James Bond 007

James Bond 007 is an action game inspired by the Bond films, in which the player, as a secret agent, progresses through a series of missions set on icy terrain, a body of water, an area with a volcano, and a space station, facing a different type of danger in each one and having to complete a specific task, whether that means dodging avalanches while skiing, fighting off sharks in the water, climbing a volcano by rope, or battling enemies in zero gravity. The individual missions loosely connect to one another, together creating the impression of a film-like adventure full of action, in which the player must quickly adapt to the different rules of each scene without being given much time to learn them.

On the Atari 5200, the game uses the joystick for both movement and aiming, and offers colorful, thematically distinct scenes for each mission, which at the time made for an unusually varied experience within a single cartridge. Difficulty increases as the game progresses, and the individual sections demand different skills and reflexes, keeping the game from feeling monotonous since the player cannot rely on a single learned approach. The sound remains sparse, typical of that console generation, with the main emphasis placed on the variety of gameplay situations and smooth transitions between the different story segments. It was precisely this alternation between entirely different gameplay mechanics within a single cartridge that set the game apart from most single-purpose arcade titles of the time.

James Bond 007 belongs to the licensed titles published by Parker Brothers, which in the first half of the 1980s sought to bring popular film and television brands to home consoles in the form of varied action mini-sequences. Today the game is appreciated mainly by collectors and fans of the early history of licensed games, who will find in it an interesting attempt to combine the cinematic fantasy of the Bond films with the simple yet varied arcade action typical of the Atari 5200, even though from today's perspective it is more of a quick collection of minigames than a cohesive adventure story.

Why play it: For collectors and fans of the early history of licensed games, who will be drawn to the combination of Bond-movie fantasy with varied arcade action, even though today it plays more like a collection of minigames than a cohesive story.