"And this my cousin, Blow!" Thank you for that laugh, Calvin. Now I need to awkwardly leave the coffee shop I'm in because I'm getting funny looks! 🤣 But, as always, fantastic work, my friend!
Ah yes, Mad Processor Gravemar, the author of all classic Bond's pain. My favourite part of this game is when you go throw the corridor level with xerox print outs of Jaws, Mayday, Samedi, and Odd Job on the wall.
I would guess the renaming issue had something to do with rights issues - perhaps Eon refused to give the game developers the rights to the specific films, which resulted in most/all the villains from them being renamed to avoid legal issues.
Those different names for Bond villains aren't translation mistakes, are they? That jumped to mind immediately as an explanation, but I'm as stumped as you are. I haven't played the game, but it looks like mindless fun! I think the sprite work is pretty impressive, the player character really moves like Bond despite being made out of pixels.
Hmmmm, perhaps the Baron's name change is because Baron Samedi is one of the few Bond villains to have not only survived, but is immortal. How do you clone an undead magician without inciting his wrath? Rename it to Bones of course, acknowledging that he is still the real Baron Samedi! Dr. Gravemar is respectful at least! I can't help but notice the villains here bear a slight resemblance to their counterparts in James Bond Jr.! Jaws' mouth looks kinda like a metal add-on, and Odd Job's suit looks purple!
I do think the computer games turned Samedi into the iconic character he is. He's not actually in LALD that much but he's always included in the video games, especially the bonus level in Goldeneye N64.
James Bond 007: Attack of the Clones! A bit of a shame for May Day to show up (in any form) at all, after so spectacular and redemptive a death. I appreciate Jaws seeming to have the limitations of a Dalek. Thank you, Calvin.
This was the FIRST James Bond game I ever played as well as the first game I had ever played. My parents had a Sega Genesis with the Dual as well as a Jurassic Park movie tie-in game and a True Lies movie tie-in game. This brings back tons of fond memories for me. Although, once I got a PS2, this game went out the window for Nightfire and Agent Under Fire, James Bond: The Dual is a nostalgic thing for me. Thanks for making my Sunday, Calvin!
Thanks for sharing this, Kyle! Was hoping to hear from people who actually played this game when it was new out. Glad to hear you have happy memories of it!
At the time this game was released a lot of the crimes against humanity committed my Haitian Dictator "Papa Doc" were coming to light. He was often no named Baron Samedi at the time so perhaps Sega didn't want the association with that figure.
Jup, I was the proud owner of James Bond the Duel for the Game Gear, always miffed you never brought it up with other Bond game lists so was surprised to see a full review this time. I definitly prefer the 8 bit version over the Megadrive version, being a more straight forward action game rather then this wide open maze game.
I bought this game on first release, and I still play to this very day. It's constantly in my Megadrive, only swapped out for Steet Fighter or Sonic mostly. I have the nostalgia for it, much like you do for the early Playstation games, as back then it was groundbreaking as a Bond game.
At 1:30, that sounded a lot closer to something other than book, though in fairness it did get me looking up from the project I was fiddling with and chuckle.
I'm going with everyone else's comments on the renamed villains, it was a licensing thing. However, it's definitely not a character limit thing, or they'd just put Baron for Baron Zamedi.
I remember first reading about this game in a PlayStation magazine when _Agent Under Fire_ was hyped up. The article had a 'history' section of past Bond games. As we still had a Master System and Mega Drive, I recall going to my local Mega Blast. It was a store that sold both current and used games from previous generations. I don't recall if I bought the game there or ebay.
You should do a full let’s play of Blood Stone. While it’s hard to say if it’s Craig’s Bond’s best game, I think it is since the 3rd person angle let’s you really experience his Bond’s mastery of martial arts.
Oh, just one other thing, if they make another From Russia With Love type game, I hope they put in more boss battles with some of the other classic bruiser types, like Oddjob, Hans, or that cool big guy from Octopussy.
I had this game! Being a Bond fan as a kid in the early 90s this game (slightly) made up for the complete drought of films at the time. I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t think I ever made it past the first level!… Thank you Calvin for making this video and bringing back all the wonderful memories!
I had this game as a kid, back in the day it was awesome as you felt like Bond himself, plus Timothy Dalton is my favourite James Bond, this was my favourite Bond game until we got Goldeneye and that remains my favourite Bond game to this day.
After years of seeing absolutely terrible games from this era on AVGN, I have to say this game looks pretty decent. It seems to be playable even if it is easy and the graphics/music are certainly better than most Movie-Licensed games. The sprites even look like the characters which is a vast improvement too. Just be thankful it wasn't made by LJN!
@@jamesbancroft2467 I agree, while I am not a die-hard AVGN fan I have enjoyed a few of his videos over the years. James Bond was mentioned when AVGN reviewed the Nintendo 64 Mission: Impossible game and James Rolfe also filmed a video of him and some friends enjoying the multiplayer mode of Nightfire. Perhaps in a future video he will cover the various video games tie into the movies, since he has done AVGN episodes covering a majority of licensed video games up to the 64 bit era.
You know what? This game looks alright. I’m fine with an easy game from time to time, and this one has enough unique little stylistic flairs to have enough personality to make it worth playing. Neat.
Just rewatched License To Kill. Easily the most underrated Bond film ever, such a masterpiece, tailored to it’s decade where Bond actually evolves as a character. Such a good film.
@@jamesatkinsonja You know, tbh, it’s been some time since I hopped into the comments on one of his videos. But if that’s the case, then that makes me very happy. 😊
My second favourite Bond movie after Casino Royale. License To Kill is such a good Bond movie. My top five in order, Casino Royale, Licence To Kill, No Time To Die, Goldeneye and Skyfall.
@@jamesatkinsonja I would say it isn't so underrated now, thankfully LTK is finally getting the attention it deserves. But at the time and a good while after (probably not until Casino Royale) LTK wasn't really talked about. Casino Royale and Daniel Craig's more tougher take on the character and franchise wasn't too far from Dalton's Bond.
