GoldenEye 007's release on Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack (and Xbox) has stirred up a lot of talk among us video game enthusiasts, and naturally, Digital Foundry is weighing in on the situation.

Dropping on the service just over a week ago, both the Xbox and NSO versions have come under a lot of flack for the controls, emulation quality, and more. And John Linneman of DF has taken it upon himself to find out what the issues are.

Describing this rerelease as a "monkey's paw moment", Linneman addresses the emulation issues with both versions of the game. The Xbox and Switch versions use two different emulators, and both versions present different problems.

Talking about the visuals, GoldenEye operates at 720p on Switch while it aims for 4k on Xbox, but as the original was designed for CRT TVs, many visual inconsistencies are "laid bare" in these rereleases. With the Switch version in particular, many textures aren't correctly tilled and the fog is rendered much further out than in the original release, and other unused textures have been removed.

When looking at the framerate, DF notes that the original N64 release of the game often dipped below 10 FPS, but still managed to feel playable due to the camera movement and animations. The Switch version, while aiming for 30 FPS, is inconsistent and often goes below that (unlike the Xbox version which is a consistent 30 FPS). It's even worse in the four-player split-screen, consistently running at 20 FPS — still better than the original, at least.

DF also looks into the sound issues that many — including us — were worried about, particularly with that Nintendo tweet. Don't worry, the gong is present in the Switch version, and the sound quality on Switch is actually pretty close to the original compared to the Xbox's.

The controls, however, is where the Switch version does slip up. As the Switch version is a ROM based on the N64 release, unless you have an N64 Switch controller, you're going to have to do some work to get it feeling a bit better on your Pro Controller of Joy-Cons.

Getting GoldenEye onto modern consoles must've been a miracle, so it's exciting to have more option to play the game, but it's worth taking these issues into consideration. Check out Digital Foundry's video above for the full story on these ports.

Do you agree with Digital Foundry? Are you enjoying GoldenEye 007 on NSO regardless? Let us know!

[source twitter.com]