Once upon a time, when I was knee high to a grasshopper, Nintendo brought out a Rare developed shooter that took the console world by storm. Sure, first person shooters were nothing new in a world that already featured the likes of Doom and Duke Nukem, but GoldenEye 007 brought solid control and addictive multiplayer the likes of which consoles had never seen. Since the game has aged rather poorly in the intervening 13 years, the time is ripe for a remake of sorts. Fortunately, Activision and Eurocom have taken everything that was great in the original game, while allowing it to retain an identity all of its own. All they've done is create the quintessential Wii shooter experience, one that will finally have 360 and PS3 owners looking on with envy.

In tackling the remake, the developers have gone the extra mile by updating the GoldenEye story to feature current Hollywood Bond Daniel Craig. The story is told with more grit than even the original GoldenEye film, and I'll take Craig's Bond over Pierce Brosnan's any day. The story and action beats remain largely the same with similar action set pieces and standard James Bond plotline.

Gameplay actually takes more cues from Call of Duty than the original game, which is to be expected considering Activision owns the rights to both series. The game is played entirely through a first person view, and features loads of thrilling scripted action sequences and the patented Call of Duty shooting galleries. Generally you'll spend about 70 per cent of your time shooting enemies, and another 30 being sneaky and exploring the levels for objectives. In a nice touch, the harder difficulties have you completing more objectives. The objectives are generally easy to find with a little exploration, and usually involve you hacking computers with your smartphone or finding intelligence. These sections do a good job of reinforcing the fact that Bond is a spy, and not just some Rambo wannabe mowing down his enemies. The smartphone is generally the only gadget you'll use, but its ease of use and flexibility means more time spent in action than fiddling with pointless minigames. During the game you'll be able to carry two guns of your choice, plus Bond's trusty Walther P99 silenced pistol. The game features the standard array of machine guns, shotguns, and sniper rifles.

The gunplay is intense and satisfying, and the game gives you a slew of options for controlling the game, including the Wiimote and nunchuk combo, classic controller, or even a Gamecube controller. With so many options, it makes setting up a split screen game easy out of the box, but we'll get back to that later. With just a little practice, it's obvious that the game was meant to be played with the Wii-mote pointer. The analog sticks on the controllers simply can't match the accuracy and quick aiming of the pointer, and playing the game this way provides a fresh control scheme that never gets old. In a nice touch, Eurocom included a ton of OCD type control options for sensitivity and pointer dead zones which allow you to configure the controls just to your liking.

A very well implemented cover system completes the satisfying shooting package. When you aim down your sights, Bond will instantly poke his head over cover, and with a turn of the nunchuk, Bond can also peek around corners for a better shot or to scan his surroundings.

The stealth portions are also nicely implemented. Generally, most rooms in the game allow you to stealthily find your way through without relying on gunplay. Being stealthy requires a fair bit of patience and skill, but is essential for getting through the harder difficulty levels. A variety of takedown animations ensure that the stealth remains just as fresh as a well placed headshot. The fantastic AI may seem a little too aware of their surroundings at times, but rarely does failure feel like poor design over a mistake you've made yourself.