@@leecroft1983 I’m going through my first full Bond-a-thon, and even though I’m fairly caught up on them, I want to rewatch all of them before I give my final rankings. That said, License to Kill is absolutely in my top 5. 🔝
I actually remember really enjoying this one when it first came out lol The main reason was because the only 007 game I think I'd played before this was the Atari game where you only played with vehicles. So this was the first time controlling an actual virtual James Bond figure in a video game - so I thought that was pretty cool. The game play itself was very average of course - kind of like the old contra games. But it was still a Bond version of it and that was so rare that the sheer novelty of it made it lots of fun to me! But remember- this was a time that our standards in video games were pretty low lol Most games in this style were just designed to be played for a little while at a time, if I am remembering correctly. In fact - I think I felt like the first game that really felt like a complete long story with a Bond like feel to it was Metal Gear Solid which came out shorty afterwards for the first Playstation. I think the very next official Bond game that came out which I played was Goldeneye itself! (So you see the fairly dramatic increase in quality which happened in the genre in just a couple of years!)
I have this game on the Master System was so fun to play as 007. Never got passed the first level as a kid. To me I was running round killing milkmen. 😆
I played this as a kid on my mate's Mega Drive. He was the one who always had the console that no one else had, it was always useful to have that friend. I enjoyed it for the original music, environments and just the vibrant colours of it. But still felt there was something more they could have done with it. Being so young we never got near the end of the game, got way too bored before then and moved on to Sunset Riders 🤠
Goldeneye N64 is everything everyone everywhere was salivating for for such a very long time, and it keeps being such an iconic video game in the whole entire 007 franchise, and a total inspiration to Calvin Dyson himself. (You rock Calvin!) 007 The Duel though was an old fashioned game where the story wasn't too much in place, just like Agents Under Fire and NIGHTFIRE with the picture perfect storyline in each and every single level, but 007 The Duel should deserve a heartwarming chance to be the most skillful video game in the world. And must I say, the SEGA version of Timothy Dalton looks awesome in all of his handsome form! Besides Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA has been and still is the most iconic gaming company since the 90s.
I was 7 when this came out and obsessed with my mega drive so I lapped up any ol crap my parents bought me, I always spent ages trying to complete every game I had and beat this one, I liked it at the time but at 7 I was positive about virtually everything. Looking back, it ain't up to much but there's a certain novelty value in seeing a Dalton story with all these larger than life villains. Also my first bond experience.
The amount of Bond games pre-Goldeneye will be a fun cover, I bet. Can't wait until you get to the Game Boy installment (the second one published by Nintendo after Goldeneye).
This was an ‘ok’ game at best, I grew up playing the mega drive thanks to having an older sibling. I think even for it’s time it was just ‘ok’ there were better games of this type around then, and The Duel seems like it’s trying to emulate The Rolling Thunder games which were very similar in style but much better executed. A part of me wishes that had this game been made by the Rolling Thunder programming team it would’ve been better and more varied.
I was a Nintendo kid, so this game went completely under my radar… unfortunately. I was the biggest Bond fan since seeing A View to a Kill when I was 7 years old. I would have loved this game as a kid. From the looks of it, it is pretty much a product of its time, but we were used to it back then.
If you are looking for a simple way of connecting a Sega Mega Drive, there is a HDMI adapter called the RAD2X. It's a bit finicky with certain capture cards though. If yours accepts it, great. If it doesn't, that can be fixed by routing it through a scaler with HDMI input. Personally, I route the SCART lead into the OSSC, which in turn outputs to a second scaler or the mClassic to normalize the signal with video capture cards.
I rented this game back in the 90s when I was a teenager. Unfortunately I think it's crap 🤣. It sets the bar with the awful Dalton face. Since when did Bond jump around like that. I think you're right this was some random "Secret Agent" game repurposed for Bond as a cash grab. I liked Jaws appearance...I guess? The graphics for the time were "okay". Thanks for enduring, I mean reviewing this one :)
No pixelated STRAWBERRY JAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!. I rate the game 0/10. Btw you didn't have to do the hostage squeal after talking about it, but I'm glad you did X). Like the "And this is my brother Blow" joke. The gameplay with bosses may be pretty anticlimatic, but the "keep distance and keep shooting/hitting until the baddy's set of of hits is reached" was common in games of he platform then, so it is to be expected (would be way more bugged if this happened in something like Nightfire in the 2000s). And no!, don't mail questions on licensed media to EON calvin! They won't bother even with the ones on films they produced, let alone those!
This felt like a big deal because previous Bond games had been standard movie tie-in affairs, made quickly and cheaply with different minigames to represent different scenes (or, in the case of Live and Let Die, a quick reskin of an already completed speedboat racing game). This was Domark putting the Bond name on a relatively polished, coherent product with an original story (such as it was) which was the first time the Bond videogame licence had been treated like that. Of course it would become commonplace in later years when EA and Activision had the licence but The Duel was, while very flawed indeed, the first Bond game of its kind and as such deservcs a bit of respect.
Is it possible for the naming thing that they didn’t have rights to the villain names? I know it seems weird, but companies can be really touchy about likenesses and names and stuff
4:39 There was a TV Tropes entry which was trying to tie Goldeneye Rogue Agent into the other games and basically used that as an explanation for the villains in the game being back alive again [via the corporation in 'Agent under fire']. 23:08 That is a good point. I do wonder if audiences of DND would expect the 5th Brosnan film, if it was made, to be even more fantastical which was fine for the game but like Moonraker to For Your Eyes Only, they needed to strip things down a little for the movie series.
@@AllardRT The problem is, for better or worse, Brosnan had an established brand. Part of the issue I have with TWINE is that it feels like a mixture of tones-some elements being dark and gritty [with issues like Stockholm syndrome] but also having more 'fun' elements [Christmas Jones, the one liners etc] because that's Brosnan's style which don't fit together, so it was always going to be easier to sell a new style with a new Bond, especially as Brosnan would probably only do one more anyway [I remember him being quoted as saying he'd love to do a 5th but maybe to old for a 6th at the time] while Roger did a couple more [I think Moore turned in a very underrated performance with FYEO, going against his instincts, but as Calvin said in his review it's the only time they've changed styles and it probably would have made more sense to have a new Bond for the change which is probably why they went a bit more outlandish for Moore's last two].
