New GoldenEye Feature Big Hands, Not Big Heads

We’ve been comparing the new James Bond GoldenEye (Wii game set for spring release) to the original GoldenEye game (Nintendo 64, came out in ’97) as best we can. Level comparisons. Graphics comparisons. Still, people ask, what about DK Mode?

“Is DK Mode back?” I asked a representative for the new GoldenEye today, as we played four-player, split-screen, golden gun deathmatch during a pre-release session with the game at a Times Square hotel. I was Oddjob and I was also throwing hats at him.

There will be no DK Mode in this game, he told me. DK Mode was a popular cheat in that original Nintendo 64 game that turned characters and enemies into big-headed, long-armed versions of themselves – as if they had the anatomical proportions of Donkey Kong, whose games GoldenEye studio Rare also made at the time.

Given that new GoldenEye creators Activision don’t own Donkey Kong, it was a safe guess that “DK Mode” wouldn’t be back. Maybe it would be called “Big Head” mode or something. Nope. There is no big head mode in the new game. There is, however, a Big Hands mode. When that mode is activated in multiplayer, characters get big hands and only melee is allowed.

Are Big Hands enough to console the people clamouring for a big-head mode? Hopefully it is, and if not, that crowd might be consoled to know that Nick Nack Mode will be in the new game. That’s “Tiny Bond” mode to N64 players. It makes everyone small.

GoldenEye for the Wii ships this spring featuring a new campaign based on the original James Bond film as well a split-screen and perk-supported online multiplayer set on all-new maps based on some of the same locations used for the N64 game’s multiplayer areas.