Rare's beloved 1997 Nintendo 64 classic GoldenEye 007 might be stuck in licensing limbo, but that won't stop the modding community from trying to revitalise the iconic first-person shooter. For years now, GoldenEye: Source - a fan mod available through Valve's Steam service - has allowed players to live out their old-school multiplayer fantasies online. As brilliant as this mod is, the single-player element of the game was never included due to the potential legal risks.

Now, a new fan-made game - known as GoldenEye 25 - is attempting to recapture the single-player magic of the retro N64 shooter. The aim of this PC-exclusive project is to "port and remaster" GoldenEye 007 to the Unreal Engine 4 in time for the original game's 25th anniversary in August 2022.

Project founder Ben Colclough - who formerly worked on GoldenEye: Source - is joined by the mod's music composer Yannick “GoldenZen” Zenhäuser. The new game was inspired by the cancelled GoldenEye XBLA remaster and the plan is to update the single-player story missions, add modern graphics and perhaps even make a few additional gameplay tweaks.

Originally, Colclough intended to port the Nintendo 64 version of the game across to UE4 until he realised how overwhelming the task was, so he decided to remake everything from scratch instead. He's also drawing ideas from the film during this phase. The creator's development time on the project is limited to a few hours a day, due to the fact he works as a commercial 3D artist. This is the other reason why development is expected to take so long. In the meantime, you can view actual footage of the game above and take a look at the concept art below:

Are you a fan of the original GoldenEye 007 game on the Nintendo 64? Have you ever played the Source mod before? Will you be keeping an eye on Goldeneye 25? Tell us below.

[source kotaku.com.au, via twitter.com, youtube.com]