@@jamesatkinsonja Moore had just as many 007 movies under his belt before FYEO. Not to mention Brosnan himself mentioned he'd prefer a more down-to-earth script than the stuff he was given as Bond. And as for Brosnan being old thing... for one, he looked way better in 2006 than Craig did in 2019 and for two, November Man came out in whopping 2014, so he was still game for action movies for the remainder of 2000s and a little of 2010s as well. IMO he had enough in him to give us at least two or three more Bonds, provided they'd keep to the three year old schedule.
@@AllardRT Well I was quoting the man himself as being 'too old for a 6th' in a 2002 newspaper interview. Perhaps tellingly he got the rights to what became 'The November Man' as an older spy pretty much as soon as he was done with Bond with filming planned for 2006 only for it to be shelved for many years. It was also going to be a 'franchise starter' for his new, older character but it never happened [be interested to see Calvin have a lot at that film one day]. I think cinema had racially changed by the mid-2000's so Bond needed to change with it [by then Bourne had 2 installments and Batman Begins was a hit so the style change Bourne Identity had shown was clearly not a fluke and DAD backlash was in full swing]. Brosnan could have adapted, I just wish they had committed to that tone for TWINE for the whole film. As you said, he wanted to go down to earth contrary to his reputation now a days and wasn't too keen on some of the stuff in DAD. I'm just a bit dubious if it would have stuck to the gritty tone [the EON video game is very outlandish but was received warmly by Brosnan fans]. But unfortunately it's a 'sliding doors'/we'll never know moment like many instances in the series [like Brosnan doing Living Daylights etc.].
@@jamesatkinsonja The way I see it, Brosnan's better movies (the first two) were a good balance of both serious and fun elements. Goldeneye, for example, had Brosnan rocking the quips and the style, but also the more serious moments like the revelation of Janus' identity, and his reflective moment on the beach, and also more introspective themes like how Bond and his enemies and allies approached the post-Cold War world. Even if his "style" was more along suave-spy lines, he pulled off elements like those beautifully. But the latter two (and it's a shame, because both had a lot of potential) were, as you say, less "good balance" and more "split personality". The early posters for Die Another Day really played up the "betrayed, captured, abandoned" theme, and can you imagine Roger Moore's Bond being captured by an enemy country, imprisoned and tortured for over a year, and getting released only to find that he's under suspicion from his own people and been betrayed by one of his own? All of that would have made for an interesting spy flick that didn't necessarily need to stint on the more charming and stylish moments---and, again, Pierce handled those early scenes superbly. But suddenly we take a left turn and we've got ice palaces, invisible cars, gene replacement tech and Bond surfing a tsunami!
Thank you for this! Heard about this game but have never seen a review or even any gameplay of it before. As a Dalton die hard, I've always been curious about it.
Thank you for this!! I remember playing this game for hours!! It was my first Bond game as I was just entering my Bond fandom. I actually thought these villain names were their real character names for a long time because of this game 😂😂.
To think though man, if Dalton did get that 3rd Bond movie then this game would be an adaptation of that movie :). at the very least back then in the world of 2D gaming and especially with movie tie in ones like alien 3 and the terminator, this game would be so nice to control Bond in a 2D space. AND another version of the game could have been released on the SEGA CD with better sound and maybe even a few clips from the film (Check out The terminator sega CD, as an example) They missed loads of opportunities with this game though. The fact you could start the game in a jet pack, but you dont actually use it for gameplay is saddening. You could have picked up different weapons, use different gadgets, have different costumes, it be be at times a beat em up, it could be like Contra or even a little like a metroidvania type game with a few stealth mechanics at times perhaps (avoiding guards for example). Maybe even do some driving sections like in Outrun!!! but nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :( Well at the end of the day it still goes to show though that people around the world, weather they liked Dalton as Bond or not, they still excepted that he was 007 of that time and used his image on the cover. Even though when i first saw that cover in Afflecks palace in manchester i thought it was lazy seeing as its the teaser poster for License to Kill and not bothered creating a new cover for themselves. ah well great that you finally did this game man. I cant wait for the day that you'll hopefully do a reveiw of Metal Gear solid of PS1. Especially in relation to No time to die :)
@@danielgertler5976 It was never going to be his film. He left after only seeing a first draft which didn't even have the EMP in it so must have had little to do with the end film.
@@danielgertler5976 it was the times that changed that film not just the change of actor, by the time of Goldeneye coming out we were halfway through the 90's, the world changed a lot most notably the end of the cold war. Sorry for long reply lol
DAF was the first 007 narrative to use cloning as a device, I suppose, since Blofeld creates his own doubles in that one. If we’re counting non-EON, I also think CR67 had some cloned world leaders in there at some point. Anyway, great video! Thanks for bringing the closest we got to a third Dalton film to our attention ;)
I owned this game back in the day. At first I didn't like it at all but after playing it for a few hours I really started to enjoy it. It was one of those games I used to play through when I was bored. I might be weird but I would put it somewhere low in a personal top 10 games for that console.
The generation difference is strong here! In 1994 when I played this it was such a novelty! Admittedly I am not much of a gamer and my friends didn't rate it either. But it was definitely a step up from the Spectrum and Atari games. Good review all the same:)
Wait.............jaws, Mayday, Baron Samedi and Odd Job?????? it just so happens they are the only other Bond villians or characters for that matter that appear in Goldeneye 64 as playable characters!! Do you think Rare got the inspiration from this game or do you think they put them in GE64 because the characters are THAT Iconic that they'd put them in that game and its all been a coincidence?
