Goldeneye 007 is a reboot of the classic title that made a splash on the Nintendo 64 back in the day, which may mean nothing to players under the age of 25, but it has instant nostalgia value for those of us that lived classic gaming. Bringing a good FPS to the Wii is exciting enough, but having a good Bond game is really something to perk our ears up. As we gathered in a small room with Activision during E3 to view Goldeneye 007, the dramatic vision for this new release unfolded. And we even got to play it...

The idea of taking Daniel Craig back to the Goldeneye storyline is interesting. It's a bit of a mashup concept anyway, and it largely works. Bond fans may find some dissonance in the juxtaposition of a new Bond with an old Bond, but we'd encourage you not to get hung up on that. Playing Bond on this Wii release captures all the big, splashy effects of a modern blockbuster, without forgetting that Bond was as much of a smooth operator as he was a lethal killing machine. The way this is worked into the game is through a series of choices you have at various points, to go down what Producer Dawn Pinkney referred to as either the covert or the firefight route. As you might imagine, the former requires great stealth skills and planning, with the payoff being that you won't raise as many alarms or have as much opposition. Firefighters will have to run a gauntlet of enemies, and will need plenty of twitchy skill with weapons to make it through.

The idea of multiple routes and different scenarios is exciting for single-player replay value, but the secret sauce in Goldeneye 007 is definitely the multiplayer option. There are 40 playable characters, with loads of special options you can turn on, such as Paintball Mode and the bouncy grenade feature... There is a four-player local setting, with up to eight online, all running at a fast clip. We got some hands-on time with the multiplayer, and it definitely keeps things lively. The map we played had good elevation, plenty of cover, and we ended up getting lost at one point due to the sheer size of the map. Since we mentioned cover, it's worth noting that cover in the single-player campaign is destructible, something we haven't seen done yet on Wii. Blasting away at enemies when they are behind cover, or watching your cover erode, makes Goldeneye 007 feel like it's running on more advanced hardware.

There's no doubt that this will be a staple for shooter fans with a Wii, whether they choose to work with a standard controller or a gun attachment. Many small and thoughtful touches showed up during our presentation of the game, which speaks to the creative energies that have gone into making this next iteration of the Goldeneye franchise every bit as awesome as the material it ties into, and the game that came before it.