Digital Foundry has taken a look at the latest GoldenEye 007 remasters for the Nintendo Switch family of devices and Xbox Series X|S platforms.
Unfortunately, neither version is totally ideal, and both operate at 30 frames per second with dips; yet, both can be played, and the experiences they provide are pleasant to boot. The aesthetics and control mechanism of the Xbox version are more up to date, and the resolution of the Xbox version’s images are greater, but the audio quality of the Nintendo Switch version is superior, and it includes online multiplayer, although only with friends.
Digital Foundry – Goldeneye 007 highlights
“The artwork in these games was supposed to be displayed at 240p on a CRT, while the Xbox version aspires for 4K rendering, and the Switch works at 720p. This presents a problem since both of these resolutions are much higher than the original 240p graphics. When the resolution is increased, any defects in the image become more obvious to everyone.
“Additionally, with regard to the Xbox version, the emulation brings to light other problems, such as warbling vertices, obvious texture seams, and a great deal of z-fighting. You may be thinking that I am going to critique the emulation at this point, but in point of fact, this is a more realistic representation of the game than what is utilized on Switch. It is a symptom that you will observe with low-level N64 emulation; however, it suggests that the emulation work that was done for the Xbox version by Code Mystics is fairly strong.
“There have been numerous complaints regarding Xbox’s performance, with users experiencing stuttering and lag as a result of the console’s 30 frames per second restriction. I observed this too, although monitoring the frame-rate resulted in a near fixed 30fps — it appears like the frame-rate restriction is operating in a way, but possibly the distance your character moves between frames is more varied than it should be. This results in the game having a vibe that is incongruous with what it should be, despite the fact that it is an enormous improvement over the original game.
“Switch, despite early impressions, operates more slowly than Xbox with frequent frame-rate drops and unpredictable frame-times. To reiterate, it is quicker than the original N64 version, but it is not as reliable as it should be. This is especially frustrating considering that the unpublished versions of the game for Xbox 360 feature a totally fixed 60 frames per second across all game modes.
When it comes down to it, none of these new releases comes anything close to being flawless in terms of the controls, the graphics, or the music, and they are both ultimately unsatisfactory. Each console has its own set of benefits, such as the Xbox having superior controls and a quicker processing time, while the Switch features online multiplayer via its NSO service and superior acoustics.