I hadn’t considered that but your bang on! Wonder if they were just generally considered the most famous Bond villains randomly of whether EON just had the ability to use them via likeness rights so it was easier than trying to include anyone else? But yeah, great catch!
@@calvindyson I has the mega drive version and master system versions back in the day. The master system version was in an episode of gamesmaster and he gave out a cheat code for it, I still have the vhs copies of the episodes i recorded back then. The mega drive version also had 2 escape routes on the first level the other is the jet pack
@@darkhall8227 OH wooooooow. what issues of gamemaster was it? I dont suppose you can upload the vhs tape on youtube here, or unless someone else has done it already. cheers man thats great to know
Thanks for reviewing the MS and GG versions as well. In my opinion the 8-bit version is superior to the 16-bit version. I had a lot of fun with it back then. If I remember the manual correctly, the animal enemies are supposed to be robotic.
This looks fun, I'm tempted to track down a copy. I love how ridiculously athletic his jump action is! I remember having a demo of the Licence To Kill game on the Amiga but wasn't particularly blown away by it, I never bothered to try and get the full game.
As far as I can tell, the option between SFX and Music is a technical limitation. Before the mid 90s, home consoles were very limited in hardware capabilities and could only devote so much effort to all areas. Sound/Music usually got only 4 channels which they had to share. If you ever noticed when you played Gameboy or NES games and whenever a sound effect took out an instrument or two of music, that's why.
Hey Calvin. I decided to look up why Baron Samedi was renamed as Bones in this game. Unfortantly I could't fine a definetive answer. But apparently this game was meant to be for children. So I guess they decided to rename Baron because they where afraid that children may discover about voodoo. I guess
On level 3, you also can't duck to avoid the guards' fire. And in level 5 the guards, despite being scientists have the quickest aiming time and they shoot more, I think 5 not 3 shots.
I can still remember seeing this video game for sale at a local ToysRUs store. I remember being disappointed that it was not on a Nintendo NES system since that was what I had at the time. Still, I did enjoy the box artwork since I had seen a few of the movies on VHS. It is a pity that the Sega Game Gear version was exclusive to European consumers, since I did own a Game Gear for about a year and half. Despite it only having four levels, I am sure I would have played a lot. Also, I recently discovered that the Domark produced Licence To Kill video game was set to have a port on the NES. Sadly, it was canceled before any work had been done on it. Had it gotten made, I am sure I would have played it at some point.
@@leecroft1983 Given the villains are implied to be Quantum/Spectre it does fit. I think if they'd cast Denise Richards in a role similar to Joss Stone in that game she'd probably be really good and liked as it would suit her a lot more.
I highly recommend playing the Spy Fox games. They’re a fun point and click adventure series that parodies James Bond but with anthropomorphic animals instead. There’s even a fun stand-in for Moneypenny named “Monkeypenny”.
16:08 "The name's Job...Odd Job...And this is my brother, Blow."
Alright, that caught me off guard. XD
"And this is my sister Rim. And my cousin Hand." 😂
"She goes down with just five shots"
My kind of girl.
"And this my cousin, Blow!"
Thank you for that laugh, Calvin. Now I need to awkwardly leave the coffee shop I'm in because I'm getting funny looks! 🤣
But, as always, fantastic work, my friend!
hahahahaha why No one else has ever used that before is beyond me and a great gag :)
🤣🤣
16:46 According to the James Bond Wiki, that's Gravemar at the controls of the robot.
Ah yes, Mad Processor Gravemar, the author of all classic Bond's pain. My favourite part of this game is when you go throw the corridor level with xerox print outs of Jaws, Mayday, Samedi, and Odd Job on the wall.
I would guess the renaming issue had something to do with rights issues - perhaps Eon refused to give the game developers the rights to the specific films, which resulted in most/all the villains from them being renamed to avoid legal issues.
Spot on.
This was my assumption also. There are all sorts of rights issues to consider.
Those different names for Bond villains aren't translation mistakes, are they? That jumped to mind immediately as an explanation, but I'm as stumped as you are. I haven't played the game, but it looks like mindless fun! I think the sprite work is pretty impressive, the player character really moves like Bond despite being made out of pixels.
Unlikely as The Kremlin were British...More likely a licensing issue Domark probably didn't have the rights to use the characters.
It was developed in the UK, so it's doubtful the names came from a bad translation. "The Kremlin" was an in internal team at Domark in the UK.
@@ChrisBarrett1 I guess you didn't see my comment saying pretty much the same thing...
@@LordmonkeyTRM Neither does anybody else
Hmmmm, perhaps the Baron's name change is because Baron Samedi is one of the few Bond villains to have not only survived, but is immortal. How do you clone an undead magician without inciting his wrath? Rename it to Bones of course, acknowledging that he is still the real Baron Samedi! Dr. Gravemar is respectful at least!
I can't help but notice the villains here bear a slight resemblance to their counterparts in James Bond Jr.! Jaws' mouth looks kinda like a metal add-on, and Odd Job's suit looks purple!
OH MY GOD youve figured it out man :) good spot by the way on jaws
LOVE this reasoning! And great shout on the James Bond Jr similarities too.
I do think the computer games turned Samedi into the iconic character he is. He's not actually in LALD that much but he's always included in the video games, especially the bonus level in Goldeneye N64.
There was a James Bond Jr. Game from around this time so that might explain the villains appearances.
Jaws also survived. And didn't he became good guy at the end of Moonraker? So what the hell did they cloned anyway?!
Wave Trouble, Jungle Soup, Caveman Rock, Space Hop, and Stew Symphony all sound like 90s grunge or alternative rock band names lol
James Bond 007: Attack of the Clones! A bit of a shame for May Day to show up (in any form) at all, after so spectacular and redemptive a death. I appreciate Jaws seeming to have the limitations of a Dalek. Thank you, Calvin.
In fairness Jaws keeps come back in these video games [and James Bond Jr.] when he redeemed himself and turned good in Moonraker...
