GoldenEye 007 newcomers appalled by game's 'busted' controls

For years, gamers had hoped and prayed for GoldenEye 007 to make a return to modern consoles. The classic FPS was a must-have game for any N64 owner back in the day - if there was ever a retro title that deserved some love, it was this one.

Last year, these dreams became reality - it was announced GoldenEye 007 would be coming to the Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack service (complete with online play) and in a shiny, remastered form on Xbox Game Pass (complete with split-screen co-op play and achievements). The title finally released on both of these services at the end of last month, but unfortunately, it hasn’t been going down as well as you’d expect.

Take a look at the trailer for GoldenEye 007 on Game Pass below.

It all boils down to the controls. As Ars Technica reports, the new version of GoldenEye 007 on Xbox boasts updated controls, specifically designed for Xbox controllers. However, on Switch, things are a bit different - the controls essentially feel like they've been flipped from what we've all been used to in more recent years, as the left analog stick is used to control the camera, and the right analog stick to move. As you can imagine, this has been very confusing.

“GoldenEye 007 [is] now out on Switch and the controls are f***ed[,] didn’t even bother to optimise for two analogs, love to see it,” tweeted @Lewie895. “Well it looks sharp, but the controls of [Nintendo’s] GoldenEye 007 are absolutely dreadful. Unplayable. Why didn't they implicate the dual analog system that already existed to [sic] one controller? So disappointing,” wrote @YAN_COOL_MAG. “I adored this game as a kid, will always have fond memories of it but damn were the controls always this bad[?]” questioned @Samourr.

Thankfully, there are solutions - you can head into the Switch settings and remap your Joy-Con controls to swap the left and right analog sticks (just remember to change them back when you’re not playing GoldenEye). Alternatively, you could simply swap the left and right Joy-Con controllers in your hands. That might not be very practical for long play sessions, though.