Look at the Xbox 360's cancelled 'Goldeneye 007' HD remaster

It's one of those bits of gaming trivia that punches a specific generation of players square in the gut: There was once an Xbox Live port of Goldeneye 007 in the works, but it was cancelled. It's true -- Activation was porting the Nintendo 64 classic to the Xbox 360 back in 2008, but the project was canned when Microsoft and Nintendo couldn't reach a licensing agreement. The good news? Today we finally get a look at what the game would have been -- known leaker Rare Thief has posted 30 minutes of gameplay footage.

For fans of the original game, the video is a bittersweet revelation. Here, we see everything fans wanted from the XBLA remake: the complete, classic single player campaign, new high resolution textures, a much improved framerate of 60 fps and the complete multiplayer experienced tailored to online play over Xbox Live. Better still are the new features players missed out on, including new multiplayer levels, an option that equals all character heights (Take that, Oddjob) and an option to instantly switch between classic and HD graphic modes.

It's nice to see what almost was, if a bit sad to know we'll never be able to play it. That's something we'll all have to come to terms with -- but hey, at least we still have Goldeneye: Source.