This was the FIRST James Bond game I ever played as well as the first game I had ever played. My parents had a Sega Genesis with the Dual as well as a Jurassic Park movie tie-in game and a True Lies movie tie-in game. This brings back tons of fond memories for me. Although, once I got a PS2, this game went out the window for Nightfire and Agent Under Fire, James Bond: The Dual is a nostalgic thing for me. Thanks for making my Sunday, Calvin!
Thanks for sharing this, Kyle! Was hoping to hear from people who actually played this game when it was new out. Glad to hear you have happy memories of it!
At the time this game was released a lot of the crimes against humanity committed my Haitian Dictator "Papa Doc" were coming to light. He was often no named Baron Samedi at the time so perhaps Sega didn't want the association with that figure.
Dalton on the title screen looks a bit like James Bond Jr in the Master System and Game Gear versions.
My Name is Odd, Odd Job. and this is my brother Blow 🤣 I died there 😅
A new Bond game video AND a Doctor Who reference at 9:20, today is a great day! 😀
Jup, I was the proud owner of James Bond the Duel for the Game Gear, always miffed you never brought it up with other Bond game lists so was surprised to see a full review this time.
I definitly prefer the 8 bit version over the Megadrive version, being a more straight forward action game rather then this wide open maze game.
I bought this game on first release, and I still play to this very day. It's constantly in my Megadrive, only swapped out for Steet Fighter or Sonic mostly. I have the nostalgia for it, much like you do for the early Playstation games, as back then it was groundbreaking as a Bond game.
Never played this one. The booklet that came with this era of games was vital in pumping you up to believe there was excitement/ story to be found.
At 1:30, that sounded a lot closer to something other than book, though in fairness it did get me looking up from the project I was fiddling with and chuckle.
I'm going with everyone else's comments on the renamed villains, it was a licensing thing. However, it's definitely not a character limit thing, or they'd just put Baron for Baron Zamedi.
I remember first reading about this game in a PlayStation magazine when _Agent Under Fire_ was hyped up. The article had a 'history' section of past Bond games. As we still had a Master System and Mega Drive, I recall going to my local Mega Blast. It was a store that sold both current and used games from previous generations. I don't recall if I bought the game there or ebay.
You should do a full let’s play of Blood Stone. While it’s hard to say if it’s Craig’s Bond’s best game, I think it is since the 3rd person angle let’s you really experience his Bond’s mastery of martial arts.
Anything that isn't 007 Legends is welcome.
I'd love to see a 'what might of been' video for the games that never happened like NightFire 2 and Bloodstone 2 among other ideas.
@@jamesatkinsonja Blood Stone is still one of my go to pick up and play games. Such a nice lil burst of adrenaline. 😊
Oh, just one other thing, if they make another From Russia With Love type game, I hope they put in more boss battles with some of the other classic bruiser types, like Oddjob, Hans, or that cool big guy from Octopussy.
@@HOTD108_
007 Legends is the GOAT
Game Of Absolute Trash
Finally!!! Been waiting for this for a while now fantastic to finally get a review!!! Great work as per Calvin!!
I had this game! Being a Bond fan as a kid in the early 90s this game (slightly) made up for the complete drought of films at the time. I’m embarrassed to admit I don’t think I ever made it past the first level!… Thank you Calvin for making this video and bringing back all the wonderful memories!
I had this game as a kid, back in the day it was awesome as you felt like Bond himself, plus Timothy Dalton is my favourite James Bond, this was my favourite Bond game until we got Goldeneye and that remains my favourite Bond game to this day.
After years of seeing absolutely terrible games from this era on AVGN, I have to say this game looks pretty decent. It seems to be playable even if it is easy and the graphics/music are certainly better than most Movie-Licensed games. The sprites even look like the characters which is a vast improvement too. Just be thankful it wasn't made by LJN!
still odd AVGN hasn’t done a Bond games episode
@@jamesbancroft2467 I agree, while I am not a die-hard AVGN fan I have enjoyed a few of his videos over the years. James Bond was mentioned when AVGN reviewed the Nintendo 64 Mission: Impossible game and James Rolfe also filmed a video of him and some friends enjoying the multiplayer mode of Nightfire. Perhaps in a future video he will cover the various video games tie into the movies, since he has done AVGN episodes covering a majority of licensed video games up to the 64 bit era.
the female characters he has to save looks like kara from the living daylights
Thanks Calvin! Prefect start to my Sunday morning!
May Day is a bank holiday and Samedi is Saturday in French, so maybe the game designers just didn't have the rights to days off?
You know what? This game looks alright. I’m fine with an easy game from time to time, and this one has enough unique little stylistic flairs to have enough personality to make it worth playing. Neat.
Just rewatched License To Kill. Easily the most underrated Bond film ever, such a masterpiece, tailored to it’s decade where Bond actually evolves as a character. Such a good film.
Is it under-rated now a days? I seem to see people raving about it all the time on these comment sections.
@@jamesatkinsonja You know, tbh, it’s been some time since I hopped into the comments on one of his videos. But if that’s the case, then that makes me very happy. 😊
My second favourite Bond movie after Casino Royale. License To Kill is such a good Bond movie. My top five in order, Casino Royale, Licence To Kill, No Time To Die, Goldeneye and Skyfall.
@@jamesatkinsonja I would say it isn't so underrated now, thankfully LTK is finally getting the attention it deserves. But at the time and a good while after (probably not until Casino Royale) LTK wasn't really talked about. Casino Royale and Daniel Craig's more tougher take on the character and franchise wasn't too far from Dalton's Bond.
@@leecroft1983 I’m going through my first full Bond-a-thon, and even though I’m fairly caught up on them, I want to rewatch all of them before I give my final rankings. That said, License to Kill is absolutely in my top 5. 🔝
Thank you so much I was afraid you were never going to review this
Do James Bond 007 on the original GameBoy next!
I actually remember really enjoying this one when it first came out lol
The main reason was because the only 007 game I think I'd played before this was the Atari game where you only played with vehicles.
So this was the first time controlling an actual virtual James Bond figure in a video game -
so I thought that was pretty cool.
