Just like the console releases of Agent Under Fire and NightFire, scores and rewards are given on completion of each mission. Depending on a score based on shot accuracy, final health levels, enemies killed and other similar criteria, Bronze, Silver and Gold 007 medals can be gained. The rewards for receiving the coveted Gold 007 award may not be that much (the ability to start the following mission with the classic 'Golden Gun'), but it's always pleasing to see that gold icon next to the completion status for each mission. Be warned though, achieving the gold award is no easy feat. It requires much practice, skill and accuracy, as well as the finding of a hidden 007 token in each stage.

Graphics:

Generally the graphics featured in NightFire are on the impressive side. There are times when the game starts to look a little like a pixilated mess, but overall the locations are designed well enough for this to not become too much of a problem. Unlike a lot of the other GBA FPSs, JV Games developed the environments using a real 3D polygon-based engine. This allows for more convincing level design built up of buildings with multiple floors, stairs and ramps. Unlike the 3D environments, the characters and weapon pickups remain sprite-based. Most of the time the sprite scaling is convincing although sniping at a fair distance becomes more difficult as all that is visible is a few blocky squares representing an enemy. The game's framerate may be a little on the low side, but it never drops low enough to hinder the gameplay or render the game unplayable.

Sound:

There is a genuinely surprising use of sound to be discovered whilst playing through NightFire. Not only does the famous Bond theme greet the player once the opening credits have passed, but an atmospheric digitized soundtrack also accompanies all of the in-game action. Enemy guards have one-liners such as 'stop right there' and 'somebody kill him' and all of the digitized sound effects for weapons and hits are convincing for a handheld game. Another nice feature is that the pace of the music picks up during confrontations with enemy soldiers. A simple effect, but it adds a little to the tension of what is sure to be an intense gunfight. Overall it is pretty hard not to be impressed by the game's use of sound and music.

Overall:

James Bond 007: NightFire is not perfect by any means, but that doesn't stop it from being a genuinely enjoyable first person shooter experience. The AI and character spawning are not perfect, and the graphics may be a little pixilated at times, but where the game does shine is in its impressive recreation of the feeling offered by a full-size console FPS. A portable Goldeneye it is not, but developers are certainly getting close to achieving a well designed and involving FPS on the GBA, and James Bond 007: NightFire is the closest that I have played to that so far.