Reviewer's Note: I backed this book on Kickstarter.

Bond. James Bond.

This book is a detailed dossier on the making of GoldenEye 007, one of the best video games ever made... that has no right being as good as it is. My jaw dropped more than once reading about the team of programmers and level designers who had almost no relevant experience, working their way through multiple revisions of the core game to create a genre-defining masterpiece, delivered only a couple of years late. The story here is incredible, and well told through new and old interviews pieced together with expert precision by Alyse Knorr. I only knew a few pieces of this story before this book.

As someone who turned 12 the year GoldenEye The Movie came out, and was 14 when Teen-rated GoldenEye The Game came out, I was the perfect age to love anything and everything Bond. Pierce Brosnan was my Bond until Daniel Craig took over, even as I worked my way through all the Bond films and novels, courtesy of my local library. I spent months playing the video game, ultimately unlocking all but one cheat, most of them repeatedly as I honed my skills as a 00 agent. (Dual RC-P90s by beating the Caverns in a stupid fast time, I'm looking at you.) The stories and review snippets that Knorr has gathered here brings back similar memories and experiences of afternoons and late nights having the most fun I could possibly have with friends.

This is an essential volume on the making of one of the most influential video games of all time.