The game play itself was very average of course - kind of like the old contra games.
But it was still a Bond version of it and that was so rare that the sheer novelty of it made it lots of fun to me!
But remember- this was a time that our standards in video games were pretty low lol
Most games in this style were just designed to be played for a little while at a time, if I am remembering correctly.
In fact - I think I felt like the first game that really felt like a complete long story with a Bond like feel to it was Metal Gear Solid which came out shorty afterwards for the first Playstation.
I think the very next official Bond game that came out which I played was Goldeneye itself!
(So you see the fairly dramatic increase in quality which happened in the genre in just a couple of years!)
I love this game. Have been playing on my original mega drive since 1992. Great Fun. Greetings from Brasil
7:48 and the 'Blow' line killed me. Great work Calvin!
HA! I’m happy to hear 😁😁
And this is my brother 'Blow' 😂
Wow, this is great timing for my 60th anniversary Bond marathon as I only re-watched Licence to Kill a couple of days ago!
I have this game on the Master System was so fun to play as 007. Never got passed the first level as a kid. To me I was running round killing milkmen. 😆
Necros, from The Living Daylights! 🥛🎧
Aww yes. I’ve been waiting for this
I played this as a kid on my mate's Mega Drive. He was the one who always had the console that no one else had, it was always useful to have that friend. I enjoyed it for the original music, environments and just the vibrant colours of it. But still felt there was something more they could have done with it. Being so young we never got near the end of the game, got way too bored before then and moved on to Sunset Riders 🤠
Goldeneye N64 is everything everyone everywhere was salivating for for such a very long time, and it keeps being such an iconic video game in the whole entire 007 franchise, and a total inspiration to Calvin Dyson himself. (You rock Calvin!)
007 The Duel though was an old fashioned game where the story wasn't too much in place, just like Agents Under Fire and NIGHTFIRE with the picture perfect storyline in each and every single level, but 007 The Duel should deserve a heartwarming chance to be the most skillful video game in the world. And must I say, the SEGA version of Timothy Dalton looks awesome in all of his handsome form!
Besides Sonic the Hedgehog, SEGA has been and still is the most iconic gaming company since the 90s.
There are shades of Christopher Reeve in that Dalton art
I was 7 when this came out and obsessed with my mega drive so I lapped up any ol crap my parents bought me, I always spent ages trying to complete every game I had and beat this one, I liked it at the time but at 7 I was positive about virtually everything. Looking back, it ain't up to much but there's a certain novelty value in seeing a Dalton story with all these larger than life villains. Also my first bond experience.
Thoroughly entertaining as ever Calvin! Cheers!
The amount of Bond games pre-Goldeneye will be a fun cover, I bet. Can't wait until you get to the Game Boy installment (the second one published by Nintendo after Goldeneye).
excelent review. now you just need to cover the gameboy game
I still hold.out that someday lol you will review the quantum of solace game on PS2.
This was an ‘ok’ game at best, I grew up playing the mega drive thanks to having an older sibling. I think even for it’s time it was just ‘ok’ there were better games of this type around then, and The Duel seems like it’s trying to emulate The Rolling Thunder games which were very similar in style but much better executed.
A part of me wishes that had this game been made by the Rolling Thunder programming team it would’ve been better and more varied.
I was a Nintendo kid, so this game went completely under my radar… unfortunately.
I was the biggest Bond fan since seeing A View to a Kill when I was 7 years old. I would have loved this game as a kid. From the looks of it, it is pretty much a product of its time, but we were used to it back then.
If you are looking for a simple way of connecting a Sega Mega Drive, there is a HDMI adapter called the RAD2X. It's a bit finicky with certain capture cards though. If yours accepts it, great. If it doesn't, that can be fixed by routing it through a scaler with HDMI input. Personally, I route the SCART lead into the OSSC, which in turn outputs to a second scaler or the mClassic to normalize the signal with video capture cards.
I rented this game back in the 90s when I was a teenager. Unfortunately I think it's crap 🤣. It sets the bar with the awful Dalton face. Since when did Bond jump around like that. I think you're right this was some random "Secret Agent" game repurposed for Bond as a cash grab. I liked Jaws appearance...I guess? The graphics for the time were "okay". Thanks for enduring, I mean reviewing this one :)
No pixelated STRAWBERRY JAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMM!. I rate the game 0/10.
Btw you didn't have to do the hostage squeal after talking about it, but I'm glad you did X). Like the "And this is my brother Blow" joke.
The gameplay with bosses may be pretty anticlimatic, but the "keep distance and keep shooting/hitting until the baddy's set of of hits is reached" was common in games of he platform then, so it is to be expected (would be way more bugged if this happened in something like Nightfire in the 2000s).
And no!, don't mail questions on licensed media to EON calvin! They won't bother even with the ones on films they produced, let alone those!
This felt like a big deal because previous Bond games had been standard movie tie-in affairs, made quickly and cheaply with different minigames to represent different scenes (or, in the case of Live and Let Die, a quick reskin of an already completed speedboat racing game).
This was Domark putting the Bond name on a relatively polished, coherent product with an original story (such as it was) which was the first time the Bond videogame licence had been treated like that. Of course it would become commonplace in later years when EA and Activision had the licence but The Duel was, while very flawed indeed, the first Bond game of its kind and as such deservcs a bit of respect.
Really was hoping you would finally review this! Next up you should review the View to a Kill text adventure game!
Oh, btw, now that I’m working again, I’m so becoming a Patron of yours’ lol. 😊
When Yoyo was mentioned in the manual I thought it was going to be the henchman with the buzz saw from Octopussy.
Is it possible for the naming thing that they didn’t have rights to the villain names? I know it seems weird, but companies can be really touchy about likenesses and names and stuff
11:23 what do you mean unBondian environment? At least he's not swinging in trees doing a Tarzan yell like Roger Moore did in Octopussy.
4:39 There was a TV Tropes entry which was trying to tie Goldeneye Rogue Agent into the other games and basically used that as an explanation for the villains in the game being back alive again [via the corporation in 'Agent under fire'].
