GoldenEye controls better on Xbox than Switch — can they be changed?

Rare’s long, long awaited re-release of the classic 1997 James Bond shooter Golden Eye 007 Available today on the Nintendo Switch and Xbox consoles – and you may want to carefully consider which version you play.

It was announced earlier this weekonly golden eyes There is online multiplayer on Switch. But it turns out the Xbox version of the game has a special feature that could have an even bigger impact on your enjoyment: modern first-person shooter controls.

Nintendo has taken a purist approach with its Switch version golden eyes. The game doesn’t support any inputs that didn’t exist on the original Nintendo 64 controller, meaning there’s no proper trigger to fire. The various control options available in the game — all carried over from the original, like their Bond-inspired names like “Honey,” “Solitaire” and “Goodnight” — only allow fire to be assigned to the left trigger or the A button. .

The N64 controller only had one analog stick. Nintendo maps the four yellow C buttons, which form a kind of secondary D-pad, to the Switch’s right stick, but none of the available control maps conforms to modern standards for twin-stick first-person control with movement and strafe. Stick left, and aim and turn right. There are also no custom control options.

No doubt the game will look great if you have one Nintendo’s classic N64 controller — or better yet, two, so you can use one of its dual-wild options — but as it stands, on a standard Switch or a Pro controller, all the options feel pretty awkward and take some getting used to. (There is a solution It involves swapping out the Switch’s Joy-Cons, but it’s a bit fiddly and not as comfortable, plus it’s not an option for Switch Lite owners or handheld gamers.)

In contrast, the Xbox version adds two new control options to the original game’s eight (although these reassign fire from the left trigger to the right). “Diamond” is a classic modern FPS setup, where the stick moves and looks as normal and fires on the right trigger. The game plays effortlessly this way. Another option is the fully customizable control map, which is a win for accessibility.

What about other differences between the two versions? The Switch’s exclusive online multiplayer mode works through the Switch Online lobby interface: create a room with some friends there, then jump in and play together like you’re playing locally. Yes — that means you’ll still be able to see each other’s screens in split-screen. There is no matchmaking with random available. It’s not exactly elegant, but it’s a huge bonus if it’s the only way to play with friends.

Additionally, its Switch version golden eyes Allows game cheats (additional modes, characters, weapons and levels) to be unlocked by entering cheat codes, just like the original. The Xbox version doesn’t seem to support it, and cheats have to be unlocked the hard way through gameplay. For its part, the Xbox version has 55 new achievements.

golden eyes Available in the Nintendo 64 collection that is part of it Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack Subscription to Switch. On Xbox, this includes an Xbox Gamepass Subscription, or as a free update Rare replay COLLECTION It cannot be purchased separately on either system.

So: modern controls and achievements, or online multiplayer and cheat codes? In an ideal world we’d have them all in a single version, but we don’t. The decision is yours.