I am continuing with the rather futile task of playing all the video games.

The PS2 version of the game still hasn't arrived - so I've had to pass the time with the Gameboy Advance version of 007: Everything or Nothing.

Game 000003: 007: Everything or Nothing (Gameboy Advance)

The portable version of the game was developed independently of the home console version by Griptonite Games. Whilst the PS2, Xbox and Gamecube versions of this game were generally well received, the GBA version obtained "mixed reviews". (Which I believe is a video game euphemism for "not very good")

I played this game in two sittings on the default difficulty setting and finished it in just over 2 hours. There's something quite fun about listening to familiar tunes down-sampled through tinny speakers, so the familiar Bond motif certainly put me in a good mood going in!

The game has eight missions, and the first one is over within a minute of starting the game. The game is an isometric shooter with a very generous auto-aim. The central mechanic of hiding behind objects and sneaking up on the AI to perform stealth kills works reasonably well - but the camera was slightly too zoomed in for my liking, meaning that it was difficult to plan an unseen path around some of the levels. The inclusion of a radar, showing you both the locations and the orientations of nearby enemies was a nice touch though. Visually the game looked a little bland with the same textures and objects used repeatedly throughout most levels.

Each mission has a number of primary (compulsory) and secondary objectives. At the end of each level you are rewarded with 100 style points for each primary objective you complete, and 200 for each secondary objective. These points can be spent on stat-increases that take effect in all subsequent missions (including any that you choose to replay.) My approach was just to save up for the most expensive perk - slowly regenerating health, which I soon regretted as it turned a moderately challenging game with limited opportunities to pick up health packs, to an incredibly easy one. Consequently the second half of the game was much easier than the first half - and I doubt that this was the developer's intention.

The game had a small selection of gadgets and secondary weapons - almost all of which seemed less effective than using your guns, and required the select button to cycle through. I find myself wondering whether I might have made more use of that if I'd been playing on the original GBA rather than the GBA-SP, which has an awkwardly positioned select button.

Although the majority of the levels provided nothing of particular interest, I feel like I should mention that I really enjoyed the games 3 boss fights. Each one required using objects found in the world in interesting ways, and provided a slight puzzle element to an otherwise mindless game. On the other hand, the unlockable Blackjack mini game rewarded for collecting 2500 style points was clearly coded by someone who'd never played the game before... Never heard of a 5-card trick?

It is worth briefly mentioning that the game has a multiplayer mode, which I didn't have the opportunity to check out, and also features support of Nintendo's GBA to GC adaptor in order to offer hints and statistics on the small screen to anybody playing Everything or Nothing on the big screen.

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So another fairly inoffensive, yet bland game. More Bond next time...