Game of the Day 4/3/2016: James Bond 007: The Duel

[celerystalker]

James Bond 007: The Duel for the Sega Genesis is a game that made a poor first impression on me decades ago, but won me over many years later due to some outside influences. It is an action/platformer thar sends Her Majesty's best agent on various missions, usually involving rescuing people, setting explosives, and escaping, and occasionally retrieval of other items. As a digitized Timothy Dalton, you take your trusty Walther PPK to take down thugs, ducking into doorways and taking cover from bullets through these missions, which often feature famous villains, such as Jaws in the first stage, as obstacles during your escape.

The graphics feature modestly-sized characters with some decent detail and colorful backgrounds, there's mediocre renditions of Bond music, and the play control can at times feel pretty different compared to typical Genesis action games, which is where my initial displeasure with the game came from. You do a lot of ducking, firing, and hopping in detailed animation that wasn't what I was used to from the likes of Contra or Super Star Wars... and I kinda left it there for years as a sluggish action game. Then, years later, I started playing the beejesus out of Elevator Action Returns.

Playing Elevator Action Returns was short and sweet, with such a unique feel that isn't super common, and it left me wanting more. I played the original Elevator Action for a bit, but it just wasn't scratching that itch. Then, while trying to think of something that felt similar, I remembered 007's old Genesis outing, and decided to give it one more try.

In light of looking for somewhat of an Elevator Action feel, all of a sudden The Duel started to fall into place. When I tried to play it like a typical action game, it was rubbish, but as a feel-alike for Taito's classic, I found myself making rapid progress and enjoying the game and its similar physics quite a bit more. It may be nowhere near as good as Elevator Action Returns, but it scratched that itch, and I began to see it as a fun game in that style instead of a crummy game in the traditional action style.

Played The Duel? Ever tried playing it on the heels of Elevator Action Returns?

[Steven]

Despite its somewhat clunky control, I had a ton of fun with this under the radar game. It brought a unique presentation and atmosphere that differs from a lot of other games.

[Emperor Megas]

It's sort of funny that I knew about the James Pond games but didn't know there was an actual 007 game on Genesis. Especially since I'm a Bond fan. Even more so back then.

[tom]

Never got around playing it, I really should get a copy.

James Bond games are hit and miss, the VCS James Bond game was a letdown, most of the C64 Bond games sucked, of course, the N64 Bond game Goldeneye is a classic, and the A8 Bond game The Living Daylights is quite good.