23:08 That is a good point. I do wonder if audiences of DND would expect the 5th Brosnan film, if it was made, to be even more fantastical which was fine for the game but like Moonraker to For Your Eyes Only, they needed to strip things down a little for the movie series.
Idk. I think the audience would accept a grittier 5th Brosnan movie. After all, look at the change in tone between Moonraker and For Your Eyes Only.
@@AllardRT The problem is, for better or worse, Brosnan had an established brand. Part of the issue I have with TWINE is that it feels like a mixture of tones-some elements being dark and gritty [with issues like Stockholm syndrome] but also having more 'fun' elements [Christmas Jones, the one liners etc] because that's Brosnan's style which don't fit together, so it was always going to be easier to sell a new style with a new Bond, especially as Brosnan would probably only do one more anyway [I remember him being quoted as saying he'd love to do a 5th but maybe to old for a 6th at the time] while Roger did a couple more [I think Moore turned in a very underrated performance with FYEO, going against his instincts, but as Calvin said in his review it's the only time they've changed styles and it probably would have made more sense to have a new Bond for the change which is probably why they went a bit more outlandish for Moore's last two].
@@jamesatkinsonja Moore had just as many 007 movies under his belt before FYEO. Not to mention Brosnan himself mentioned he'd prefer a more down-to-earth script than the stuff he was given as Bond. And as for Brosnan being old thing... for one, he looked way better in 2006 than Craig did in 2019 and for two, November Man came out in whopping 2014, so he was still game for action movies for the remainder of 2000s and a little of 2010s as well. IMO he had enough in him to give us at least two or three more Bonds, provided they'd keep to the three year old schedule.
@@AllardRT Well I was quoting the man himself as being 'too old for a 6th' in a 2002 newspaper interview. Perhaps tellingly he got the rights to what became 'The November Man' as an older spy pretty much as soon as he was done with Bond with filming planned for 2006 only for it to be shelved for many years. It was also going to be a 'franchise starter' for his new, older character but it never happened [be interested to see Calvin have a lot at that film one day].
I think cinema had racially changed by the mid-2000's so Bond needed to change with it [by then Bourne had 2 installments and Batman Begins was a hit so the style change Bourne Identity had shown was clearly not a fluke and DAD backlash was in full swing]. Brosnan could have adapted, I just wish they had committed to that tone for TWINE for the whole film. As you said, he wanted to go down to earth contrary to his reputation now a days and wasn't too keen on some of the stuff in DAD. I'm just a bit dubious if it would have stuck to the gritty tone [the EON video game is very outlandish but was received warmly by Brosnan fans]. But unfortunately it's a 'sliding doors'/we'll never know moment like many instances in the series [like Brosnan doing Living Daylights etc.].
@@jamesatkinsonja The way I see it, Brosnan's better movies (the first two) were a good balance of both serious and fun elements. Goldeneye, for example, had Brosnan rocking the quips and the style, but also the more serious moments like the revelation of Janus' identity, and his reflective moment on the beach, and also more introspective themes like how Bond and his enemies and allies approached the post-Cold War world. Even if his "style" was more along suave-spy lines, he pulled off elements like those beautifully. But the latter two (and it's a shame, because both had a lot of potential) were, as you say, less "good balance" and more "split personality". The early posters for Die Another Day really played up the "betrayed, captured, abandoned" theme, and can you imagine Roger Moore's Bond being captured by an enemy country, imprisoned and tortured for over a year, and getting released only to find that he's under suspicion from his own people and been betrayed by one of his own? All of that would have made for an interesting spy flick that didn't necessarily need to stint on the more charming and stylish moments---and, again, Pierce handled those early scenes superbly. But suddenly we take a left turn and we've got ice palaces, invisible cars, gene replacement tech and Bond surfing a tsunami!
All those platform games were the bloody same! Probably why when the Goldeneye game came along my mind was blown...!
The level one guards look like Troy Tempest from Stingray
If it wasn’t for the difficulties of getting decent gameplay from an emulator for it, I’d love to see reviews of the Nintendo DS Bond Games.
Thank you for this! Heard about this game but have never seen a review or even any gameplay of it before. As a Dalton die hard, I've always been curious about it.
Thank you for this!! I remember playing this game for hours!! It was my first Bond game as I was just entering my Bond fandom. I actually thought these villain names were their real character names for a long time because of this game 😂😂.
I really liked this review
To think though man, if Dalton did get that 3rd Bond movie then this game would be an adaptation of that movie :). at the very least back then in the world of 2D gaming and especially with movie tie in ones like alien 3 and the terminator, this game would be so nice to control Bond in a 2D space. AND another version of the game could have been released on the SEGA CD with better sound and maybe even a few clips from the film (Check out The terminator sega CD, as an example)
They missed loads of opportunities with this game though. The fact you could start the game in a jet pack, but you dont actually use it for gameplay is saddening. You could have picked up different weapons, use different gadgets, have different costumes, it be be at times a beat em up, it could be like Contra or even a little like a metroidvania type game with a few stealth mechanics at times perhaps (avoiding guards for example). Maybe even do some driving sections like in Outrun!!! but nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo :(
Well at the end of the day it still goes to show though that people around the world, weather they liked Dalton as Bond or not, they still excepted that he was 007 of that time and used his image on the cover. Even though when i first saw that cover in Afflecks palace in manchester i thought it was lazy seeing as its the teaser poster for License to Kill and not bothered creating a new cover for themselves. ah well
great that you finally did this game man. I cant wait for the day that you'll hopefully do a reveiw of Metal Gear solid of PS1. Especially in relation to No time to die :)
SInce GOlden Eye was going to be his film originally the Golden Eye game would have been a lot different.
@@danielgertler5976 It was never going to be his film. He left after only seeing a first draft which didn't even have the EMP in it so must have had little to do with the end film.
In fairness, slapping the existing Bond on the front cover gives this product far more credibility than just having a silhouette of Bond on it.
