0 to Z of Playstaion 1 Games - 007 Racing

007 racing is a racing game based on the James Bond license, developed by Eutechnyx and published by EA it was released in November 2000 in the US with a European release a month later in mid December. The game would feature Pierce Brosnan as bond, however Brosnan would not do any of the voice acting during the game he did appear in the archive footage used in the game and his likeness is used however Bond is voice by Adam Blackwood.

John Cleese does reprise his role as R for the game, R who is Q’s assistant was played by Cleese up until the sad death of veteran Bond actor Desmond Llewelyn in 1999 when Cleese assumed the role of Q.

In 007 Racing you take on the role of British secret agent James Bond and has you driving some of the most iconic James Bond cars from the movies including the Aston Martin DB5 which first appeared in Goldfinger, The Lotus Esprit from The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only and The BMW Z8 which briefly appeared in The World is Not Enough one of three BMW’s in the game, there are a couple of Chevrolet’s and Fords and a Ferrari as well as a few others, the cars come equipped with the usual gadgets you would expect from a Bond car.

In 007 Racing, a high ranking European diplomat and businessman plans to hijack a shipment of NATO weapons and smuggle them to international terrorists inside cars that roll off the assembly line of his automotive plants well at least we know the villain won’t be british. As Bond, it is up to the player to stop him. Fortunately, the gamer is supplied with some of the most famous gadget-filled cars from the Bond universe to thwart the evil villain.

Critics wise the reviews for 007 Racing were all over the place the highs GameZone giving the game an 8/10 citing that console fans may find this a little lacking, but for those who are after more than merely circling a track this game could be right up their alley.

GamePro gave the game a 7/10 stating only fans of bond and the action driving genre would likely find fun with this game, while PSX Nation were much more critical even with their 6.9/10 stating that Bond was shoehorned into a outdated car combat engine and would not be taken seriously had the Bond license not been involved.

At the other end of the rating spectrum Games Radar amazing gave this game a 0/10 their metacritic blurb for the game stating that 007 Racing was one of the worst driving titles that have ever graced a gaming platform. Da Gameboyz were no less severe with the game citing terrible graphics, unimpressive sound and mediocre Gameplay and they only use for the game is to use the disc as a Frisbee in their 3/10 rating for the game.

These were not the only mediocre scores for the game Maxim. GameFan, EGM, Edge and AllGame review scores failing to even reach the very average score of 5/10.

To this date 007 Racing with Metacritic and GameRankings sit at a 51/100 and 55.91%  respectively with the game being another licensed game that is average to mediocre at best.

This is the part of 0 to Z where is visit four online retailers and see what the availability of the title is, and what price you would be looking at if you wanted to pick this title up the sites that I will be using for this are Amazon.com,  eStarland.com, retrogames.co.uk and Gamedude.com I know the last one is very location specific but from a podcast I listen too I have heard they have a huge stock of older games.

So lets get down to business we may as well start with Gamedude by the looks of it 007 is quite readily available they will buy a copy from you for just $1 and if you are in the market for buying a copy from Gamedude you would be looking at a $5 outlay pretty cheap.

Next up is eStarland.com and again very cheap to pick up 007 Racing they currently have three options for a pre owned copy of the game, the complete game with manual and case comes in at just under $4 or just over £3, while a copy without the manual will set you back $2.72 or just over £2 the disc on its own will set you back $1.73 or £1.31, again the game is clearly very common with a trade in price for the game just $1.50.

Next up we head over the pond to the UK to retrogames.co.uk, as of the 2^nd of August 2017 retrogames has just one copy of 007 racing in stock according to the site it is in excellent condition giving the game disc a 9/10 and will set you back £5 which equates to about $6.61

Now onto the biggest online retailers first up Amazon.com, as you would expect there are plenty of copies on sale this is where the problem with Amazon comes in how to find a good one with many saying acceptable of good quality of 007 racing with prices for these ranging from 52 cents which is around 39p up to around the $9 or $10 mark for a used copy which in pounds is around £7.

This is where the major difference comes in new copies of the game are much easier to find on a site like Amazon, a brand new copy of 007 Racing you are looking at somewhere between $18 and $32 dollars which equates to about £14 and £24 in the UK, at the time of writing this there was actually a new copy of 007 Racing up for $69.99 plus $4.50 for shipping which is extremely pricey when you look at the other new copies on sale for over 2/3 less.

Written by

P J Gibbon