Goldeneye 007’s lost remaster emerges again via massive, polished video leak

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  This gallery consists entirely of "after-and-before" shots of Goldeneye 007, as revealed in this week's newly leaked video. Each image of the updated version is followed by a graphics-toggle to show the game's original textures in nearly identical environs to see how they differ. Let's start with classic split-screen combat. [credit: Rare ]

Goldeneye 007 is arguably the biggest example of a late-'90s gaming sensation that has remained trapped in its era. Unlike other hits from the same period, which have received remasters and digital-download options ad nauseum, this 1997 Rare game has laid dormant on the N64, likely due to a tangled web of licenses and company-ownership issues.

Three years ago, however, we finally saw hard proof of what many had suspected: that original developers at Rare worked on, and nearly re-released, an Xbox 360 remaster of the 1997 original. (Don't get that confused with the ho-hum Goldeneye "reimagining" on the Wii in 2010.) We took a hard look at a 2016 leak, which confirmed the Xbox 360 project's existence. At the time, we had ourselves a hard cry and moved on.

But this week, a massive video leak has reopened the wound of wondering what could have been-and it comes during arguably the most amicable period that license holders Microsoft and Nintendo have ever shared.

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