@@danielgertler5976 it was the times that changed that film not just the change of actor, by the time of Goldeneye coming out we were halfway through the 90's, the world changed a lot most notably the end of the cold war. Sorry for long reply lol
@@jamesatkinsonja yeahs that right. wasnt too close to True Lies story at one point?
DAF was the first 007 narrative to use cloning as a device, I suppose, since Blofeld creates his own doubles in that one.
If we’re counting non-EON, I also think CR67 had some cloned world leaders in there at some point.
Anyway, great video! Thanks for bringing the closest we got to a third Dalton film to our attention ;)
James Bond IS Mega Man.
Great video Calvin. I need to play this.
It's better to have grown up in the golden age of the Bond films then the video games.
Wasn't that sub thing on level one the Neptune sub from FYEO?
I owned this game back in the day. At first I didn't like it at all but after playing it for a few hours I really started to enjoy it. It was one of those games I used to play through when I was bored. I might be weird but I would put it somewhere low in a personal top 10 games for that console.
The generation difference is strong here! In 1994 when I played this it was such a novelty! Admittedly I am not much of a gamer and my friends didn't rate it either. But it was definitely a step up from the Spectrum and Atari games. Good review all the same:)
That Timothy Dalton title card is giving me Snoke wearing a wig realness.
Wait.............jaws, Mayday, Baron Samedi and Odd Job?????? it just so happens they are the only other Bond villians or characters for that matter that appear in Goldeneye 64 as playable characters!! Do you think Rare got the inspiration from this game or do you think they put them in GE64 because the characters are THAT Iconic that they'd put them in that game and its all been a coincidence?
I hadn’t considered that but your bang on! Wonder if they were just generally considered the most famous Bond villains randomly of whether EON just had the ability to use them via likeness rights so it was easier than trying to include anyone else? But yeah, great catch!
@@calvindyson I has the mega drive version and master system versions back in the day. The master system version was in an episode of gamesmaster and he gave out a cheat code for it, I still have the vhs copies of the episodes i recorded back then. The mega drive version also had 2 escape routes on the first level the other is the jet pack
@@darkhall8227 OH wooooooow. what issues of gamemaster was it? I dont suppose you can upload the vhs tape on youtube here, or unless someone else has done it already. cheers man thats great to know
Thanks for reviewing the MS and GG versions as well. In my opinion the 8-bit version is superior to the 16-bit version. I had a lot of fun with it back then. If I remember the manual correctly, the animal enemies are supposed to be robotic.
i just realized, the cloned arch enemies also ended up being the special multiplayer characters in goldeneye
This looks fun, I'm tempted to track down a copy. I love how ridiculously athletic his jump action is! I remember having a demo of the Licence To Kill game on the Amiga but wasn't particularly blown away by it, I never bothered to try and get the full game.
Unwarranted nitpick of the day - 1:05
Ah yes, James Bond; The Duel. :P
The real question I have is should bond have a compact .32 ACP pistol or another caliber ? I think bond should be armed with .25 caliber CZ Model 45.
i thought jaws wasn't evil anymore does that mean when he was cloned only the evil side came back or am i just being stupid and not getting the story
And this game was how I was introduced to the world of 007.
Yaaaaaaaaaay...
Oh well. It's not that bad. It's overwhelmingly *okay*.
Speaking of Dalton, will we be getting an Updated Review of Licence to Kill soon?
I am rather intrigued by this Professor Gravemar character. The title implies he's academic, I wonder what made him snap and go supervillain?
Advanced doctorates and evil just go hand-in-hand apparently.
As far as I can tell, the option between SFX and Music is a technical limitation. Before the mid 90s, home consoles were very limited in hardware capabilities and could only devote so much effort to all areas. Sound/Music usually got only 4 channels which they had to share. If you ever noticed when you played Gameboy or NES games and whenever a sound effect took out an instrument or two of music, that's why.
Fun fact: 10:03 instead of getting on the sub, if you go to the right Bond will exit the stage via jetpack.
Hey Calvin. I decided to look up why Baron Samedi was renamed as Bones in this game. Unfortantly I could't fine a definetive answer.
But apparently this game was meant to be for children.
So I guess they decided to rename Baron because they where afraid that children may discover about voodoo.
I guess
5:36 "If you are still on the level, you'll die!"
...sounds familiar
Wasn't Diamonds are Forever the first time that cloning was in a Bond story?
Kinda thought "YoYo" would be the goon with the chainsaw Yo-yo from Octopussy.
Cool video, never seen this game before.
Hey man, any idea when they're going to include no time to die in the blu ray box set?!
On level 3, you also can't duck to avoid the guards' fire. And in level 5 the guards, despite being scientists have the quickest aiming time and they shoot more, I think 5 not 3 shots.
I can still remember seeing this video game for sale at a local ToysRUs store. I remember being disappointed that it was not on a Nintendo NES system since that was what I had at the time. Still, I did enjoy the box artwork since I had seen a few of the movies on VHS. It is a pity that the Sega Game Gear version was exclusive to European consumers, since I did own a Game Gear for about a year and half. Despite it only having four levels, I am sure I would have played a lot. Also, I recently discovered that the Domark produced Licence To Kill video game was set to have a port on the NES. Sadly, it was canceled before any work had been done on it. Had it gotten made, I am sure I would have played it at some point.
I consider BloodStone Craigs third adventure making his run six stories long.
The game actually fits in well between Quantum of Solace and Skyfall.
@@leecroft1983 Given the villains are implied to be Quantum/Spectre it does fit. I think if they'd cast Denise Richards in a role similar to Joss Stone in that game she'd probably be really good and liked as it would suit her a lot more.
is the name changes a licencing issue? except for Jaws.
Calvin when will we get the licence to kill review?
Lol, the steven berkoff setting
I highly recommend playing the Spy Fox games. They’re a fun point and click adventure series that parodies James Bond but with anthropomorphic animals instead. There’s even a fun stand-in for Moneypenny named “Monkeypenny”.