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Skyfall Survival Kit: 6 games that make you feel like James Bond

Licence to thrill

Skyfall Survival Kit: 6 games that make you feel like James Bond
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iOS + Android + 3DS ...
| Top 6 charts

Agent Mundy was on the case. With James Bond's latest adventure, Skyfall, on a collision course with his country's cinemas, M (short for 'Mark') had set him the task of investigating the history of portable James Bond games.

M was a fool. Didn't he know that all James Bond games (apart from GoldenEye on the N64) suck? It was time for Agent Mundy to disobey direct orders and get to the real heart of the matter.

Forget the official James Bond games. They're traitors to their art form, betraying gamers' trust in exchange for a few lousy bucks.

We want to find those games that perfectly encapsulate what it feels like to be James Bond. What it's like to chase a villain across a rooftop, take on a small army, smash through a shopping mall in the middle of a car chase, and sneak into a high-security facility.

[Cue dramatic music and silhouettes of nude models slinking across the screen.]

Agent Dash
By Full Fat - buy on iPhone and iPad or buy on Android

Taking on the Temple Run 3D perpetual runner genre with a definite 007-like swagger, Agent Dash nails the Connery-era Bond vibe with its OTT secret bases, dashing hero, and jazzy soundtrack.

Agent Dash plays rather like Roger Moore's raised eyebrow - cool, camp, and with a knowing sense of humour.

Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection
By Konami - for PS Vita

The Metal Gear Solid series is a lot of things to a lot of people, but in this context it's one of the best Bond-alikes around.

Specifically, it nails those bits of any decent Bond film where our highly skilled hero is infiltrating an enemy position, stooping through ducts, and silently choking the odd guard.

Metal Gear Solid: HD Collection gathers the second and third games in the series and slaps on an HD lick of paint. A bit like a Bond box set, then.

Smash Cops
By Hutch - buy on iPhone and iPad

Another important facet of James Bond films is the incredibly destructive car chase.

So, whether it's Daniel Craig smashing the hell out of Italian crooks in their Alfa Romeros or Pierce Brosnan crashing through a Russian city in a tank, some form of vehicular carnage is never too many scenes away.

Through Smash Cops, you get that same illicit, chaotic automotive thrill, while remaining on the right side of the law.

Driver
By Gameloft - buy on iPhone

Putting 007's disregard for road safety to one side for a second, he is actually immensely skilled behind the wheel.

Without a shadow of a doubt, he'd make one heck of a getaway driver, as Roger Moore's river-jumping antics in The Man with the Golden Gun go to show.

Driver is like all those classic Bond car chases squished into a single game, as your cool calm undercover agent tears through an open city shaking off the attention of aggressive pursuers.

Uncharted: Golden Abyss
By Bend Studio - for PS Vita

Although Bond as Ian Fleming envisaged him was a cold, clinical professional, the films often portray him as a wise-cracking, globe-hoping rogue.

In recent times, no video game hero has fitted that description quite as well as Uncharted's Nathan Drake.

Exotic locales, breathless set pieces, intense fire fights... Uncharted: Golden Abyss is like the climactic scene of any Bond film stretched out into a full-length blockbuster video game.

Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation
By Gameloft - buy on iPhone and iPad or buy on Android

If you prefer your Bond action violently shaken rather than gently stirred, Modern Combat 3: Fallen Nation captures that - ahem - spirit nicely.

We've dealt with Bond's stealthier and nimbler sides - this game evokes those memorable set pieces where Bond turns into a better-dressed, well-spoken Arnie and takes on a whole army.

Think Pierce Brosnan's more overblown moments in the Bond tux. And, no, we're not referring to Die Another Day.

Jon Mundy
Jon Mundy
Jon is a consummate expert in adventure, action, and sports games. Which is just as well, as in real life he's timid, lazy, and unfit. It's amazing how these things even themselves out.