There’s A Weird Way To Get Modern Controls For GoldenEye On Switch

GoldenEye 007 comes out on Nintendo Switch and Xbox on January 27, and ’90s kids will definitely get a hit of nostalgia from one of the most important first-person shooters ever. However, if you’re hoping for more modern controls, you’re out of luck–unless, of course, you’re willing to try a weird control profile trick that tries to approximate a dual-stick shooter scheme.

GoldenEye came out in 1997, a few short years before innovative titles like Halo: Combat Evolved and Alien: Resurrection cemented the dual-stick format as the standard for console shooters. However, Reddit user Cuesport77 has created a short guide to creating a control profile that will work somewhat similar to the control style you’re used to.

According to the guide, you should swap the left and right analog sticks, remap ZR to function as ZL, and then remap ZL to function as L. Then, you can optionally remap L to work as B and R to work as A, for easier weapon switching and activation. Once you’re in a mission, choose the 1.2 Solitaire control option, and you’ll be able to move in eight directions with the left stick and aim with ZL and the right stick.

It’s worth noting that we haven’t tested this setup personally on the Switch, though I’ve used a similar set of bindings in emulators when revisiting the classic game. Like a lot of old shooters, the dual-stick setup isn’t perfect–the vertical and horizontal sensitivities aren’t remotely close to equal, which definitely takes some getting used to.

Ironically, GoldenEye was one of the very first games to feature true dual-stick aiming via its two-handed control schemes, which required you to hold two controllers at once. Of course, that means that you couldn’t use it for 4-player multiplayer, which was where you’d really want it anyway. Truly, we’ve come a long way since then.