After the Nintendo 64 and PlayStation version of The World Is Not Enough comes the Game Boy Color version, which is very obviously different. It takes a top down view with Bond shooting, punching and sneaking his way though levels. Graphically, the game looks quite nice on the GBC, with the simple sprites and detailed backgrounds working well together.

Starting with the bank level, you wander around the large, empty level, there are no staff working for the bank, so you start wandering around empty rooms. Eventually you’ll find a lift and find Lachaise’s office and trigger a cutscene, you then get into your first fight and punch a few guards. The first time playing I missed the briefcase and the game lets you walk to nearly the end of the level before encountering a locked door.

The lift you used no longer works, so you have to move through the nonsensical winding corridors to reach stairs, killing guards along the way. I tried using a pistol, but Bond takes so long to fire that I kept getting punched in the face, so running towards them and punching is much more effective – although even easier is just running past the guards and ignoring them. You’ll eventually reach the exit and find the next level.

MI6 is under attack, taking cues from the N64 level, you have to defend the building and get to Q’s lab. However, you need to undo the lockdown to progress. To do this, you need to find hidden buttons and activate them – although they don’t sometimes don’t seem to work. I found myself pressing both buttons on a floor, going to the doors and finding them shut, and going back and forth multiple times, pressing the buttons, until they actually worked.

I did manage to skip some backtracking in this level: you’re supposed to find a secret code to unlock Q’s lab, but it’s very easy to just work out the combination anyway.

The Themes Chase level is also clearly inspired by the N64 game, as this goes through some docks, a warehouse and the London Underground. The fist part is straightforward, but the other two sections are extremely tedious maze-like sections.

The odd thing is, the mazes are incredibly simple. You walk to a blocked path, then go down a side path to press a button. The problem is that these winding paths are extremely long, and most of the game is just boring padding like this, especially as you usually encounter enemies one at a time where they aren’t a problem (in some select locations, fights are extremely difficult). In the Undergrown, you have to blow up a wall because some turnstiles only move in a certain direction.

Electra’s House is up next, with this level having three distinct parts. You can’t be spotted by enemies here, and punching doesn’t stun them for long enough, so you can’t do that, either. You have to navigate the level collecting keycards, perfectly moving through laser traps (they don’t hurt you, they just alert the guards and you instantly fail the level) and avoiding camras.

Then you go through the hedge maze in the garden. You can kill enemies here, and you can find a hedge trimmer that is slow, but timed right can kill enemies in one hit. Some paths to ammo/health pickups will cause the ground to collapse, so when you return you have to fall down the hole and get transported to a random shed.

I found a dead end and had the idea of using the hedge trimmer on it, but it didn’t work, after lots of aimless wondering around, I ended up looking up a guide. It turns out I had the right idea: you do need to destroy the bit of hedge to progress, but you need to shoot it three times.

In the third section, you have to chase Davidoff through a forest. If he spots you, you fail. He’ll randomly run and turn around, making this part incredibly annoying. You’ll eventually reach a part where you get to kill him, and the game takes control away from you and does it.

After this, you have to find the Bomb that Renard is after. This borrows more from the PlayStation game: even tough you’re authorised to be there, you have to sneak around. This combines the stealth of Elektra’s house with the back and forth nature of the Thames level, making it both tedious and annoying. You’ll eventually reach the bomb and have to chase Renard.

However, the game is now a 2D side scrolling platformer. The shoot button now makes Bond jump, where he has a very specific jumping arc with zero control once you hit the jump button. If you take any amount of time to get used to the controls, you’ll fail, as this is actually a timed section (the game doesn’t let you know about this). Once you make it to the end, you have to make it all the way back, collecting mines and blowing up doors along the way.

The next level is fairly basic, more back and forth finding keys and unlocking doors, with plenty of backtracking. At the end of the level, you have to face the buzz saw helicopter. This is another platforming section as you use ladders and jumping to navigate, like a badly made copy of the original Donkey Kong. You’ll need to find the rocket launcher (but if you take too long it gets destroyed) or grenade launcher to fight it. It’s quite neat that the higher platforms get destroyed as the fight progresses.

Skipping straight to Bond getting captured, you get to play the torture scene in this game, using the A and B buttons to regain health – a bit like Metal Gear Solid. Do it well and you get full health, do poorly and the torture will end just before Bond dies. Elektra than locks herself away, and actually survives this version of the game. It’s another back and forth maze level as you trudge through to find a watch laser to use on a cell door to save M, then rush out to the submarine.

On the submarine, instead of trudging back and forth to navigate a linear path, you have to trudge back and forth to find bombs to blow up each part of the control room. What makes this even more “fun” is that enemies respawn in this level. You need to press a button to open every single door, for absolutely no good reason. Once you blow up the control room, you head to the reactor.

Back to 2D platforming as you have to make your way up a very long room. As said before, Bond’s jumping arc is terrible, and with the moving platforms (some that become electrified), this section is utterly horrible. Some of the platforms look like background objects, and some of the background objects look like obstacles. Bond doesn’t take any fall damage at least, which is handy, especially when you land on an edge of a platform where Bond stays for a second and then falls down.

Once you reach the top, you’ll find Christmas Jones tied up and Renard – yet again, this is oddly reminiscent of Donkey Kong. As Renard and Bond are face you face, you expect a boss fight, but not. The game takes control away as Bond strangles Renard for half a second and Christmas Jones goes form being tied up to just jumping around. You get the final screen of a hole in the submarine and then the game cuts straight to the title screen.

The Game Boy Colour version of The World Is Not Enough is terrible. The game is difficult in the wrong ways, and most of the game is just padding in the form of walking back and forth through very basic mazes.

OK this game is a nightmare the hitboxes are off the platforming is outrages and there is no check point system in any of the levels where you can die right at the end on some bull crap, BUT for a game that came out on the game boy color it is understandable. Don't get me wrong the game has its fun, but it is a very hard and unfair game for sure.

For example, there is a mission where you need to sneak around this huge mansion without being caught or seen and you need to locate certain items. During this there are NPC guards and cameras that can spot you so easily and there is also wall lasers that you have to pass to get to certain areas and if your hitbox is a pixel to close to the lasers, boom mission failed and you need to restart the whole mission again....the 2nd part has you sneaking in the dark outside and the same scenario applies here if you get caught boom its over...I would say that this is extremely unfair and almost hard not to get caught.

Later in the game there is a mission where you need to escape an explosion and you need to run away on a timer while doing extreme precises platforming or you will pretty much die and have to replay the entire mission. It is a brutal game for sure and not for the faint heart. If you truly want to play this game I would say, try it on another platform and maybe not the Gameboy color version.

(The reason why I played this version was to get the achievements through Retroarch/ Retroachievements).